Punk & New Wave: Rock's Death

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Years: 1976-1989-??? 

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Phew!!! No, I'm not a big fan of Punk, and no, I'm not a big fan of New Wave either. But we can't ignore these genres and avoid acknowledging their importance, which is different in each case. When we talk about New Wave, we generally think of the '80s and the commercial, synthesized sound of that era, which has been one of the weakest in history... but it's not all bad; there were some really interesting things, and countless currents developed that can be encompassed under the general term New Wave. The bad thing is the complexes and prejudices we've formed at the mere mention of the word, and I'm the first to take the piss and accept the blame.

 

But let's start from the beginning. Punk began to develop in '74 and '75 in New York and London as a very basic form of Rock, returning to the simplicity of Garage with highly distorted guitars, very fast beats, very short duration, and very basic instrumentation. No complicated riffs or overwhelming solos; the bass was content to mark the plucked tones without adding any further embellishments, and the melodies were barely existent and monotonous. The music was very simple, three- or four-tone, repetitive, and fast, based on a mix of the instrumental surf sounds of the 1960s, the Mod sound used by The Who on their first album (in fact, many consider it an indisputable foundation of Punk, if not musically, then at least in terms of attitude), with a mix of influences from the Velvet Underground (especially the album White Light/White Heat), and finally, the sound of the Stooges, who, led by Iggy Pop since the early 1970s, had laid the foundations for the new genre. Musically, this simplicity was due to the fact that they were fed up with the virtuosity of the music that had dominated the beginning of the decade. Punks felt that rock had been hijacked by people like Queen, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Black Sabbath, Electric Light Orchestra, and Pink Floyd, among others, with extremely complex music that they could hardly perform live. Therefore, they wanted to demonstrate that you didn't need to be a virtuoso, or compose insanely complex suites, or insert 17-minute solos—often not even knowing how to play an instrument, as Sid Vicious demonstrated. In short, any idiot should be able to make rock, which went hand in hand with the Punk "Do It Yourself" philosophy. Johnny Ramone would say: "Rock was in such a pathetic state that Billy Joel is considered Rock & Roll, when Rock really means rebellious and wild music." Ouch, point to Johnny Ramone and Punk!

 

This is another important point. Punk wasn't just a musical movement, but a social movement with its own identity and philosophy, a movement with a unity and strength not seen since the Hippie movement, as both Hard Rock and Progressive had relatively distanced themselves from political and social activism. Punk didn't. It began with music, but spread to an unusual and often violent movement of rebellion, as punks, contrary to popular belief, weren't cavemen who went out to destroy everything in their path for no reason. Instead, they had political ideals, perhaps somewhat confusing (and perhaps Anarchy isn't such a stupid movement after all), but which had been fueled by the enormous economic recession that the world was plunged into due to the oil crisis in the middle of the 1980s.

 

The Stooges' first album was released in 1969, produced by John Cale of the Velvet Underground. The sounds of this new band, if not as basic as punk, were more primal, minimalist, and underground than the average band of the time, and strongly influenced by the VU. During the first few years, various bands emerged in the US and England that embraced the Stooges' sound, without much commercial success, but generating a small local fan base in their cities. Thus emerged bands like the New York Dolls, Suicide, The Dictators, The Modern Lovers, The Electric Eels, Mirrors, Frankenstein, etc.

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These protopunk bands were centered in New York, where they had a strong underground fan base, but by 1974, several bands had emerged in the slums of London and other British cities. In 1975, Malcolm McLaren, who had managed the New York Dolls, returned to his native England and opened a boutique called "Sex," which became known for its "anti-fashion" appeal, highlighting the biker look with leather jackets and later the S&M fashion that would become the punk label. The band Strand was a regular clientele, and when they were left without a vocalist, they asked permission to run an advertisement. A certain Jonny Rotten auditioned and won a spot in the group, which changed its name to The Sex Pistols, in honor of the store. McLaren became their manager, and they played their first concert in late 1975. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

The Pistols became famous more for their defiant attitude than for their music. In 1976, the press began covering them because their concerts almost always ended in complete mayhem. Rotten threatened the audience more than once, saying, "I bet you don't hate us more than we hate you!" But McLaren, with all the savvy he already had as a manager, knew how to handle this image in a positive way. At least until then, no band with this new sound had attracted so much attention.

 

At the same time, also in London, the band London SS broke up to form two other projects, The Damned and The Clash. In February, in New York, the Ramones began recording their first album. In June 1976, the Pistols gave a concert in Manchester that was very curious, as it had an audience of just 40 people, but it turned out to be one of the most influential shows in history: After hearing the Sex Pistols that day, some of the kids who attended would go on to form The Buzzcocks, Joy Division, The Fall, and, in the 1980s, The Smiths. In 1976, in Jamaica, Bob Marley was establishing himself as a musical hero on the island and preparing to become the first great figure of the Third World, under the banner of Reggae. What does this have to do with Punk yet, nothing, except perhaps that it was a social-musical movement of almost the same proportions, but we'll get back to that later.

