Listening Ccoursewwork Devastating '77.
Listening Ccoursewwork. Devastating ’77. Introduction music (either Sex Pistols ‘God save the Queen’ or The Clash ‘London Calling’). The year of the Queens Silver Jubilee was also the year of one of the biggest musical movements of all time. Long pause, 4 or 5 seconds. Excitedly. Yes I am talking about Punk. The explosion over the year 1977 was not one easily forgettable as ‘proper’ punk has influenced so many of today’s artists. With the British music scene heaving of bands it’s without difficulty seeing Punk all over the place. Slows down pace of speech so the clarity in his voice is better. Bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Rammones basically stood up and shouted at the top of there life stained voices “Fuck you, this is what we are!” And not a lot of people like this. Kids saw this as an opportunity and soon the they where cutting their hair to shock, ripping up brand new pair of jeans and starting bands moments after buying guitars. It caused moral panics, which lead to riots against the system. News Reporter talking about the moral panics, fades in, fades out, last about 4 seconds. You no longer had to be a virtuoso musician to be in a successful band, which lead to more bands than ever before making records. The same thing happened when
Grunge came around in the late ‘80s. The U.K. once again had a music scene and this time it was more energizing, excruciatingly raw and painfully rebellious. The shear energy that Punk created on stage and on records made bands like, exaggerated , The Beatles look dull and tedious, where as this was phantasmagoric! Not only was the energy through the roof but also the creativity took over minds. To create a sound that had never been experimented with much at all took a lot of balls and a lot where kicked down at the beginning of the movement. This ...
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Grunge came around in the late ‘80s. The U.K. once again had a music scene and this time it was more energizing, excruciatingly raw and painfully rebellious. The shear energy that Punk created on stage and on records made bands like, exaggerated , The Beatles look dull and tedious, where as this was phantasmagoric! Not only was the energy through the roof but also the creativity took over minds. To create a sound that had never been experimented with much at all took a lot of balls and a lot where kicked down at the beginning of the movement. This was more than progressive, this was world changing. A movement had taken over society and was dragging everyone kicking and screaming with them. Soon this anti regime was to become a fad. When people mention ’77 everyone automatically is drawn to the Sex Pistols. The most famous Punk band of all time, not just from their music but also because of a series of public appearances which shocked the nation and made them front page news across all the British tabloid newspapers. The Sex Pistols have been seen, as probably the biggest Punk band of all time, with their raw attitudes and outrageous attributes were too hot to handle. The Media saw this as an opportunity and snatched up any coverage at every chance. This was the first Punk band, a lot of people think and believe, but what evidence do we have, maybe there was a Punk band before, underground or never made it, who will ever know? Well the sex pistols, yes they are the biggest Punk band of all time, and are the most recognisable and instantly hearing there distinguishes sounds. With The Sex Pistols shocking the world and almost having world domination and everything else at their feet. This new sound was interesting and new, raw and exciting, nothing had come this close to teenage angst since, well never. And this was only the beginning. With no regards to what they did or how they did it, this attracted younger people in the form of, “We just don’t give a fuck!” and made it easier for the “mindless” to follow another trend. This was getting more important than the music, it was now a fashion, people imitating rock stars and just doing “it” because it was cool. This should never be the case in music, but it is the case of pop music and that is what Punk became. Popular music. Just like all the other bands the Sex Pistols had become a fad. And just like any other fad it spread amongst other ruthless teenagers waiting for their turn in this fight. This soon saw bands exploding all over the country. Such as The Rammones, Blondie, Siouxsie and the Banshees and of course The Clash. Pause. The Clash taking a more melodic approach to what the Sex Pistols had created but this were still Punk, and I personally think at its best. Even though the Sex Pistols will be seen as the godfathers of Punk and played the most important role you can’t dismiss all the other bands that created this purely exciting music we know and love. Excitement and quicker speech. Yes that’s right, we can’t forget The Clash. A new era, Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Terry Chimes, Paul Simenon and Keith Levine became The Clash in late 1976 encouraged by seeing a Sex Pistols gig and the music they were making, this hit them so hard they knew what they had to do. They quickly evolved an attitude and image that was pleasing to the Punk masses. This gave Punk music a new form, not as rough or so raw, but with all the aggression and angst that the Pistols where famous for. The first ‘official’ outing, well, gig was in their rehearsal studios in Camden for journalists and friends, which caused Giovanni Dadomo, a reviewer for Sounds to opine, "I think they're the first band to come along who'll really frighten the Sex Pistols shitless." This was true, but funny enough their first public gig was supporting the Sex Pistils, imagine. After completing the tour the boys where soon an their way, record label and development on their debut album. The Clash also took the world by storm and helped create this new outlook on life and this monstrousness music with no limits. But did this really change anything… Joe Strummer said, “None of us is going to change anything. Everyone goes “Punk! Hurrah!” But in three years time what do you think I'm going to be doing? What do you think the guys who buy our singles are going to be doing? I'll still be walking around muttering to myself. They are still going to be shoveling shit down some old chute and maybe with their wages they'll buy The Clash's fourth album. Rock doesn't change anything.” How wrong could he be? In terms of musically and, to a certain extent, culturally things did change. Image, style and attitudes changed. Musically it added a whole new spectrum of what could be done with so little and so effortlessly. One of Punk’s strong points was the lyrics, the working class lyrics of a working class hero. And, by effecting society for it to change and to contradict the emotions it certainly did change a thing or two. Punk also lead to some more melodic music, with bands like The Jam making songs ten times as cleaver as the Pistols or The Clash, even together. You got this new sort of thing, which was similar to Punk only more harmonious. And Joy Division taking the boundaries of Punk a little further, taking what they liked off certain stuff and basically chucked them in together. Luckily this worked out. Although this process of how Punk came about seems to have not been a struggle it was, for some. For some it came over night, almost instantly. But still there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears, the opposite to sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. This was the true story of a devastating ’77. The destruction of music as we once knew it. Smugly. After all isn’t destruction a form of creation? 1263
