We Were Here: A History of Black People and Alternative Music

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

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.

In We Were Here: A History of Black People and Alternative Music, author, journalist, and musician Stephanie Phillips, the singer and guitarist of British post punk band Big Joanie, presents readers with a revised history of rock and roll and alternative music, repopulating it with the extraordinary Black artists and influential figures who truly steered its course. 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.

Despite their groundbreaking contributions, why have Black musicians been so neglected from the historical canon? Is alternative music still seen as a white genre, and how are Black musicians and fans making space for themselves in the music scenes they love? This book 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. Where rock magazines and music books previously omitted or misunderstood the stories of Black artists and fans, this book 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.

As a die-hard Black punk and alternative music superfan, Stephanie Phillips infuses her writing with the passion of someone who lives and breathes their subject. She is a London-based arts and culture journalist whose work has featured in the Guardian, the Independent, VICE, Crack Magazine, The Wire, and more. She’s the author of the highly praised Why Solange Matters, and is also the singer and guitarist in the Black feminist punk band Big Joanie and a founding member of Decolonise Fest, an annual music festival celebrating the work of people of color in the punk scene. She lives in London.