 

The curious thing about Punk is that without the socioeconomic conditions of the time, it might never have emerged from the third-rate slums of London's basements. It might have remained an underground genre without much relevance. But the Western world, and England in particular, were going through a crisis of their own making, having supported Israel in its warmongering against Arab countries, causing the Oil Crisis. Furthermore, the problems with the IRA in Northern Ireland were at their peak, and there was truly enormous tension on the English streets. Johnny Rotten, lead singer of the Sex Pistols, explains it best: “England in the early 1970s was a very depressing place. It was completely run down, there was rubbish in the streets, total unemployment... practically everyone was on strike. Everyone was raised in an education system that made it clear that if you came from the wrong place... you had absolutely no hope and absolutely no job prospects. Out of all this came the pretentious Moi and the Sex Pistols, and then a bunch of copycat wankers after us.”

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The pessimistic atmosphere made the Sex Pistols' lyrics have a huge impact on young people dissatisfied with everything related to the Establishment, including the musical movements they had dominated, hard rock and prog, which were already in decline. The Sex Pistols weren't really political idealists; they were rebels, who, judging by their statements, didn't have much brainpower, but they were against anything politically correct. Rotten was recruited as a vocalist simply because he didn't have long hair and was wearing a torn Pink Floyd T-shirt with an "I Hate" added before the band name. They are perhaps one of the most basic (not to say bad) bands in history, but their role as a fuse to the powder keg that exploded is indisputable, and that's why they are so relevant.
 

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By July 1976, they were already a well-known band in London's underworld and in some other cities, creating a ripple effect in which imitative punk bands began to emerge from every corner of the globe. The Ramones, who were one of the most representative and well-known bands in the New York scene, toured clubs in London and other cities and were amazed by the acceptance and success they achieved. Not only that, but their sound was so impactful that it accelerated the music of local bands. The Clash played their first show opening for the Pistols, and a week later, the Buzzcocks did the same.

 

By the second half of 1976, England was experiencing a punk craze: The Banshees, The Vibrators, Subway Sect, Eater, Generation X, and a host of bands that don't mean much to us but perhaps mean something to punk fans. In October, The Damned were the first British bands to release a single (the Pistols had refused to do so on a couple of occasions).

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The punk phenomenon caused fans of the bands to soon imitate their way of dressing, a trend that again came from the Pistols, who had adopted the sadomasochistic attire from their manager's store. The "Do It Yourself" philosophy soon began to spread. The sense of oppression led punks to develop a political consciousness and a philosophy of their own. Dying young was one of the main premises, since they believed that as one grew older, one became tamed by the system. Anarchy was another representative idea, arising from discontent with the political class that didn't give them the opportunity to exist. Patti Smith even commented that the punk movement was closely related to the hippie movement due to its activism and political awareness, but punk was much more dangerous and violent, as young people armed themselves with chains and knives to demonstrate, or joined workers' marches, student protests, and strikes, which generally ended in full-blown battles. Stores were looted, cars burned, and an aura of destruction lingered in their wake.

 

On November 26, the Pistols finally released the single "Anarchy in the UK." The cover design would help establish Punk's visual distinctiveness. In December, on live national television, Steve Jones insulted and nearly punched a TV presenter, causing a new scandal. The press attacked them, but the more they attacked, the more free publicity they gained. In January 1977, when the big prog and hard rock bands were clearly in decline, the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, and the Heartbreakers joined forces for the Anarchy Tour, which consolidated Punk as the main movement on the island. Soon after, the first LPs of the main bands became multi-million dollar hits. In the US, meanwhile, The Ramones were leading the movement, and bands proliferated not only in New York but also in Los Angeles. and the rest of the country.

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The Clash's debut included a cover of the Jamaican reggae song "Police and Thieves" that would cause an unimaginable impact. Now punk could merge! One London trio in particular took up that sound, with reggae overtones, and named itself after the song that defined them. The Police, with Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland, were part of the second wave of punk bands that emerged in '77. These new bands, which borrowed many elements from punk but dared to mix it with other influences like reggae, jazz, etc., were called "New Wave" just to differentiate themselves from the founding groups. Along with The Police, bands like The Ruts and The Madness emerged. In February, Matlock left the Sex Pistols' bass and was replaced in March by Sid Vicious, who barely knew how to play the instrument, but had the perfect attitude for the band, according to them. The group was not only belligerent, but downright anti-monarchist in their songs, and just when it seemed they could no longer generate any more controversy, they came out with a major scandal. Sid had a devastating effect on the band, as in addition to not knowing how to play, he also created an internal fracture. He became the center of attention, and between the sudden fame, drugs, and his destructive relationship with Nancy Spungen, he became increasingly alienated and emotionally unbalanced. By mid-1977, London was in chaos, with almost daily clashes and a tremendous level of street violence. In October, the Pistols released their only official album: Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, which immediately went to number one. On January 17, 1978, in the middle of a US tour, the band collapsed due to poor planning. Sid had become addicted to heroin and had attacked fans and photographers. Shows were canceled, there was violence at concerts, and it was so stressful for everyone that they announced their dissolution as a band midway through the tour. The rest of the punk bands would continue their rise during 1978, and even established and sacred bands, like the Rolling Stones, would release albums with some influence from the genre.

