This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich

by Daniel Rachel, Billy Bragg (Introduction)

Over the last seven decades, some of rock 'n' roll's most celebrated figureheads have flirted with the imagery and theatre of the Third Reich. From Keith Moon and Vivian Stanshall kitting themselves out in Nazi uniforms to Siouxsie Sioux and Sid Vicious brandishing swastikas in the pomp of punk, generations of performers have associated themselves in troubling ways with the aesthetics, mass hysteria and even ideology of Nazism. Whether shock factor, stupidity, or crass attempt at subversion, rock 'n' roll has indulged these associations in a way not accepted by any other artform.

But how accountable should fans, the media, and the music industry be for what has often seemed a sleazy fascination with the eroticised perversions of a fascist regime?

In This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll, award-winning music historian Daniel Rachel navigates these turbulent waters with extraordinary delicacy and care, asking us to look anew at the artists that have defined us, inspired us and given us joy—and consider why so many have been drawn to the imagery of a movement responsible for the twentieth century's worst atrocities. Alongside a sensitive history of the Holocaust and an examination of the place it holds in our cultural consciousness, Rachel asks essential questions of actions often overlooked or underplayed, whilst neither casting sweeping judgement nor offering easy answers.

In doing so, he asks us to reassess the history of rock 'n' roll and sheds new light on the grim echoes of the Third Reich in popular culture and the legacy of twentieth (and twenty-first) century history as it defines us today.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

326 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 6, 2025

About the author

Daniel Rachel is a musician turned award winning and best-selling author. His works include:
Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters (a Guardian and NME Book of the Year),
Walls Come Tumbling Down: the music & politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge (winner of the Penderyn Music Book prize),
Don’t Look Back in Anger: the Rise & Fall of Cool Britannia (An Evening Standard and Metro Book of the Year),
The Lost Album of The Beatles: What if the Beatles hadn’t Split Up? (Guardian Book Choice)
Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story: Rude Boys, Racism and the Soundtrack of a Generation

He has also co-authored
Oasis: Knebworth: Two Nights That Will Live Forever (with Jill Furmanovsky – A Sunday Times Bestseller),
When Ziggy Played the Marquee by Terry O'Neill (editor)
Ranking Roger's autobiography I Just Can't Stop It: My Life in The Beat (a Vive Le Rock Book of the Year).
One For The Road (The Life & Lyrics of Simon Fowler & Ocean Colour Scene)
David Bowie: Icon

HIs latest book, This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich is published in November 2025

Praise for Isle of Noises

‘Without doubt the finest book I've ever read about songwriters and the songs they write.’ NOEL GALLAGHER

‘I was astounded by Daniel’s knowledge and even after all these years to be asked original questions that surprise you was very impressive.’ ROBIN GIBB

‘It makes for a fascinating read. Especially if you're trying to get a sense of what it takes to write songs.’ ANNIE LENNOX

‘…sometimes you know straightaway if someone’s going to be trotting out the same old stuff. Daniel’s obviously got a real feeling for the esoteric, romantic and spiritual side of it.’ JOHNNY MARR

Reviews

[Garth Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

All your faves are way more problematic than you knew.

Suffers in the home stretch for absolutely dismissing the genocide in Palestine, with a solitary mention of Zionism and the complete dismissal of, say, Bobby Gillespie’s principled politics.

[Andy Holdcroft · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing

I was expecting an iluminating & considered examination of the issue. Most of the book was little more than a detailed list of occasions when musicians used Nazi iconography for provocation or thoughtlessly. The author doesn't know why most of them did it so no pattern emerges. Most were pretty misguided & many have apologised or made amends. The hardcore racist music scene where the issue is beyond doubt is almost entirely ignored.

What galls is the heavy Zionist line: even Rock Against Racism is accused of anti-semitism. The later passages equate reasonable support for the Palestinian people & criticism of the current Israeli goovernment with the Nazis. In fact in hindsight, the entire book is a Zionist argument trying to use historical racism as a context.

As it happens, it's so badly written (everything from multiple typos to many obvious factual howlers) that not only was it clearly not researched well nor checked/editted but the "arguments" such as they are carry little weight accordingly.

[Rob Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

TL,DR: Rock stars who command the adoration of thousands, sometimes feel like Hitler at Nuremberg. Rock stars like to provoke and say tasteless things to generate headlines.

Theres a pearl clutching undercurrent which runs throughout this book, that any artist who dares to even mention anything vaguely Germanic, let alone to do with The Third Reich, must be a paid up nazi.

It’s lacking almost any evaluation or deeper cultural context, simply listing artists, some of whom displayed genuinely worrying predilections for the
Nazis, others whom criticised Israel or used WW2 as inspiration for their songs. Elsewhere. Ian Hunter’s guitar, The Libertines’ “Arbeit Mach Frei”, The Ramones and even Two-Tone, for heavens sake, come in for critique. At the same time, the book barely mentions Industrial music’s long standing neo-nazi problem, NSBM gets a solitary line and there’s no mention of far-right neo-folk at all. (Stewart Home’s “Fascist Yoga” explores Neo-Folk’s fascist tendencies in much more detail.) Far more attention is given to (bad taste) jokes and stupid, drunken pranks than genuine far-right musicians.

When referencing Ice Cube’s clearly antisemitic lyrics, Rachel fails to mention their context in terms of the widespread antisemitism within the Black Power/Nation of Islam movement. It’s also poorly researched; the sections on Charles Manson and Kraftwerk are especially flawed.

