We Were Here

A long-overdue corrective to the history of rock ‘n’ roll and alternative music, repopulating it with the extraordinary Black artists and influential figures who steered its course, from an author, journalist, and front woman of the British post punk band Big Joanie.

The history of rock and roll and alternative music is often told in bold, sweeping, isolated moments that are removed from the context of their time. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the stories we tell center primarily on the achievements of white men like Elvis Presley, The Ramones, Nirvana, and David Bowie. White men who were the stars, white men who supposedly changed the game, white men who seemingly were at the forefront of every musical innovation in the 20th and 21st centuries. These rock and roll retellings perpetuate the belief that white men were the most important people to wield a guitar, strut on stage, or pound out a pummeling drumbeat. What is missing in these stories is everything in between—the people, the places, and the scenes that connect the dots—and you can’t tell the history of any music scene, let alone alternative music, without the Black community.

From the genre’s earliest moments, Black musicians—like gospel entertainer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the 1930s-40s and rock and roll legend Chuck Berry in the 1950s—have consistently pushed musical boundaries that forever impacted the music that followed. Throughout the decades, numerous Black entertainers continued to add their take on rock and alternative genres, expanding and building on what was already there to create what we know as alternative music today: look no further than the electric fire of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar licks in the ’60s, the kaleidoscopic melee of hardcore and reggae that was Bad Brains in the late ’70s, and the funkadelic swagger of Living Colour in the ’80s.

We Were Here tells the story of Black artists performing in alternative genres from punk to rock and roll, indie to new wave, alongside their Black fans. Through brand new interviews and meticulous research, Phillips documents the history of Black people’s influence on these genres, highlighting the key players, assessing the legacy of their work, and drawing attention to those who have been obscured from history. We Were Here centers their voices and attempts to right the wrongs of the past. Along the way, Phillips infuses her own coming-of-age story as a Black female musician in the punk scene, alongside a cultural analysis of rock and alternative music history.

• “We Were Here is a fascinating deep dive of a read uncovering the true Black history behind alternative music culture, finally giving Black musicians, who played pivotal roles in the genre, their flowers. Tracing over a century of recorded music with reverence and joy, Stephanie Phillips creates a space for Black weirdos like myself from all over the globe to feel pride in the breadth and the power of Black creativity.”
  Skin of Skunk Anansie
• “Stephanie Phillips has cracked open the ‘culture’ in this excellent book and let the light in. Those people of color who unashamedly mixed our music up a bit with the best that our white peers had to offer gave rise to the likes of Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex), Skin (Skunk Anansie), Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Bad Brains, Fishbone, FKA Twigs, and many of us in the 2-Tone movement. Sometimes you just have to stay on the edge rather than stay on the scene.”
  Pauline Black of The Selecter
• “A joyous, fascinating read, and an absolute must-have for every music fan, maker or history buff.”
  Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, author of Rebel Girl
• “A passionate dream of truthful acknowledgement and of communitarian alliance replete with joy, understanding, and glorious noise.”
  Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth co-founder and author of Sonic Life
• “A masterful deep dive into the roots and rhythm of Black music and culture. Brilliant, necessary and deeply soulful."
  Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins