Radio Collector's Afficionado's Resource

After all, Mozart was a punk. Signed: Salieri. [1]

A few weeks ago, something very disturbing crossed my path: a mercantile for butter with no other than John Lyndon [2], one of the most sacred icons of the punk movement. Now, is butter punk? Is being English, or eating English Country Butter punk? Does Rotten being chased by cows include a message of anarchy and filth? Has Rotten gone mainstream? Is he still rotten? When talking with regards to punk nowadays, one might think of those dirty and violent kids who wear mohawks, leather and scream for anarchy, but is that the only truth? Does Lou Reed walk the same line with Sid Vicious? How come a band dressed in drag like New York Dolls had such an influence on the Sex Pistols? Why does Rotten loathe progressed punks, and why did he make that commercial? What is punk anyway?

Some would argue that punk is synonym with brutality and it’s best represented by the world-wide dire skinheads [3]. Others, on the other hand, would say that punk is everything that goes versus the current. From this point of view, placing the term in an precise time frame (officially mid ’70s – early ’80s), would not be accurate: if punk is non-mainstream, then the idea transcends history and it could refer to anything and anybody from Adam and Eve to Elvis and beyond [4]. The term was consecrated in 1975, when Legs McNeil and John Holmstrom fabricate the Punk magazine. It was a perfective word to describe a generation of outlaws.

Punk was born in the United States as a reaction to the bubble-gum pop culture which flourished in the post-war era. The society that a few decades earlier fashioned the roaring ’20s, was going through a moral revival with pink glasses. Women were supposed to go back in their household universe, sex was again taboo [5], and communism was the pharmakos and had to be eradicated at all costs (see the war politics lead by the U.S.A. in Asia for the duration of the second half of the 20th Century). But, something happened in the fifties: there was a new enemy who threatened to take away the souls of the youth, now that the Cold War became a routine – rock ‘n’ roll.

Again, as it happened in respective moments of the 20th Century, black music was pushing harder and harder from the social periphery. Even if some voices saw the devil in Elvis’ eyes, America had another weapon versus revolt: popularity. Black music had become white, innuendos were erased as to be competent to appeal to all citizens. It was time for the bubble-gum balloon to pop. Enter The Velvet Underground [6], Patti Smith, Television, New York Dolls [7], Patti Smith8, The Stooges, Iggy Pop and David Bowie [9], etc., a.k.a., the so called proto-punks.

In the ’60s, along with the increasing number of novice garage-punk bands [10], there were the artists, or at least the Arts students. It’s no mystery that the proto-punks were underground culturally enlightened creatures: from Patti Smith’s poetry, to the inclusion of the Velvet Underground in Andy Warhol’s factor, with Iggy Pop acknowledging Harry Partch as a major influence to his music, with proto-punks like Patti Smith (and Warhol!) pushing poetical Jim Carroll’s career forward (after antecedently being encountered by Jack Kerouac) to the publishing of The Basketball Diaries [11], and with names such as Pere Ubu [12] or Tom Verlaine [14]. Now it was the time for the Second Act, on the other side of the Ocean.

The crossing was made by Malcom McLaren (Vivienne Westwood’s – former – husband and business partner, the initial punk-mainstream-fashion trend-setters). After a not so successful proposal to manage Richard Hell and make him widely known and esteemed in England, McLaren, produced one of the best marketing brands of all times: the Sex Pistols and their deafening call which was transplanted into the whole blank generation [14]: no future, screaming for action and modify [15].

Nowadays, Anarchy in the UK and God Save The Queen are synonymous with punk. Even though they were preceded by such primary bands as The Ramones with their loud, violent and quick tempered music, lyrics and looks or MC5 with their widely known and esteemed line Kick out the jams, motherfuckers line, the Pistols and their effect in music, behaviour, politics, arts, creative writing of recognized artisti value or life in general, became what is these days seen and understood as punk.

