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Punk Ignites

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Punk Ignites

Punk rock is an anti-establishment rock music genre and movement that emerged in the mid-1970s. Punk bands created short, fast music with lyrics of a distasteful nature often about politics, unemployment and youth rebellion. This associated the bands with the punk subculture which expressed aggression, left-wing ideologies, and a DIY (do it yourself) attitude. They hated everybody and everything. The style was developed around 1975 in the US underground scene and hit Britain and Australia in 1976. By the end of 1976, groups such as the Ramones and The Sex Pistols were internationally recognized as the leaders of the new ‘Punk’ movement.

 

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The Sex Pistols
 
The Punk Image

Punk was created out of a reaction to 1970s popular music such as disco, progressive rock and the 60s hippie culture. Complex guitar solos were considered self-indulgent and unnecessary and production of songs was almost non existant. Lyrics involved confrontational issues and commentaries on social and political issues. The ‘first wave’ as it is known, focused on the present creating the Sex Pistols slogan "No Future". It used influences from the early 1970s including Pub rock, Glam rock and the Art rock scene(s).

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The Ramones

 

 

 

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In England, politics was their target. Margaret Thatcher had helped Britain recover but the social fabric of the country had been destroyed. Unemployment and poverty reached rarely seen levels and racial tensions had elevated. Added to this was the ‘hooligan’ attitude of drinking and fighting, which was becoming common in cities such as London, Manchester and Birmingham. Punk rock ignited the explosive mixture of social and economic problems.

In the early days, punk bands only existed within small local areas and were encouraged by enthusiastic club owners. In London, Malcolm McLaren single-handedly invented punk rock. He created the sound (the Sex Pistols) by stripping back the pub rock scene to its bare basics and the fashion (through his London boutique on the King Road, Chelsea). The origins of New York punks can be traced back to late 60s ‘trash culture’ and the early 70s underground rock movement. This was popular in Greenwich Village, where the velvet Underground, Pattie Smith and the New York Dolls performed (The NYD creating a style that would later become known as ‘Glam Punk’). The New York scene crossed the Atlantic in 1976 when the Ramones toured England. It turned British punk-rock into a phenomenon. By the end of 1976, the Sex Pistols had rivals in the form of The Clash and The Dammned.

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The Clash
New York Dolls

The punk rock movement made a few things clear to an international audience. It managed to break down many barriers of expression and language and, without any true talent, made an impact on the music industry. It provided an alternative to a (perceived) stagnant music scene. Most importantly, I think, the punk rock movement made a statement of individuality and illustrated that anyone, without reliance on commercial media or strong financial backing can “Do It Yourself” (DIY).

Steve Shorter: July 2007.

Sources: Wikipedia, Media KnowAll: Popular Music, Piero Scaruffi: History of rock music, Encyclopedia Britannica 2002, BBC Online – Music.

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