ROCKSPLOITATION
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley November 6, 2025
Author Shane Pinnegar
Distributor: Amazon
ISBN: 979-8315465133
Publisher: Independently published
Release Date: April 2025
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celebrating 69 hits, flops and cult favourite rock n’ roll movies
Rock and Roll movies are a thing of days gone bye but what an amazing event they were when they emerged from Hollywood back in the 1950’s as they full of vibrancy, colour, music and the latest dance crazy and by doing so created a musical phenomenon.
Rocksploitation celebrates and documents only some of the many Rock and Roll movies that made, the first of which was Blackboard Jungle in 1955, featuring Bill Haley and the Comets, a movie that was all about teenagers, rebellion, and violence. It is not in the book!
This paved the way for the many Elvis Presley movies, Cliff Richard, The Beatles and many more to spread their music on a global basis rather than just by touring, which was limited, very expensive and slow in the early days of Rock and Roll, or by record or radio.
Fans of what could be considered a cultural revolution, led by music, could get to see what their beloved Pop Singer looked like. They became real to their global audience. There are thousands upon thousands of teenage girls who simply swooned, to use an old-fashioned word, over Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard!
Rocksploitation tells the story of, in this instance 69 hits, flops, yes there were more than a few, and others that became cult favourites selected with a very strict criteria by Shane Pinnegar, a man who has been involved with the music industry for several decades, so therefore is a good man to tell the many tales of the good, the bad and the downright disastrous musical movies that were once considered awesome, but with the passage of time have become cringeworthy, fascinating and in many cases cult classics.
He has provided a list of places to investigate if you want to watch the movie that is one of the listed and critiqued chapters, which begins with the Beatles and A Hard Day’s Night made in 1964, which just made the cut into the book and gives a clear insight into why they, at the height of their fame, decided to go into movies.
Moving through the years the final movie is Young Einstein made in 1988 which was an amalgamation of alternative tales that became a small sensation in Australia but failed on the overseas market, which was nothing unusual for those days.
A wonderful interview with Allan Arkush, a man who directed many classic Rock and Roll movies draws a fascinating, entertaining and informative look at what is a time in Music History that created hero’s, legends and changed the face of the industry forever.
There is an excellent References section at the end of the book for each of the featured Movies that will keep you investigating for a very long time and wait for it, a list of the up-and-coming titles for Rocksploitation Volume II due out very soon.