In Britain, The Damned (pictured above) was the first band to have the privilege of releasing the first punk album. Even Motorhead predated many of the sonic and lyrical characteristics of the Sex Pistols in 1975. Yet academic scholars like Greil Marcus in his book Lipstick Traces (1989) put the Pistols on such a large pedestal that stacked on top of them the combined history of the 1918 Dada art movements, lettrism and the Lettrist International in the 50s, and the Situationalist International in the late 60s during the Paris uprisings. After growing tired of writing about mainstream icons like The Band and Bruce Springsteen, Marcus seemed determined to thread a needle between all of the rebellious artsy/intellectual movements throughout time and space, ultimately sucking in punk through the small, ambiguous straw of Malcolm McLaren's background as a former art student and situationalist in Paris. It all rests on McLaren, a greedy, exploitative, annoying man who said he created the Sex Pistols (pictured below) so he could sell more trousers and a short time later said, "we wanted to create a situation where kids would be less interested in buying records than in speaking for themselves". Ironically, McLaren pinpointed the most important aspect of the invention of "punk," the aspect he cared about least. Punk may have cosmic and sometimes conscious artistic ties to past radical movements, but most of its significance lies within the barriers of language and expression that were broken down. It was a breakthrough in free speech for underclass youth who rarely have a voice, neither culturally nor politically. The fact that the Situationalists had said many of the same things that Johnny Rotten(Lyden) and his cronies did is irrelevant considering the difference between the exclusive elitism of the privileged college educated upper-classes and the inclusive unpretentiousness of a largely working-class youth. 
It doesn't take a Masters degree for someone with relevant life experiences to understand and appreciate the sarcasm of the Fugs, or the self-honesty of the Velvet Underground, or the crude exuberance of the Stooges. Above all, punk offered a cure for boredom. It offered an escape route for kids who weren't allowed to participate within commercial culture. Who would have wanted to participate, with people paying very high prices to see what was then seen (rightfully or not) as the tediously bloated rock-star attitudes of bands like Pink Floyd and Yes. Consumer voyeurism is much more offensive to punk sensibilities than song themes about addiction or slaughtering dolls onstage. Punk gives the message that no one has to be a genius to do it him/herself. Punk invented a whole new spectrum of do-it-yourself projects for a generation. Instead of waiting for the next big thing in music to be excited about, anyone with this new sense of autonomy can make it happen themselves by forming a band. Instead of depending on commercial media, from the big papers and television to New Musical Express and Rolling Stone, to tell them what to think, anyone can create a fanzine, paper, journal or comic book. With enough effort and cooperation they can even publish and distribute it. Kids were eventually able to start their own record labels too. Such personal empowerment leads to other possibilities in self-employment and activism. Greil Marcus' idea of punk's greatness is that the Sex Pistols could tell Bill Grundy to "fuck off" on television. The real greatness of punk is that it can develop an entire subculture that would tell Bill Grundy and safe, boring television culture as a whole to fuck off directly, establishing a parallel social reality to that of boring consumerism. (Click on More Punk To Continue) |
