Post by Fuggle on Sept 3, 2007 14:56:01 GMT -5
LET'S CELEBRATE: Anarchy, from the UK
3 Sep 2007, Yamini Lohia
It's time to spike that hair and dye it electric blue, because we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of punk music.
A leading American magazine is celebrating the 1977 release of 'Never Mind the Bullocks' by The Sex Pistols as a marker of the punk revolution. The Sex Pistols' seminal record was accompanied by the likes of The Clash, who released their self-titled debut album, and The Ramones and The Damned. Punk rock took the United Kingdom by storm with its short, fast and hard music. Instrumentation was stripped down and lyrics were political or nihilistic. But punk was about more than a different style of music.
It was a rebellion against the complacency that characterised post-war Britain. In the late sixties and through the seventies, unemployment was high, public spending had risen to 45 per cent of national income and flower power optimism had faded away. Tabloid newspapers initiated scares about vandalism, education, pornography and sexuality in general, pointing to the 60s' 'permissiveness' as the cause. The IRA begun a mainland bombing campaign in 1974 and, most significantly, Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party in 1975. In this time of conservative politics and economics came the huge burst of energy that was punk rock.
Punk was stupendously successful as an anti-establishment rock music genre and movement. It was a reaction to the last remnants of the hippie counterculture music, to the increasing commercialism of arena rock, the pop - lite music of the time. The punk subculture was characterised by distinctive clothing styles and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies, ranging from the anarchic to the nihilistic. A lot of the young people won over by the genre were from impoverished working-class inner-city backgrounds much like the musicians themselves.
The social and political climate in which they grew up resulted in a feeling that was a mixture of frustration, boredom and poorly focused anger. Most influential punk songs had angry lyrics that criticised the government, the media and western society in general; for example, 'Clampdown' by The Clash and 'God Save the Queen' by The Sex Pistols. The subjects of many other punk lyrics were boredom, rebellion and independence and cynical parodies of love songs. Punk redefined music and attitudes for many people and now lives on in the form of alternative rock.
3 Sep 2007, Yamini Lohia
It's time to spike that hair and dye it electric blue, because we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of punk music.
A leading American magazine is celebrating the 1977 release of 'Never Mind the Bullocks' by The Sex Pistols as a marker of the punk revolution. The Sex Pistols' seminal record was accompanied by the likes of The Clash, who released their self-titled debut album, and The Ramones and The Damned. Punk rock took the United Kingdom by storm with its short, fast and hard music. Instrumentation was stripped down and lyrics were political or nihilistic. But punk was about more than a different style of music.
It was a rebellion against the complacency that characterised post-war Britain. In the late sixties and through the seventies, unemployment was high, public spending had risen to 45 per cent of national income and flower power optimism had faded away. Tabloid newspapers initiated scares about vandalism, education, pornography and sexuality in general, pointing to the 60s' 'permissiveness' as the cause. The IRA begun a mainland bombing campaign in 1974 and, most significantly, Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party in 1975. In this time of conservative politics and economics came the huge burst of energy that was punk rock.
Punk was stupendously successful as an anti-establishment rock music genre and movement. It was a reaction to the last remnants of the hippie counterculture music, to the increasing commercialism of arena rock, the pop - lite music of the time. The punk subculture was characterised by distinctive clothing styles and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies, ranging from the anarchic to the nihilistic. A lot of the young people won over by the genre were from impoverished working-class inner-city backgrounds much like the musicians themselves.
The social and political climate in which they grew up resulted in a feeling that was a mixture of frustration, boredom and poorly focused anger. Most influential punk songs had angry lyrics that criticised the government, the media and western society in general; for example, 'Clampdown' by The Clash and 'God Save the Queen' by The Sex Pistols. The subjects of many other punk lyrics were boredom, rebellion and independence and cynical parodies of love songs. Punk redefined music and attitudes for many people and now lives on in the form of alternative rock.