Although several books address the history of rock ‘n’ roll in Germany, namely Uta Poiger's Jazz, Rock, Rebels (2000), Mark Fenemore's Sex, Thugs and Rock & Roll (2013), and Kasper Maase's Bravo Amerika (1992), Julia Sneeringer's book offers a microhistory focusing on one particular scene—Hamburg—which she narrates by drawing on “state archives, private collections, interviews with participants, published oral histories, and contemporary materials” (2). Sneeringer is not just interested in the main actors (bands and fans), but in everyone related to the music enterprise, including club owners, police, and bureaucrats. She seeks to reveal how “certain frames emerge while others recede” when the focus is “people's engagement with music” (168). Hamburg is the perfect case study due to its unique history as a sea port and its proximity to England, which made it a draw for many aspiring British rock acts.

In chapter 1, Sneeringer provides a brief history, from the Middle Ages until the present, of Hamburg's St. Pauli district. The constant presence of travelers made St. Pauli a perfect setting for amusement industries. As a center for commercial entertainment, St. Pauli was also able to lead the way in many different culturally innovative areas, from being a pioneer in illumination for store signs and advertisements in the 1840s to being a hub for West Germany's gay culture in the postwar era. Despite the conservative culture of the 1950s, there was still a thriving sexual consumer culture in St. Pauli which included legal prostitution and burlesque shows—an environment that made Hamburg a prime location for rock to take root.

In chapter 2, Sneeringer traces the history of the first three clubs in Hamburg to help bring rock ‘n’ roll to the city: Bruno Koschmider's Kaiserkeller, Peter Eckhorn's Top Ten, and Manfred Weissleder's Star Club. For these club owners, offering rock ‘n’ roll became an easy way to “stand out in a crowded marketplace” (45). What contributed to rock's success in these clubs was the economic miracle in the 1950s, which gave Germans more disposable income, as well as the emergence of a new kind of consumer: the teenager, a person who was old enough to work but didn't yet have a family to support. By conveying how “commercial impulses were not antithetical to grassroots cultural innovation” (46), Sneeringer contributes to postsubcultural arguments against structural understandings that pit subcultures against the mainstream.

In chapters 3 and 4, Sneeringer provides an overview of the types of bands and fans that frequented Hamburg's rock scene. Unsurprisingly, the majority of bands were American and British. American bands were seen as the originators of the sound; British bands were considered more authentic than German bands and were at least closer in geographical proximity. The only German band to gain a modicum of success and even break into the British charts were The Rattles. Sneeringer also insists that Hamburg was not just a starting-off point for The Beatles—the city's unique culture and permissive attitudes toward drugs and sexuality were a strong influence on The Beatles’ look and their music. Her chapter on fans opposes previous scholars’ claims that young rock fans were unpolitical and manipulated by the industry. In contrast, Sneeringer demonstrates how rock fans’ consumption, behavior, dress, and fandom engaged in political issues such as gender roles, sexuality, Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past), and remilitarization. In particular, she argues that female fans’ consumption was indispensable for the success of the new genre.

In chapter 5, Sneeringer examines the different kinds of authorities who sought to police the Hamburg rock scene for fear that it would be known as a site for prostitution and sexual deviancy. She demonstrates that those who were most heavily profiled were young women and gay men. In addition to the rampant sexism and homophobia embedded in these concerns for respectability was also xenophobia, as businesses were told to beware of guest workers, especially German girls fraternizing with them.

The book closes with the end of the Hamburg scene, in chapter 6. Here we learn how the booming popularity of rock ‘n’ roll led to the downfall of the microcosm in St. Pauli. With increasing pervasiveness came greater availability of records throughout Germany. Young people did not have to seek out live shows anymore. Furthermore, as German rock acts popped up across the country, there was no longer a need to rely primarily on bands from overseas. An additional challenge was that rock music began to change. As psychedelic drugs entered the scene, so did psychedelic music—experimental rock with more complex music and longer tracks. “Beat music” was suddenly seen as something rudimentary. The final nail in the coffin involved the music scene being outshadowed by the sexual revolution and St. Pauli's changing landscape.

Although Sneeringer does an excellent job addressing the issue of gender on the music scene, particularly how female bands’ and fans’ experience may have been different due to cultural norms, she could have taken a more critical stance toward the racist opinions she comes across in the archives. For example, she does not interrogate fans’ assumption that African American bands were more “authentic” in comparison to Indorockers, whom the fans deemed “prissy” (102), even though this assumption clearly trafficked in stereotypes of Black men's hypermasculinity and Asian men's femininity.

This problem aside, the book will no doubt be of great interest to scholars of popular music in Germany, West German history, and transatlantic cultural exchange. The book's clear prose and organization, its discussion of well-known icons, and the inclusion of archival photos would make it accessible to undergraduate students. Sneeringer's new perspective on issues such as gender and sexuality in West Germany of the 1950s, as well as her detailed history of Hamburg and some of the scene's unsung heroes, offer something for even the more seasoned readers of rock history.