Post by Fuggle on Dec 2, 2007 1:01:01 GMT -5
Over the past three decades, music has rapidly evolved in a short period of time. Change is natural and is expected. Although many fear or dislike change, it cannot be avoided. When looking back at the history of music, it is hard not to notice how all genres of music have developed into what they are today, in particular rock and roll.
Who can forget the controversial rock band The Sex Pistols? Their music impacted Rock, disrupted the industry as well as the sociopolitical settings in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America.
Lead singer Johnny Rotten made himself known when he declared, “I am an antichrist,” which was quoted from a Monty Smith comic. He was a man with a bold personality, an anti-conformist with a reckless ambition to change social behavior.
Music by The Sex Pistols for many was considered tasteless, uncomfortable to listen to and frightening. Like a bad taste in one’s mouth, the group quickly became a bad taste in the U.K. The Sex Pistols “were a commercial proposition and a cultural conspiracy, launched to change the music business and make money off change – but Johnny Rotten sang to change the world.”
Lyrics served as a vehicle for Rotten to express his radical views as well as meeting an expectation that, “a Sex Pistols record had to change the way a given person performed his or her commute – change the way people go about their daily routines.”
As a result of the Sex Pistols’ vulgar persona, the group’s controversial actions became widespread in the media. Their lyrics spoke to a destructive tone. Songs like “Anarchy in the UK” and “Bodies” stimulated youth social movements and activist trends, particularly in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America. The music challenged the frameworks of society in everything from God, family, leisure, work, sex and politics. The punk movement was born and the beginning of a new wave of rock had begun.
It was a clash between the old and the new, the rulers and the ruled and the generation gaps. It was a pro-self empowerment, a do-it-yourself approach and anti-conformist mindset. “NO FUTURE!” was the appeal of the Sex Pistols slogan targeting the fragment of youth from Britain’s postwar subcultures.
Their attempts to break the social structure failed when the tides turned on them. It was the beginning of the end for the group when the British parliament denounced The Sex Pistols as a threat to the British way of life. They were banned across the U.K, their shows were cancelled, their products were erased from store shelves across major retailers, cutting them out of the market and damaging their image.
The group’s record company, EMI, dropped them off the label, recalled their records and destroyed them.
For Johnny Rotten and his nihilistic ways, it was about legitimizing power through his skills to speak effectively and voice his musical talent. His approach cost him his life. Slashed with a razor in the streets while another band member was openly beaten with an iron bar.
A belief in nothing and to become nothing was a hopeless cause for this activist group. Happiness and social values are part of what makes a society strong. So we learn from the Sex Pistols experiences that a mentality where no one could ever happily exist or find satisfaction is not worth sacrificing.
Greil Marcus (1989). Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century. Harvard UP: Cambridge.
Who can forget the controversial rock band The Sex Pistols? Their music impacted Rock, disrupted the industry as well as the sociopolitical settings in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America.
Lead singer Johnny Rotten made himself known when he declared, “I am an antichrist,” which was quoted from a Monty Smith comic. He was a man with a bold personality, an anti-conformist with a reckless ambition to change social behavior.
Music by The Sex Pistols for many was considered tasteless, uncomfortable to listen to and frightening. Like a bad taste in one’s mouth, the group quickly became a bad taste in the U.K. The Sex Pistols “were a commercial proposition and a cultural conspiracy, launched to change the music business and make money off change – but Johnny Rotten sang to change the world.”
Lyrics served as a vehicle for Rotten to express his radical views as well as meeting an expectation that, “a Sex Pistols record had to change the way a given person performed his or her commute – change the way people go about their daily routines.”
As a result of the Sex Pistols’ vulgar persona, the group’s controversial actions became widespread in the media. Their lyrics spoke to a destructive tone. Songs like “Anarchy in the UK” and “Bodies” stimulated youth social movements and activist trends, particularly in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America. The music challenged the frameworks of society in everything from God, family, leisure, work, sex and politics. The punk movement was born and the beginning of a new wave of rock had begun.
It was a clash between the old and the new, the rulers and the ruled and the generation gaps. It was a pro-self empowerment, a do-it-yourself approach and anti-conformist mindset. “NO FUTURE!” was the appeal of the Sex Pistols slogan targeting the fragment of youth from Britain’s postwar subcultures.
Their attempts to break the social structure failed when the tides turned on them. It was the beginning of the end for the group when the British parliament denounced The Sex Pistols as a threat to the British way of life. They were banned across the U.K, their shows were cancelled, their products were erased from store shelves across major retailers, cutting them out of the market and damaging their image.
The group’s record company, EMI, dropped them off the label, recalled their records and destroyed them.
For Johnny Rotten and his nihilistic ways, it was about legitimizing power through his skills to speak effectively and voice his musical talent. His approach cost him his life. Slashed with a razor in the streets while another band member was openly beaten with an iron bar.
A belief in nothing and to become nothing was a hopeless cause for this activist group. Happiness and social values are part of what makes a society strong. So we learn from the Sex Pistols experiences that a mentality where no one could ever happily exist or find satisfaction is not worth sacrificing.
Greil Marcus (1989). Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century. Harvard UP: Cambridge.