Punk In America §
Origins §
- Sterling Moss, Moe Tucker, John Kale, and ----- form The Velvet Underground, 1965
- They are the “house band” of the NY counterculture scene
- They really end up becoming the “house band” of Andy Warhol’s studio
- Very experimental
- Andy Warhol was becoming one of the most important contemporary pop artists
- The Exploding Plastic Inevitable
- Traveling multimedia show, similar to the acid tests of the West Coast
- Lots of different types of media, art, dance, music
- The Velvet Underground provided the music
- Christa Paffgen (Nico)
- One of Warhol’s muses
- Helps The Velvet Underground with their first commercial record in March 12, 1967
- Part of the genre shift of what constitutes rock music in the late 1960’s just like Sgt. Peppers etc.
- A very different album from the psychadelic rock of The Beatles at the time and the West, much more dark in theme
- “Heroin”, a rock song about what it feels like to do heroin
- Songs about drugs, prostitution, characters that don’t have a place in the modern society
- Second album, White Light/White Heat - 1968
- The Velvet Underground
- Avant Garde art influence
- Concerned with themes of drugs, sex, & street life
- Kale left in 1968, Reed in 1970
- Influenced punk as a musical style and as an artistic style
- Repetitious droning music
- Themes of alienation, detachment, and nihilism
- Another band influential on punk from Detroit, Michigan, was The Motor City Five (MC5), 1965
- Started in the garage band scene
- Working class, garage band roots
- Antithesis of commercial rock and pop
- Musically aggressive, fast and intimidating
- Deeply political
- Influenced by classic rock and roll such as The Beatles, but they try to be different and opposed to it
- Influence punk music going forward
- Their manager was particularly radical/political
- John Sinclair
- Decriminalization of marijuana
- Founding member of the Detroit White Panthers party
- A group of white men and women who are supporting the Black Panther politics
- Motor City 5 are often present at concerts supporting this ideology
- Debut album in February 1969, Kick Out The Jams
- They’re only around for a couple years, but their ethos feeds into punk and their style of music helps create it
- Iggy Pop
- Also from Detroit, and an inspiration for punk rock
- Helps create The Stooges in 1969, who are influential on punk rock
- Was very rejective/resistant of mainstream values, which very much comes to punk rock eventually
- Self-destructive stage act would influence punk
- Confrontational, nihilistic, oppositional
- Acted out his disgust with society on himself on stage
NY Punk §
- All of these influences from above coalesce in 1970’s
- The New York Dolls, formed in 1971
- Dressed in women’s clothes, wore makeup, flamboyant
- Very macho, aggressive, etc.
- Challenged what constitutes heterosexuality, and societal norms
- Debut album in July 27, 1973 (The New York Dolls)
- Too Much Too Soon in 1974
- They don’t last long but still influential on punk rock scene, especially in the UK
- The lead singer is in Bill Murrays Scrooged movie
- CBGB’s - Country Blue Grass and Blues
- OMFUG added (Other music for uplifting gormandizers)
- Small club, DIY aesthetic, the ultimate dive bar
- Perfect place for punk
- Television (band) plays there
- Influential on British punk in particular
- “Marquee Moon” in 1977 a classic of the genre
- “Patti Smith Horses”, 1975, another classic of the genre
- The Ramones
Punk in the UK §
- In the UK punk comes to the foreground during a dire time in British society
- James Callahan, the Foreign Secretary, basically says if he were young he would leave Britain (1974)
- The new generation in Britain is…
- Sense of alienation from oparents generation and tradiitonal values
- Limits of class system and poverty
- Limited expendableincome to enjoy social life
- Angry, frustrated, alienated, anarchistic
- Malcom McLaren owns “SEX” a fashion shop in London
- Has all the “Punk style” fashion and things
- He wanted to manage The New York Dolls but they disbanded before he could bring them to London
- He puts together the band The Sex Pistols
- Centered around John Lydon (Johnny Rotten)
- Creates a mythology of the band being the complete rejection of British modern culture, anarchistic, dangerous, before they even release the album
- Sid Vicious joins in February 1977
- “Nevermind the bollocks” 1977
- “Bollocks” is a rude word in Britain to the point where a lot of stores would white it out on the album
- The only album The Sex Pistols released
- Questionable musicianship, but had the spirit
- “God Save The Queen” a single from that album
- The band doesn’t last very long but has a large culturla influence
- Lot’s of rock artists (especially British) in the past 30 years cite The Sex Pistols as influences
- They go on a US tour in 1978 but it does not go well AT ALL, the band breaks up before finishing
- Sid Vicious meets Nancy Spurgeon on the tour, but she is stabbed to death in October 12, 1978 in the hotel room she shared with Sid Vicious soooooooo, he must have killed her while high. Sid Vicious overdoses a bit later, so we never truly found out if he killed her while high
- The Clash
- A much more sophisticated version of British punk
- Influenced by American punk as well as other things (reggae, west Indian sounds, etc.)
- Much more successful and long lasting then The Sex Pistols, but still has the same punk ethos
- “London Calling” in 1979
Hardcore §
West Coast Hardcore §
- A new scene influenced by the anarchy of The Sex Pistols from Britain
- Dead Kennedys
- Criticized American society and foreign policy
- Very confrontational and angry records, very critical of Reagan era politics
- Minor Threat
- Washington D.C. becomes a key point of East Coast Hardcore
- Straight Edge Punk is a rejection of the common punk ideals while still following punk ethos rejecting society and feeling alienated
- Not drinking, drugs, premarital sex, etc. very much more “pure”
New Wave §
- Comes out of Punk, is also known as Post Punk