Not really sure how I decided to find this book and pick it up a few weeks ago. Most likely I was listening to some nostalgic 90's punk music (a good pastime) and was thinking what happened to some of these bands and came up with this book on a Google search. Besides have a long title, Smash!: Green Day, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX, and the '90s Punk Explosion the book felt long on more than a few occasions though I really enjoyed much of the content and memories.
As you likely can infer from the title, the book is about the popularization of punk music in the early-mid 90s, aligning perfectly with when I really got into this type of music. I was excited from the title to learn more about some of the bands I really enjoyed listening to during my formative years. And, for the most part, the author does a good job hitting the highlights of most notable bands at this time. Early in the book he warns, however, that his focus will only be on bands that he believed really were "important" in the world of punk. So, some of my favorites, got little to no air time (even a band as popular as Blink-182).
There were many enjoyable aspects of this book. I enjoyed his writing style and he has a gift for storytelling; which can be difficult with non-fiction focused writing that follows a timeline of events. I also really appreciated getting to know more about the people behind these bands. I've been a big Bad Religion fan for years but didn't realize their founding guitarists started Epitaph Records (one, if not the, most important independent record labels). I also really liked learning more about Offspring - a band I enjoyed but really didn't follow that closely after the first couple albums. Of course, I was hoping for much more about NOFX, my favorite punk band but they had little coverage.
Unfortunately, the book was heavily about Green Day and a lesser extent the Offspring. These are the two bands that I like the least and question how "punk" they really are. As the author accurately put it: Green Day are punks that don't play punk music and Offspring plays punk music but aren't really punks. And, I think that's reason I don't care for their music and for large parts of the second half of this book. However, I understand the author's purpose is to explain how punk became so famous; and, there is no way to have that focus without leaning into Green Day. To say they're popular is an understatement. They've sold 75 million albums! Back when these bands started and Rancid or early Bad Religion albums came out, they were lucky to sell 10,000.
Nonetheless, the book was very nostalgic and made me go back to these old bands/albums and check them out. For Green Day especially, I went and listened to some of the popular ones that I missed. And.... I still don't like it. I mean, it's not terrible but there is no way that American Idiot is better than Punk in Drublic. Overall, super specific book that likely would only be enjoyed by a narrow window of people. But, if you were into punk music in the 90s and want to learn more, good book for you.
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