From there, punk reached the surface audience, and acts like The Clash, The Damned or, later, The Misfits [16] were possible. Punk entered the mainstream, there was no way back. Through the years, punk gave birth to eclectic, from time to time bizarre hybrids, such as Psychedelic punk (Ween, Butthole Surfers), Country punk (Violent Femmes), Celtic punk (Dropkick Murphys, The Real McKenzies, Flogging Molly), Gipsy punk (Gogol Bordello [17]), Horror punk (The Misfits), Hardcore punk (Husker Dü), etc. The latest deconstructivist pure punk musical and social motion was grunge in the late ’80s, up towards the end of the ’90s. The motion was started by Nirvana and it is front man, Kurt Cobain and it extrapolated the quiet-loud (whisper-scream) style introduced obscurely in the underground by the Pixies [18], regurgitating all the anger and feeling of annoyance at being hindered or criticized of the no future youth into the nevermind attitude. This pessimistic conception of life [19] and the realisation that no future wasn’t only a threat, but a reality, and has been dominant since more or less the transformation of punk into hardcore and subsequently into such genres as death metal, goth, or the youngest son, emo.

As a style, what we these days consider punk, has dissimilar origins and it is in itself a melting pot for cultures and subsequently, for musical genres. In the case of the punk motion in England, this blend is much more complex, because it adds elements that were not general in the US, but were substantial ingredients of the British Identity. Obviously, when adding discordant elements, the resulting mix is rather unstable, as Dick Hebdige concludes:

[...] all these elements perpetually threatened to distinguished and return to their firstborn sources. Glam rock contributed narcissism, nihilism and gender confusion. American punk offered a minimalistic aesthetic (e.g. the Ramones’ ‘Pinhead’ or Crime’s ‘I Stupid’), the cult of the Street and a penchant for self-laceration. Northern Soul (a veritably mystery sub-culture of working-class youngsters consecrated t acrobatic dancing and fast American soul of the 60s, which centres on clubs like Wigan Casino) brought it is subterranean tradition of fast, jerky rhythms, solo dances styles and amphetamines; reggae it is exotic and dangerous aura of forbidden identity, it is conscience, it is dread and it is cool. Native rhythm ‘n blues reinforced the brashness and the speed of Northern Soul, took rock back to the fundamentals and contributed a highly invented iconoclasm, a exhaustively British persona and an exceedingly selective appropriation of the rock ‘n roll inheritance (25-6)

Regarding the connection with ‘black’ music, there is one important detail that will have to be stated: the musicians were white, but they sang black(ish) music. Even though, Richard Hell stated that “punks are niggers” (Hebdige, 62) and they fraternized with ‘the other’, but only at a superficial level, and the kinship was by no means reciprocal. Dick Hebdige sees this issue as a “punk aesthetic” which “can be read in percentage as a white ‘translation’ of black ‘ethnicity’” (64), which of course, is rather a paradox thinking of what punk has become lately and noting the evident contradictions that would come out due to this combination:

These contradictions were in a literal sense re-presented in the form of punk’s association with reggae. At one level, the punks in an open way acknowledged the significance of contact and exchange, and on occasion even elevate the cultural connection into a political commitment. Punk groups for instance, figured conspicuously in the Rock versus Racism effort set up to combat the growing influence of the National Front in the working class areas. But at another, deeper level, the association seems to have been repressed, displaced on the share of the punks into the construction of a music which was emphatically white and even more emphatically British. (66)

That is, punk is white, and more than that, it is British. Even altho it was born in America, it has returned to it is birthplace years later, as another British Invasion. This yoyo motion is one of the most noteworthy sensations or changes of post-colonialism, the appropriation of values and parts into the main cultural computer. In the same way blues was stolen from the blacks and has reached the mainstream white public through white voices: The Tokens took “Mbube” from the Mahotella Queens and turned into “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, Elvis stole “Hound Dog” from Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant took a lot of ideas [20] from Robert Johnson [21], including the “Lemon Song”. Indeed, rock ‘n’ roll would not be rock ‘n’ roll without the (Delta) Blues.

