Clinton Walker

Clinton Walker (born 1957) is an Australian writer, best known for his works on popular music but with a broader interest in social and cultural history and theory. Sydney's Sun-Herald has called him "our best chronicler of Australian grass-roots culture." He is remarkable as a critic whose work has exerted a pro-active impact on Australian music and its development, with the way especially his groundbreaking books like Inner City Sound (1981/2005) and Buried Country (2000/2015) have informed and inspired successive generations of musicians.

Born in Bendigo, Victoria, Walker dropped out of art school in Brisbane in the late 70s to start a punk fanzine with the late Andrew McMillan and to write for student newspapers. In 1978 he moved to Melbourne where he worked on-air for 3RRR, and with Bruce Milne on the fanzine Pulp, and wrote for Roadrunner magazine. Moving on to Sydney, where he still lives, he commenced a career as a freelance journalist. Over the next fifteen years he wrote for a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including longstanding associations with both RAM and Australian Rolling Stone; he also wrote extensively for Stiletto, The Bulletin, the Age, New Woman, Playboy, Inside Sport, the Edge and Juice.