Simon Reynolds

Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist, critic, and author. Reynolds began his professional career on the staff of Melody Maker in the mid-1980s, and has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on music and popular culture, ranging from historical tomes on rave music, glam rock, and the post-punk era to critical works such as Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past (2011). Over the course of his career, he has contributed to Spin, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Guardian, The Wire, and others. 2Biography and career Reynolds was born in London in 1963 and grew up in Berkhamsted. Inspired by a brother, he became interested in music in the late 1970s shortly after the dissipation of the punk rock movement. In the mid 1980s, he attended the University of Oxford, where he co-founded the music journal Moniter with friend and future Melody Maker colleague David Stubbs. In 1986, Reynolds joined the staff of Melody Maker, where his writing was marked by enthusiasm for a wave of neo-psychedelic rock and hip hop artists that emerged in the mid-1980s (including A.R. Kane, My Bloody Valentine, Public Enemy, and The Young Gods). During this period, Reynolds and his Melody Maker colleagues set themselves in opposition to what they characterized as the traditionalist humanism of the era's indie rock, soul, and pop music, as well as conservative standards of surrounding music criticism. Many pieces from this era would later constitute the retrospective collection Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, published in 1990. In 1990, Reynolds left Melody Maker (although he would continue to contribute to the magazine until 1996) and became a freelance writer, splitting his time between London and New Yor