The aim of the early punks – so to say – was to fetch (rock) music back to it is roots: early rock ‘n’ roll mostly. Suddenly, minimalism was the key. Music (and art in general) was to be taken down to it is atoms. Obviously, following the trends of the time, the words in order were purification and regeneration. As a modus vivendi and cultural trend, punk is seen as one of the variables that were given the possibleness to subsist due to Surrealism and Dada. One of the mutual key elements, that persisted through the years, to be still found in punk, is the technique of the collage (see the Pistols’ God Save The Queen cover), and according to Hebdige, “dream work, collage, ‘ready mades’, etc – are surely applicable here” because they are “classic modes of ‘anarchic’ discourse” (105). Punk likewise borrowed the DIY [22] culture inherited, paradoxically, from the hippies (another reactionary group!), but added violence and defiance to it. Dick Hebdige, in his study Subculture: The Meaning of Style, gives on of the introductory intellectualised accounts of the punk movement:

Although it was often times directly offensive (T-shirts covered in swear words) and threatening (terrorist/guerrilla outfits) punk style was specified primarily through the violence of it is ‘cut ups’. Like Duchamp’s ‘ready mades’ / fabricated objects which qualified as art because he chose to call them such, the most unremarkable and unfitting items – a pin, a plastic clothes peg, a television component, a razor blade, a tampon – could be brought within the province of punk (un)fashion. Anything with or without reason could be turned into percentage of what Vivien Westwood called ‘confrontation dressing’ so long as the rupture among ‘natural’ and constructed context was without doubt or question visible (i.e. the rule would seem to be: if the cap doesn’t fit, wear it). (106-7) [23]

Punk as understood in general lately is a scream. Punk is meant as a cold social shower. It’s a shock treatment that is meant to be quick and violent. Punk songs are commonly underneath 2 minutes and express this will to let out one’s anger. While the hippie/psychedelic solution has proven not to be viable to the requirements of the cultural context of the time, being, perchance too soft, or too slow, a new method was needed. It had to reach it is target quickly and without delay. As an official current, punk didn’t even last a whole half-decade, but it is influence has not decreased through the years, even lately we may still feel it as strong (or even stronger) than when it was born. But how much of this violence (be it of language or expression) was real? How much was connected to the representation of the group?

The post-imperialist argument of punk’s back and forward motion from one land to another is most vivid, particularly concerning the place it came from: America, a former colony, which had gained it is independence from the mainland and was a power in it is own right. But, how come an elitist artistic motion was transformed into the proletariat’s struggle for a reform? Here lies the catch: proto-punk had the sort of cultural snobbism that may be found in newly culturalized environments. That is, it lately [24] gained a cultural identity; it necessitated to show that there is potential for greatness. The hippies have already claimed the fight versus the war and social difficulties (in a peaceful and violent manner), rock ‘n’ rollers have unleashed the sexual revolution, so the underground didn’t have a tangible enemy, so it took on the conservative post-pilgrim society of the US.

On the other hand, in England, this urge was somewhat obsolete and unneeded. The youth was not fascinated in proving itself, it wanted change. The issue was no longer shocking or controversy, there was the urgency that characterized ’70s Great Britain: poverty and jobless were realities. Somebody had to shout out and demand a solution. Suddenly conservative forces censoring free speech were not applicable any more. The idea was if they would not let them in through the door, nor would they through the window, why bother? Blowing up the whole house, then reconstructing it was a much better solution. Plus, even even though the youth was well read [25], but was fed up with culture, it necessitated Raw Power! The US motion was not meant to be political, it was more of an artistic statement, whereas British punk is anything but artistic [26]. Of course, it did have it is own aesthetics, but it was more of a consequence, than a goal in itself. That is the punk movement’s version that was consecrated into the annals of history and was disseminate all over the Globe.

For sure, the punks believed what they sold. Some of them genuinely were what they sold (see the case of Sid Vicious), a good deal of recovered and returned to the – so called – normal (David Bowie). Nowadays being a punk requires following sure rules, from behaviour to clothing. It is that the punk is represented as the stereotypical effigy of a former minority that gained ground due to the radical and conformist (!) message it sent. Punk is no longer surrealist, it was no longer pour les fleurs de coucou, it is no longer the current that permits you to be whatsoever you want, notwithstanding you want, but it’s the culture of misunderstood, many times violent teenagers. It has climbed down to the darkness of the ludicrous and depression. A violent depression, that is…

Works Cited

Butler, Christopher. Postmodernism. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2002

