The Museum of Youth Culture is an emerging museum celebrating a century of teenage life in Britain.
Punk as a movement – perhaps appropriately – defies definition. Defined by Monika Sklar in her book Punk Style, punk was a ‘vital new way to perform subcultural ideas, that incorporated its own art, music, dress and lifestyles… commonly rooted in those who are somehow disenfranchised from society.”
The word punk was originally an archaic term for a prostitute – ‘Puncke’ was used by Shakespeare as such in Measure by Measure, though ambiguously – and was later a common slang term for any kind of miscreant, or charismatic, good-for-nothing threat to authority such as the characters played by James Dean or Marlon Brando in movies such as Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild One.
It was also widely used as prison slang to denote a victim of predatory sexual advances.
THE LATEST revolution in rock music exploded into disorder once again when the largest punk rock 'new wave' yet seen in London was staged at the Rainbow Theatre last night.
As top-of-the-bill The Clash closed the four hour show, more than 200 seats were demolished by the audience in a bout of rowdy fanaticism.
The house lights were turned up but The Clash continued to play on regardless.
"White Riot - I Wanna Riot", thundered vocalist Joe Strummer, shuddering violently, as the broken seats tumbled up onto the stage beside him.
A search of the arriving audience had revealed a battery of items like knives, iron bars and assorted chains.
Release
The people who looked out of place were the gaggle of executives seated at the rear of the theatre, but their presence underlined the fact that punk rock has now become big business.
Despite the scorn and ridicule that accompanied the emergence of the new style, it has now become evident that punk, or new wave rock, has become the fastest growing commodity in the music business.
The Clash's first album entered the Top Twenty last month in its first week of release and was quickly followed into the charts by a record from another new wave group, The Stranglers.
"It's unprecedented for new albums by any group to get into the charts so quickly," said Maurice Oberstien, the British managing director of CBS Records.
"The record business has been looking around for a long time for something new, and this has to be it.
"I know people can be horrified by punk rock but personally I am sanguine about the whole situation. For every person who says 'I hate it', you are going to find somebody who reacts the opposite way.
"I remember the days when the public was horrified by the Bill Haley-Elvis Presley era. Punk Rock is just a new fashion and a new music. It is perfectly harmless."
To the ever-growing numbers of new wave fans, The Clash from West London, have become known as the ultimate expression of an angry form of quasi-political nihilism. (Political nihilism is the position holding no political goals whatsoever, except for the complete destruction of all existing political institutions—along with the principles, values, and social institutions that uphold them. Quasi - used to show that something is almost, but not completely, the thing described).
The songs are blank negative diatribes against "high-rise blocks, unemployment and general urban decay."
Guitarist Mick Jones once claimed that he had never lived below the 17th floor.
Their music has been dubbed the Sound of the Westway. A spluttering , high-speed, manic rush, it displays a release of energy normally stifled by living in Britain during an economic depression.
Groups like The Clash have suddenly emerged on the basis that there is probably more for young people to protest about in 1977 than in the 1960's.
None of the current new wave groups could claim to be great musicians or lyricists but last night's show and recent record sales suggest that they have become more relevant to a proportion of young rock audiences than superstar vocalists or virtuoso musicians.
England, and especially London, was
an exciting place to be in the late 70's if you were a punk rocker. The thrill
of a music revolution and the fear of violent attack from "normal" people
gave life an edge.
Venues like the Roxy, the Red Cow, the Nashville, the Marquee and the 100 Club
were rocking most nights with a manic crowd pogoing to a succession of new bands.
Bands
which were bucking current fashion trends and cocking a snook at the increasing
tedium and pretentions of the lumbering conventional
music industry machine.
A history of UK Punk Rock from 1976-79: Featuring an A-Z of punk bands from Adam and The Ants to The Sex Pistols to X Ray Spex, fanzines, features, women in punk, rare record sleeves, audio clips, fashion, punk rock lyrics, interviews and loads of pictures can be found at:
http://www.punk77.co.uk/
Godfather of Punk Iggy Pop
Cincinnati Pop Festival - 13th June 1970