A reasonable proportion of the artists who are critiqued here, are in fact Jewish. In the same way it’s not for me as a white British person, to say whether or not Black people should use or reclaim the N-word, I’m not sure its possible for Rachel to suggest that Jewish artists should never be allowed to reclaim/recontextualise/reconfigure anything with Nazi connotations.

The most problematic element of the book is Rachel’s Zionism. Anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-semitism and he completely glosses over Israel’s horrific crimes against the Palestinian people and their illegal occupation of the West Bank, dismissing any critique of the regime as antisemitism.

[Harry · Rating 3 out of 5]

the core content of the book is pretty strong. though quite repetitive to read, I think just providing the sheer quantity of use of nazi tropes is the most effective way of demonstrating a problem. that being said, I think a bit more discussion of lesser known symbols (e.g. 1488, sonnenrand) would be effective, as that is the route a lot of nazi-sympathetic art takes these days

the author seems to view opposition to the state of Israel as evidence for nazi leanings. the way this is done is pretty cowardly. the book is written in 2025, and references events from 2024/25 but the only illusions to the current conflict are criticizing those speaking out against the ongoing genocide. on this issue I'd be more concerned with what human rights organisations around the world are saying, and less concerned with what the bloke from massive attack is saying

given that, I'm a bit disappointed that Billy Bragg wrote an introduction to this book

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll by Daniel Rachel is, like most of his books, hits on many cylinders but seriously misfires on others. But, also like the others, an uneven ride worth taking.

The strength of this book lies in the roundup of the many examples of rock/pop stars appropriating Nazi symbols and even sometimes rhetoric for both their public persona and their private enjoyment. Many of the instances here will be familiar to music history fans and scholars, but to have them collected in one volume highlights the range of use and abuse. From some that were mostly for shock purposes to some far more difficult to view that way and some that leave almost no doubt that they believed and approved.

I think that each case has to be understood separately. Not in a vacuum, certainly context has to be considered, but it is a mistake to simply lump these people into one or two cookie-cutter categories. And that is where Rachel, as usual, goes astray. Intellectual analyses and deep understanding is not his strength. It simply isn't why you pick up one of his books. But he makes broad, demonstrably false statements that generalize far more than he would get away with in a scholarly study. Even though I tend to agree with much of what he both implies and says, I at least understand that I don't "know" these things. he, however, seems to be able to read everyone's minds, even those who are dead, and tell us the truth.

Definitely worth reading and facing the possibility that some of your favorite musicians may not be all that you thought they were. Whether you chalk some of it up to misguided attempts to shock and be different or to blatant disregard for what the hate-inspired symbolism of the Third Reich still means to many people, knowing what these stars have done has to color your perception of them. Hiding from it is certainly a possibility but I think we are better off knowing what they did and coming to terms with it. Might you no longer love an artist you adored? Yes. But you will also learn where you might draw your own line and what kind of person you are. It isn't a positive statement about someone if they support genocide, whether it was almost a century ago or taking place right now. If you can't be consistent, then it isn't genocide you oppose, it is simply which group that suffers that matters to you.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This Ain’t Rock n Roll details the many rock stars who have dabbled with Nazi imagery or praised Hitler and the Third Reich. Unfolding largely chronologically, we meet a depressing list of figures from Keith Richards in SS uniform and a swastika-wearing, racism-spouting Siouxsie Sioux, through to Kanye West declaring himself a Nazi. Unfortunately, though Rachel tries to give a sense of a developing narrative, it becomes repetitive: a rock star spouts pro-Nazi garbage, they (mostly) refuse to apologise or say they sought to shock, and Rachel reminds us how unacceptable that is. In some cases, such as an artist praising Hitler as ‘the first rock star’, it’s easy to agree - such statements should have been scrutinised and criticised at the time.

In other cases though, Rachel seems to argue that referencing the Nazis is artistically invalid unless the audience understands the context is criticism and not celebration. Yet later he praises the “righteous” Holocaust songs of the Manic Street Preachers. How does he know their listeners understood the context? Other arguments are weaker still: the BBC renaming Massive Attack as “Massive” on-air during the Gulf War is used to claim they should have similarly censored the name Joy Division, even though the situations are vastly different. At points, Rachel widens his lens to Nazi-fetishising cinema or books, demonstrating this is more than just a music problem. Rachel could have mitigated his weak analytical skills by interviewing qualified experts, but he never talks to a historian, sociologist, semiotician or any other useful expert.

[t · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super informative and I highly encourage anyone into punk, youth movements, subculture, or modern history to read this. The structure of each chapter was great, and I was never bored reading this book. I took off two stars for the dismissal of the divisive history between Israel and Palestine and the lack of separation between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. It is entirely possible to not be anti-Semitic while recognizing the corruption of the Israeli government and atrocities the IDF have committed against the Palestinian people. Supporting Palestinian freedom doesn't automatically mean one is anti-Semitic. Other than that, this book was stellar.

[Thorkell Ottarsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up during the punk era and never understood the use of the swastika and nazi artifacts. The people using them would be the first to be killed if they were alive during the reign of Hitler. This book addresses the fascination with the Third Reich in rock and pop music. It is broad in scope and well researched. I think most people will find some of their favorite musicians guilty of nazi flirtation in this book. It is shocking how widespread it is within music history. I found this book to be very informative and, in fact, a true eye-opener.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing book, which is probably a triliogy of political music books from 'Walls Come Tumbling Down' (my personal favourite), 'Two Tone' and this one. A really important book which unfortunately those on the far-right need to read but probably will not.

[David Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

(wider review in preparation, especially the more contemporary stuff is very selective and inherently problematic)