British Punk

Punk

This is Peter Inskip coming to you live from triple j, with this week’s segment in our ‘Music and Society’ series. For the next half hour we’ll be looking at the punk music scene starting in the mid-seventies.

Punk was born in the early 70’s in New York, and is still evolving.

No other style in the history of rock, has been so uncompromising, or made such a dramatic impression as Punk Rock. The two versions of punk, the original American and its British descendent, were very different.

British punk was aggressive and angry. It demanded immediate change and had no interest in working for the solution. The Sex Pistols typified British Punk with such songs as "Anarchy In The UK," which did not give a thought to anarchy's effect.

American punk seemed lazy by comparison. It was sarcastic where the English version was more violent; the British pushed one step further, thus gaining more recognition.

The first of the punk rock bands to be signed up with a record company were the Ramones. The Ramones survived through to the mid 90’s and still have a huge following. In that time they released over a dozen albums, most of their songs are short and simple three or four chord arrangements.

Artists like the Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Talking Heads, and Blondie, came out of the U.S, but Punk took on greater strength in England, where Bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Clash, and the Buzzcocks emerged with more aggression than their softer American cousins.

Just about everything in the 70’s including anti fashions, the pop music, and especially the social, economic, and political climate of England at the time, fuelled the British punk rebellion, and British youth were able finally to let everyone know clearly how they felt through their music, their fashion (or lack of it), and through their attitudes.

This generation of British youth who embraced punk left school to enter a climate of harsh unemployment and limited options. Britain in 1975 had one of its highest unemployment rates since World War II and this bleak scenario offered few alternatives. Punk for the British teenager was an outlet for their feelings of inadequacy as many young people struggled with the demoralising effects of welfare and unemployment.

British society is traditionally quite conservative and is reflected in the institution of the monarchy itself, perhaps one of the best recognised hallmarks of a social system that is very stratified, and emphasises distinct class differences. Symbols of conservative middle class order and organisation quickly became targets for the angst of disenfranchised British youth.

Punk Rock bands such as the Sex Pistols attracted a huge following and their choice of subject matter in songs like "God Save The Queen" or "Anarchy in the UK" complimented the punks’ aggression: …

God Save the Queen

The fascist regime

It made you a moron

A potential H-bomb

God save the Queen

She ain't no human being

There is no future

And England's dreaming

…This hostility clearly was a challenge aimed at Britain's privileged social classes. The lyrics also criticised Britain’s