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In October, Sid woke up in a hotel to find Nancy Spungen dead, bleeding from a stab wound. He was charged with murder, but said he was so high the night before that he couldn't remember anything. Virgin Records posted the $30,000 bail, and he contacted his former bandmates for a reunion and a record to raise funds. On February 2, 1979, a party was held to celebrate his release, and although he had quit heroin with prison treatments, he asked his new girlfriend to give him a dose. After the first dose, she refused to give him more, and it was Sid's own mother who gave him an amount that would have been enough to kill two people. She was also a heroin addict and said she did it because Sid seemed to suffer too much without heroin. With the ironic and scandalous death of Vicious, who fulfilled his ideal of dying young, the first era of Punk came to an end, bringing his self-destructive cycle to a close.

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Ahhh!! Maybe you're not a big fan of Punk, but you didn't know it had such a fascinating history???

 

Although many bands like The Clash and The Ramones continued their careers, they slightly changed their sound to a more commercial, or more hybrid, so pure Punk can be considered from '76 to '79. That year, The Clash released London Calling, a blend of punk, reggae, rockabilly, ska, and R&B that makes it one of the best albums in history. However, the era didn't necessarily close that year; bands with a lot of influence would continue to emerge afterward, and grunge itself has many elements of seminal punk. Bands like Green Day also borrowed many elements, and the bands that emerged in the '90s under that sound were dubbed Happy Punk. I say we'll leave Green Day as Alternative when their turn comes; I think they're a talented group, and they're not to blame for the bunch of crappy imitators that emerged.
 

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Regarding New Wave, it gained significant traction in '78. Bands on both sides of the Atlantic that had emerged from the Punk movement began to fuse other, more commercial or experimental sounds. The abrupt end of Punk radicalized this shift after the breakup of the Pistols and the death of Vicious, and most bands opted for the term New Wave instead of Post-Punk to distance themselves from the genre. Thus, groups like The Police rose to stardom after starting with the Punk sound and then blending it with Reggae influences (hence the importance of Marley, who had become a global hero in '78 with Exodus) and with nuances of Jazz. Other New Wave groups included Blondie, who would later become more commercial, and Talking Heads, who would become more experimental. The Clash also underwent a change in sound, making their music more complex, but without completely distancing themselves from the Punk philosophy and origins. Patti Smith did the same. The Cars emerged in Boston, and The Go-Go's in Los Angeles, and together with the Romantics, they pioneered a more commercial and sugary subgenre called New Romantic. New Wave began to distance itself from the early Punk scene; the lyrics became less dangerous, and it eventually entered the mainstream. Soon, the term would encompass all the bands that emerged in the early 1980s, initially with interesting offerings: The Motels, B52s, Television, The Residents...

The synthesizer began to be incorporated into this sound around 1979. Thus emerged bands that made good use of synthesized and electronic sounds, such as The Cure, with a gothic and depressive sound; Depeche Mode, which initially was more pop and gradually took on a prominent electronic darkness; Tears for Fears, following part of Depeche's trend; Joy ​​Division, with a remarkable Dark Gothic style that would later transform into New Order after the death of Ian Curtis; and U2 in Ireland, which would become the biggest band to emerge in the 1980s.

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Synthesized sounds began to dominate guitars in the early 1980s, and a subgenre of New Wave called New Romantic emerged, which was much more oriented toward pop and commercial success with simple melodies. The boom was immediate, and by 1981 the charts were already dominated by One Hit Wonders artists who released bubblegum songs (chew and spit them out), partly sponsored by MTV, which had begun broadcasting videos.

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Among the highest-quality groups that emerged from New Wave are Duran Duran (who would later evolve and make much more solid albums), Toto (before they became more bluesy), The Pretenders, R.E.M. (although in my opinion they're the ones who inaugurated the Alternative movement), The Smiths, INXS, Berlin, Billy Idol, Elvis Costello, Kraftwerk, Soft Cell, Eurythmics, A-Ha, Pet Shop Boys, Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, Echo and the Bunnymen (whose song "Killing Moon," by the way, might be the best of the decade, in my opinion).

