Punk rock
Punk rock is the anti-establishment music movement of the period 1976-80, exemplified by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Damned. This term is also used to describe subsequent music scenes that share key
characteristics with those first-generation "punks." The term is sometimes also applied to the fashions or the irreverent
"do-it-yourself" attitude associated with this musical movement.
Origins
The term "punk rock" (from 'punk', meaning rotten, worthless, or snotty; also meaning a
street hustler or juvenile delinquent; also a prison slang term for a person who is sexually submissive) was originally used to
describe the untutored guitar-and-vocals-based rock and roll of U.S.
bands of the mid-1960s such as The Seeds and The Standells, who now are more
often categorized as "garage rock."
The term was coined by rock critic Dave
Marsh, who used it to describe the music of ? and the Mysterians in the May 1971, issue of Creem magazine. The term was adopted
by many rock music journalists in the early 1970s. For example, in the liner notes of the 1972 anthology album Nuggets, critic and guitarist Lenny
Kaye uses the term "punk-rock" to refer to the Sixties "garage rock"
groups, as well as some of the darker and more primitive practitioners of '60s psychedelia. Shortly after the time of those notes, Lenny Kaye formed a band with avant garde poet Patti Smith.
Smith's group, and her first LP released in 1975, directly inspired many of the mid-70s punk rockers, so this suggests a path by
which the term migrated to the music we now know as punk.
In addition to the inspiration of those "garage bands" of the sixties, the
roots of punk rock also draw on the abrasive, dissonant style of The Velvet Underground; the sexually and politically confrontational Detroit bands The Stooges and MC5; the UK pub rock scene
and political UK Underground bands such as Mick Farren and the Deviants; the New York Dolls, and some British "glam rock" or "art rock" acts of the early seventies, including
David Bowie, Gary
Glitter, and Marc Bolan and T.
Rex.
The British punk movement also found a precedent in the "do-it-yourself" attitude of the Skiffle craze that emerged amid the postwar austerity of 1950s
Britain. Skiffle music led directly to the tremendous worldwide success of the
Beatles (who began as a Skiffle group) and the subsequent British
Invasion of the U.S. record charts. Punk rock in Britain coincided with the rise of
Thatcherism, and nearly all British punk bands expressed an
attitude of angry social alienation.
Punk rock also emerged as a reaction against certain tendencies that had overtaken popular music in the 1970s, including what the punks saw as superficial "disco" music and
grandiose forms of heavy metal, progressive rock and "arena rock". Punk also
rejected the remnants of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s. Bands such as Jefferson Airplane which had survived the 1960s were regarded by
most punks as having become fatuous and an embarrassment to their former claims of radicality. Eric Clapton's appearance in television beer ads in the mid-1970s was often cited as an example of how the icons of 'sixties rock had literally sold themselves to the system
they once opposed.
The Emergence of Punk Rock
In the mid-1970s, influential punk bands emerged separately in three different corners of the world: The Ramones in New York, The Saints
in Australia, and the Sex Pistols, in London. In each case, these bands were operating within a small "scene" which included other bands and solo
performers as well as enthusiastic impresarios who operated small nightclubs that provided a showcase and meeting place for the
emerging musicians (the 100 Club in London, CBGB's in New York, and The Masque in Hollywood are among the best known early punk
clubs).
An important feature of punk rock was an evident desire to return to the concise and simple approach of early rock and roll.
Punk rock emphasised simple musical structure and short songs, extolling a "DIY" ("do it yourself") ethic that insisted anyone could form a punk rock band (the early UK punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue once
famously included drawings of three chord shapes, captioned, "this is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a
band"). Punk lyrics introduced a confrontational frankness of expression in matters both political and sexual, dealing with urban
boredom and rising unemployment in the UK—e.g., the Sex Pistols' "God
Save The Queen" and "Pretty Vacant"—or decidedly anti-romantic depictions of sex and love, such as the Dead Kennedys' "Too Drunk to Fuck" or the Sex Pistols' "Submission."
The influence of the cultural critique and the strategies for revolutionary action offered by the European situationist movement of the 1950s and 60s is apparent in the vanguard of the
British punk movement, particularly the Sex Pistols. This was a conscious direction taken by Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, and is apparent in the clothing designed for the band by
Vivienne Westwood, and the visual artwork of the
Situationist-affiliated Jamie Reid, who designed many of the band's
graphics.
In the UK, punk interacted with the Jamaican reggae & ska subcultures. The reggae influence is evident in the first
releases by the Clash, for example, and by the end of the 1970s punk had spawned the
2 Tone ska revival movement, including bands such as The Specials, Madness and The Selecter.
One of the first books about punk rock — The Boy Looked at Johnny by Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons (December 1977)
— declared the punk moment to be already over: the subtitle was The Obituary of Rock and Roll. The title echoed a
lyric from the title track of Patti Smith's 1975 album Horses; this "obituary" for punk came when the Clash had only one
album out and the Dead Kennedys had not yet formed.
Punk attitudes and fashion
The punk phenomenon expressed a whole-hearted rejection of prevailing values that extended beyond the qualities of its music.
British punk fashion deliberately outraged propriety with the highly theatrical use of cosmetics and hairstyles--eye makeup might
cover half the face, hair might stand in spikes or be cut into a "Mohawk" or other severe shape--while the clothing typically
adapted or mutilated existing objects for artistic effect--pants and shirts were cut, torn, or wrapped with tape, safety pins
were used as face-piercing jewelery, a black bin liner bag (garbage bag) might, and often did, become a dress, T-Shirt or
skirt.
Punk devotees created a thriving underground press. In the UK Mark Perry produced Sniffin' Glue.
In the United States magazines such as Search & Destroy (later REsearch), Maximum RocknRoll, Profane Existence and Flipside were leading a movement of fanzines. Every local
"scene" had at least one primitively published magazine with news, gossip, and interviews with local or touring bands. The
magazine Factsheet Five chronicled the thousands of underground
publications in the 1980s and 1990s.
Post-1970s punk
In the 1980s a second wave of anti-establishment and "DIY" bands came into their own in the United States and the UK. MDC, Crass, Descendents, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, Vice
Squad, X, The
Replacements, Picture Frame Seduction, The Exploited, Minor
Threat, JFA, The Dicks, Inner City Unit and many others had little impact on the music industry
charts, but nonetheless developed ardent followings. The period from approximately 1980 to
1986 is considered the peak of hardcore
punk.
A thriving Punk Rock subculture can still be found in many cities. Krakow and
Jarocin in Poland have thriving and
colourful street punk cultures. Punk rock underwent a commercial renaissance in the 1990s with bands like Rancid, Green Day, and The Offspring. Subsequently, bands such as My
Chemical Romance, The Used and Taking Back Sunday have built on those earlier bands in the form of Emo music, which is an offshoot of hardcore punk.
Sound Samples
See also
Extensive lists of relevant bands and so on can be found at the following sub-pages:
References
External links
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