Big, Ioan. Era punk. Bucharest: Editrex, 2003

Rohmann, Chris. The Dictionary of Important Ideas and Thinkers. London: Arrow Books. 2002

Hebdige, Dick. Subculture, The Meaning of Style. New York: Routledge, 2007

Endnotes:

1. See Big, 14

2. aka. Johnny Rotten, lead singer of Sex Pistols

3. Skinheads have come to be viewed as right-winged terrorists, but that depiction could not be more misleading! What is in general known these days as skinheads, is a little fraction of the group, a minority that has not one thing to do with the ideology in question. Skinheads are, in fact, English workers, with very short hair (to keep out of the way of being infected with lice and other insects), who would go to the pub and listen to punk music. They were not violent (well, not more than normal), they were not racist (punk rock is known as to be inspired and/or co-dependent with Rastafarian culture, as I will state later in the paper), nor “male chauvinistic pigs” (punk was one of the most gender open movements of the 20th Century – from all points of view!), and surely not terrorist.

4. NB: This happens as long as the movement/person is not in general acknowledged and it remains at a subculture level. When it becomes popular, it is no longer punk. Though, ironically, punk itself is nowadays’ mainstream.

5. Which is rather hypocritical, coming from the country who has an obelisk as one of it is national monuments….

6. Very influential band in the US underground and not only, and introduced Lou Reed and John Cale to the music business. The band was famous for approaching debatable themes such as sexual promiscuity, drug consumption or violence. VU remained nearly unknown until they were came upon by Andy Warhol. He added the second female fellow member to the band, German actress and singer, Nico (together with drummer Maureen Tucker) and reinvented the band for a wider (and commercial) success. VU is considered one of the most important acts of the decade, and journalists such as Lester Bangs cherished their status in the progressed music history: progressed music starts with VU. Lou Reed is seen as the incontestable father of the punk movement. (see Big, 105-19)

7. Unknown to most music fans, and anonymous to the day, the NY Dolls have made their mark in history. They were partially devoted to the Glam scene (they would dress in a way that was more characteristic to a drag queen, than to a punk), they would sing regarding sex, taking further VU has started earlier in the decade. They formed a working kinship with Malcom McLaren (in music and fashion).They have only freed two LPs, but their influence has been great: Steve Jones, the Pistols’ guitarist would imitate Johnny Thunders onstage. (see Big, 120-4)

8. Named the Godmother of punk, a singer, poetess, the basi woman to transcend gender roles in pop music and make herself valued as an artist, not as merely a woman (opposed to Debbie Harry, another necessary punk female singer, who chose to exploit her femininity, rather than her intellectual abilities).

9. Iggy Pop, initially lead singer of the Stooges, afterwards a noteworthy solo artist, is one of the basi images of violence in punk. He was the firstborn to cut himself on stage. He sang in regards to bold things, taboo at the time, and songs like Gimme Danger or I Wanna Be Your Dog are perfective witnesses of this. Iggy was brought up musically in the protective shadow of Andy Warhol. John Cale would develop his basi album, while Nico would be his mistress for a while. His kinship (some say it was more than professional) with David Bowie is more than just a friendship: Bowie would revive his career and name Ziggy Stardust, the bisexual alien, in his honour. Even though their careers will take dissimilar paths (nowadays Bowie alternatively chooses to close his eyes on his punk past), their bequest is as present as in the past, and is depicted (as an reference only, due to Bowie threatening to take legal action) in the movie Velvet Goldmine, ironically named after a David Bowie song. (see Big, 125-30)

10. Not to mix with garage bands from the eighties on. These garage-punk bands were primarily inspired by the British Invasion style R&B (The Animals, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Who, etc.) and, later, by “high” and/or “smoking” music brought by Hendrix, The Doors and so on, had no technical background, but were characterized by their honesty, raw power (there is actually an Iggy Pop song called Raw Power, with an apparent punk message, likewise existent in other Stooges and solo songs, such as Search and Destroy) and passion. The most noteworthy names would be The 13th Elevators or Nuggets. (see Big, 22-23)

11. Carroll actually recorded Velvet’s last concert in august 23 (!) 1970, along with the orders made to then waitress Debbie Harry (future lead singer of Blondie). Carroll also participated in poetry reading sessions, “Did-A-Poem”, along with Lou Reed, Patti Smith,… Charles Bukowski and William S. Burroughs. Furthermore, he writes songs with Allen Lanier (Blue Öyster Cult), notably the Catholic Boy LP. (see Big, 50)

12. Art-Punk band formed in 1975, active for more than 20 years as one of the most important groups in the US punk underground.

