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Punk: Socially reactive music
Punk rock stood defiantly on the
archaic rock of the 1970s, declaring
itself the anti-Christ with a nearly
talentless but potent package of
irony called The Sex Pistols.
Creepy sideburned psychologists
seduced burned-out Marlboro
women to the stoned sounds of
rusty rock ‘n’ roll or seedy club
disco in the 70s. y
Music, movies, politics and
threats of nuclear fallout seemed to
get worse every year. I think I was
depressed the entire decade. Punk
rock was a welcome change, what
ever it was to promise and however
it got started.
The Sex Pistols were a marketing
scheme of entrepreneur Malcolm
Maclaren, a man who sold every
thing from sex toys to anti
establishment T-shirts.
MacLaren was ready to market
his own spectacle; four wasted Brit
ish youth lead by an inspiringly
sarcastic and rebellious Johnny
Rotten (now Johnny Lydon of Pub
lic Image Limited.)
The Sex Pistols’ careless ridicule
of the queen of England and their
flippant desire to “be anarchy" cap
tured media attention worldwide.
1950s. Punk rock would attempt to
kill rock ‘n’ roll from within the
confinesof rock ‘n’ roll’sown three
chord song structure.
Freedom ofspeech seemed radi
cal, even if it was just saying “Screw
you President." There were ele
ments of 1960s radicalism present,
but that style was out; scream be
cause you’re angry or bored, for
any reason at all ; not just because ol
the First Amendment.
Dye your hair. Wear ripped
clothes and leather. It seems silly
now, but it is an indicator of how
conservative stylistically our cul-,
me Dana disintegrated, bid vi
cious died of a drug overdose, and
Malcolm MacLaren put a Sex Pistols
record out with dance versions of
their songs. The Sex Pistols were
the joke no one seemed to care to
get.
Punk rock had become loosely
defined: destructive, self-righteous,
anti-conformity, anti-adult, anti-au
thority, “on the edge” and anar
chistic. It was fast. It was anything
that was capable of destroying, in
it’sown world, theQueensof 1970s
rock & roll.
Punk rock was theanti-hero that
would finally kill our decrepit idols
and heroes, if not with a cultural
victory than with a sheer energy
that refused to lose.
It’s own heroes were those who
died or committed suicide; to die
was punk rock. It was the ultimate
embraccment of the music — deny
everything.
WiresangTmtiredofbeingtold
what to do/I’m tired of being told
what to think" while The Dead
^Kennedys sang about a “Holiday in
Cambodia." Punk rock rarely de
clared itself socially responsible. It
was socially reactive.
Punk rock’s initial ethic of self
destruction was rooted in ways by
threads of sub-cultures to the anti
art of the Dadaists in the early
1900s, the linguistic and narrative
deconstruction of the Surrealists in
the 1930s and the quasi anti-capi
talism of the Situationists in the
turewas—lhatsomethingassimple
as a unique haircut and a striped
shirt would establish one against
the mainstream. Today’s culture of
sampling and individuality-within
a-range makes only the cu rrently or
recently unsampled irregular; cer
tainly not the target of the violence
that punk rock dressing received.
Punk rock itself wasdead before
most of it’s fans had even begun to
buy it’s records. For many new fans
it was a short history to be wor
shipped. Never again would punk
rock reach the state of global poli
tics that The Sex Pistols had.
What was left was an orgasmic
cloud of newly forming bands,
sounds, record labels, recordstores,
music scenes and record-buying
fans.
An independent music scene
grew quickly. Yesterday’s New
Order, U2, REM and The Cure be
came today’s mega-bread winners
for major labels and alternative
music stations, subduing anti-capi
talism sentiments with money.
Ironically, punk rock’s initial re
bellious energy was born against, f
yet thrived within and was accepted \
by the music markets of advanced
capitalism. Though it may have
affected profoundly many lives,
record labels and bands, musically
it may be less significant than rap.
It is an irony that may never be
sampled again.
—Mark Nemeth la a Diversion* contribu
tor.
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