Vivien Goldman released only a few songs into the world in 1981, but they are critically acclaimed. Her release, the Dirty Washing EP, had "Launderette" as the A-side, a track that was co-produced by John Lydon (Johnny Rotten).

Goldman also wrote articles for NME, Sounds and Melody Maker about reggae, punk and post-punk. She sang on the track "Windows" on the debut album of The Flying Lizards, launched the video career of flava flav, wrote songs for artists such as Massive Attack and wrote the first biography of Bob Marley among many other books about music. She is also an accomplished documentarian and currently is a professor for NYU’s Clive Davis School of Recorded Music.