MUSIC MASSTERCLASS- Punk

 The Beginnings
-Punk rock developed between 1974 and 1977 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, where groups such as the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Clash were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement.
-After a brief period managing the New York Dolls in the States, Malcolm McLaren returned to London in May 1975, inspired by the rising punk scene he had witnessed at the legendary CBGB club in New York.
-He opened SEX, a clothing store which specialised in "anti-fashion", and sold the slashed T-shirts, drapes, brothel creepers and fetish gear later popularized by the punk rock movement. He also began managing The Swankers, who would soon evolve into the Sex Pistols.
-The Sex Pistols developed an early cult following in London, centered on a clique known as the Bromley Contingent, named after the suburb where many of the fans had grown up.
-Over in the states, the first of the new wave acts to be signed were teh Ramones, CBGBs regulars, who relied more upon dark humour than anarchy, but well known for their musical minimalism that would personify the whole punk movement.

The Sound-The first wave of punk rock aimed to be aggressively modern, distancing itself from the bombast and sentimentality of early 1970s rock
-Punk rock bands, rejected the excesses of mainstream 1970s rock, created fast, hard music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation and often political or nihilistic lyrics. The associated punk subculture expresses youthful rebellion and is characterized by distinctive clothing styles, and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies.
-According to Punk magazine founder John Holmstrom, punk rock was "rock and roll by people who didn't have very much skills as musicians but still felt the need to express themselves through music
-Nobody expressed that better than the Sex Pistols- Both Jonny Rotten and Sid Viscious were picked as band members more for their punk attitude than their musical prowess

Hitting the Peak
-Though punk rock was to remain largely an underground phenomenon in North America and Australia during the 1970s, in the UK it became a broad-based sensation. The Clash's self-titled debut album, released in April 1977, reached number 12 on the UK charts. In May, the Sex Pistols achieved new heights of controversy (and number 2 on the singles chart) with "God Save the Queen". Many new groups emerged: Crass, from Essex, merged a vehement, straight-ahead punk rock style with a committed anarchist mission. Sham 69, London's Menace, and the Angelic Upstarts from South Shields in the Northeast combined a similarly stripped-down sound with populist lyrics, a style that became known as streetpunk
-The whole movement was diversifying, bringing in new influences, and developing the sound, which would lead to not just streetpunk, but oi!, 2 tone, new wave, hard core and anarcho punk too.
-To grab at one of the spin offs, New Wave was a bit more dance orientate and more polished than punk, with bands such as Blondie, the Police and the Talking Heads popularising- Blondie's Denis scored them a UK number 2 hit in 1977.

Diversification-As the early media attention surrounding punk rock ebbed in the late 1970s, the movement fragmented into a variety of derivative forms. In music critic Jon Savage's description, the early unity between arty, middle-class bohemians and working-class punk rockers began to fracture. On one side rose New Wave and post-punk artists; some adopted more accessible musical styles and gained broad popularity, while some turned in an experimental direction. wide variety of other styles emerged, many of them fusions with long-established genres.
-Exemplifying the punk rock movement's increasing range was The Clash's album London Calling, released in December 1979. Combining punk rock with reggae, ska, R&B, and rockabilly, it would go on to be acclaimed as one of the best rock records of all time

The Legacy-Along with Nirvana, many of the leading alternative rock artists of the early 1990s acknowledged earlier punk rock acts as influences. Nirvana's success is seen as crucial in leading the major record companies to once again see punk bands as potentially profitable.[132] In 1993, Green Day and Bad Religion were both signed to major labels. The next year, Green Day released Dookie, which became a huge success, going ten times platinum
-Also, emo- an offshoot of the dying punk scene, in its original, mid-1980s incarnation, the genre prevailed right through to the noughties- Bands such as Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate and Mesa, Arizona's Jimmy Eat World broke out of the underground; attracting national attention, although, by the turn of the century, emo had arguably surpassed its parent genre, the early punk elements are still there 

We Played...
Ramones- Sheena is a Punk Rocker
The Sex Pistols- God Save the Queen
Blondie- Denis
The Clash- Londons Calling
Blink 182- All the Small Things

If you want to know more, wikipedia is very good and lots of my initial research is from there!

Article by Gemma Smith, 6 Nov 2007
Posted in The Breakfast Show

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