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When you look at it closely, New Wave brought enormous diversity, but perhaps its mere mention causes panic, immediately reminding us of the '80s, that decade we all want to forget. Among the good bands, there was musical quality; the downside is that it was sparse throughout the decade, and the synthesized sound served more to create bubblegum and dollar-grabbing songs than with real substance. The rise of MTV also made people care more about their music videos than the music itself. It's curious how New Wave had its origins in Punk, which was frankly anti-commercial and heavily weighted with social criticism, and that from that origin it went to the diametrically opposite extreme, resulting in one of the most mediocre decades in terms of musical content. In the '80s, New Wave Pop gained impressive popularity, and bands that had previously been legendary, like the Rolling Stones, The Who, the Beach Boys, Eric Clapton, etc., released truly pitiful albums. I insist that not everything from the '80s was bad; bands like U2 and Depeche Mode were truly huge and released tremendous, high-quality albums, but they were rather sparks and exceptions. In addition to New Wave, the '80s marked the proliferation of Pop, with people like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Cindy Lauper as main references.
 

 

Returning to the story of our beloved Rock, in '76 he grew weary of the intellectual-progressive and threatening hardcore pose. He cut his hair and decided to abandon threats and theory for action. In other words, he decided to stop barking and start biting. Punk would be his final blow to the system. This time he didn't mince words, no jokes like putting flowers on soldiers' rifles: he unleashed all the pent-up rage at being young, at having his own ideas, at not having a job, at not being able to express himself, and stormed the streets of London, leaving a trail of destruction and imposing for a time a truly dangerous state of being close to anarchy. Rock would never again be so dangerous, never. But he had to pay the price. Punk's nihilistic philosophy, his desire not to die old, would be fulfilled. For his audacity, record labels would be forced by the government to put a stop to the threatening attitude and lyrics of their bands. Even in the late 1970s, there was still plenty of quality to match the early New Wave bands, especially those closest to Punk's origins, like The Police. However, drugs, synthesizers, and MTV would increasingly weaken them.

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Furthermore, its main figures, those who truly embodied the spirit of Rock, saw their lives end, and the beginning of the decade was particularly tragic: Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC, died at the beginning of the decade, on February 19, 1980, having drowned in his own vomit. Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, committed suicide on May 18. John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, followed on September 25, also from bronchial aspiration after drinking 40 glasses of vodka in a single night. Led Zeppelin, which had already been in decline for several years, announced its disbandment after Bonzo's death. Keith Moon, The Who's drummer, had died a couple of years before their time, on September 7, 1978, after an overdose of anti-stroke pills he ironically took to curb his alcohol consumption. John Lennon was murdered on December 8 outside the Dakota Hotel where he lived by an unbalanced fan named Mark David Chapman, just after he had finished his first album in five years, Double Fantasy. Am I missing someone from '80?

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Why then do I mark Rock's death in 1981 and not in 1980 if it was so tragic? Just so it coincides with the chilling age of 27, considering Rock was born in 1954? NO! There are two important reasons. One is the death of Rock's last true hero: Bob Marley. Bob Marley was not only an incredible musician who single-handedly took a genre to unimaginable heights, but he also became a symbol of hope, of pacifism, a hero of the Third World, a true guru who lived by his lyrics. Perhaps he lived more consistently than Lennon; he gave away almost all his money, didn't travel in a Rolls Royce, and his lyrics are truly breathtaking, a reflection of a state of mind not everyone achieves. Along with Lennon and Dylan, Bob Marley must be among the greatest lyricists in history, but perhaps he had a far greater impact because of his way of life. Bob Marley died of cancer on May 11, 1981. With him, the last of the original spirit of rock would go.

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The second factor that came to kill rock was August 1, 1981. He didn't use guns or anything, but global satellites. The first notes of The Buggles' song "Video Killed the Radio Star" would be prophetic and their first devastating blow. Its effect may not have been immediate, but after the spread of videos and groups from the New Romantic and Pop movements, it would be a slow poison that would ultimately annihilate Rock in its original essence. What is the name of Rock's killer?

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M

T

V

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If you don't believe me, just turn on your television to that channel and spend a while idiotizing yourself and watching the videos of pseudo-artists. That's why you'll never hear a statement like "The Death of Rock" on MTV or VH1.

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For these two reasons, I believe that the definitive death of Rock in terms of its original ideals and essence occurred in 1981, at the age of 27. And it didn't even have a funeral. Paul McCartney didn't die, nor did they create a smokescreen to cover it up, but rock did... Quality bands would come later and refresh the sounds of '80s New Wave, creating a Bronze Age in the early '90s, but rock's original intention and its menacing aura would never be the same.

 

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By Corvan

Mar/26/2010

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