13. Tom Verlaine (aka. Tom Miller), along with Richard ‘Hell’ Meyers, formulated the group Television, one of the royalties of (proto-)punk in 1973. Hell will later leave the band due to irreconcilable deviations with Verlaine, to form The Voidoids (see Big, 131-5).

14. From Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ LP, Blank Generation.

15. God save the Queen/The Fascist regime/It made you a moron/Potential h-bomb

16. The Misfits devised the horror punk genre, which subsequently lead to hardcore punk, and later to hardcore, metal (blending heavy-metal with hardcore lead to violent, manly genres, such as death metal). Without them, acts like Marilyn Manson would have not been possible.

17. The band is technically portion of the no-wave movement, alongside with Sonic Youth and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

18. One of the most influential punk bands of the ’80s, even even though rather unknown to the wide audience of today. It has been an inspiration to all later punk and/or substitute bands, such as Nirvana. Due to conflicts amidst Jeff Black (singer) and Kim Wilde (bass), Pixies disbanded, only to be reunited in 2000s.

19. Realizing that there IS no future and that fame IS real and touchable, killed Cobain in the end. Not more than 30 years earlier, Sid Vicious would die in a drug overdose, destroyed by his career as a Pistol (again, fame) and his drug addict (see likewise Courtney Love) girlfriend’s death. It may be said that these two -real- punks are misunderstood, broken souls that were hurt by the society and that are fighting back through course language and vile acts onstage, but nevertheless would return to their sensitivity offstage.

20. Not to say that they wholly plagiarized and adapted his music to innovative rock ‘n’ roll standards, but they were gorgeous close, and also employed other inspiration sources, like Howlin’ Woolf for example.

21. Robert Johnson is one of the early 20th century Delta Blues legends. He was one of the best guitar players that Blues has ever seen and influenced a heap of a guitar legends such as Page, Clapton, his influence range going from pop to heavy metal. Also, he might just be the one who started the Faustian trend for artists to trade their souls to the devil in order to become legends. He has allegedly sold his soul at the crossroads, and in a few months’ time he became the biggest blues guitarist the world has ever seen. Of course, white rock ‘n’ rollers have taken this to the extreme, namely following Alistair Crowley, the renown occultist, never thinking regarding that devil genuinely not being Satan, but a great deal of sort of an African religion daemon. The Beatles included Crowley on their Sgt. Pepper Cover, Plant purchased his Loch Ness mansion, Ozzy Osbourne wrote a song regarding him…

22. Do it yourself.

23. The connection amid (pop) art, music and fashion is very strong, not only in the case of punk.

24. Comparing a couple of centuries to a couple of millennia would not need an extra comprehensible statement to make a point…

25. Johnny Rotten, for example, is obsessed with A Clockwork Orange the movie (and in all likelihood the book as well). A Clockwork… has become the punk manifesto for a whole generation, and often cites literary names and pieces in interviews.

26. As understood by the mainstream.

Ramones American Band Jim Bessman

Webster’s bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering almost all topics, geographic locatings and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on “Band,” including when applied in creative writing of recognized artisti value (e.g. all writers that might have Band in their name). As such, this book represents the biggest compilation of timeline events related with Band when it is applied in proper noun form. Webster’s timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and substitute significances which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Band, since editorial conclusions to include or exclude events is rigorously a linguistic process. The resulting entries are applied under license or with permission, applied underneath “fair use” conditions, employed in agreement with the primary authors, or are in the public domain.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Webster’s timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and substitute significations which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all elements of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Akihiro, since editorial conclusions to include or exclude events is strictly a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used beneath license or with permission, applied beneath “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the primary authors, or are in the public domain….

Ramones American Band Jim Bessman Image

Ramones American Band Jim Bessman Pic

Ramones American Band Jim Bessman Picture

Ramones American Band Jim Bessman Image