Comparing The Infamy And Controversy Of The Sex Pistols

While these white punks were able to return to their middle-class, financially stable lives, many minorities had no choice but to live in the cheap apartments they were offered at the time. Although the intention of the white punks may have been to unify all races under the label of ‘punk’, they actually reinforced clear differences between the two groups. The lifestyle became a desired object to white privileged punks into which they launched themselves head-on. The white punks desired to internalize the struggle rather than be contradictory by singing about it and not actually living it. White punks believed that by doing this, they were not only eliminating race within the punk subculture, but they were also furthering their own participation within the subculture by creating a “self-imposed minority”2 and an “appropriation of Otherness”2.

There were many more punks in Britain and it was acceptable to be a punk. During the time of the cold war, punk rock was used to inform people of political conflicts happening throughout the world and did it through music (1). Punk rock bands also sang about the economic problems during the cold war. Before the cold war though swing, jazz, blues, and the big band were very popular (6). Like punk rock during

Censorship has long been an issue in Rock and Roll music. Although our American society celebrates “classic” rock that emerged in the 60’s and 70’s, today, artists such as: The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Doors, The Sex Pistols, and Bob Dylan were harshly judged for their music and image they projected because some members of society feared they were too suggestive, or just completely inappropriate. These rebellious artists fought against their music being censored in the best ways for their bands.

An early moral panic involves Mods VS Rockers in 1964. Events that were actually just a few scuffles between youths and vandalism were report in an exaggerated way. The media portrayed this event as a ‘Day of Terror’ and words such as ‘Riots’ and ‘battle’ were used. Cohen suggests over reporting of this far outweighed the importance of the actual event. He argues that the media tapped into a social consensus, that all the public shared concerns about the general decline in morality of the young and the emergence of a strong youth culture. Consequently the two groups were perceived in a stereotypical and distorted way.

The attitude common in the subculture is the resistance to selling out, which means abandoning one’s values and changing in musical style toward pop to embrace anything that’s mainstream capitalist culture in the exchange for money, status, or power. Punk rocks’ common thinking wasn’t only anti-authoritarism, and not selling out but also non-conformity, direct action, and a DIY ethic. The DIY attitude was pointed towards stepping forward and speaking without any restraint. To fight with warrior qualities to achieve what you were striving for. The kind of thinking and motives for punk rock subjects was to not settle for what society made acceptable and standard but to think and work outside of the box that was holding them in.

“He [Pearson’s father] would freak out when he read the song titles to the cassettes that my friends and I would shoplift from the mall…He was certain that I’d become a Junkie if I listened to that kind of music. But with an alcoholic wife-beater father who didn’t give a shit about his son I was bound to avoid the cliched, nihilist aspects of punk culture” (Pearson 12).

Music has been a long standing form of expression for hundreds of years. More recently however, it has become a way for artists to make social commentaries on the society they live in. During the 1970s, Punk bands and Ska bands emerged in England and rose to become a major source of social commentary through their upbeat music. Specifically looking at music from The Stranglers, The Specials, and The Clash, it is clear that lyrics clouded with anger and passion can be best communicated through upbeat sounds and melodies. Each of these groups communicates a need for radical change in society; but each one goes about this in a different way. Through the songs, “I feel like a Wog,” by The Stranglers, “A Message to you Rudy,” by The Specials, and “White Riot,” by The Clash, these bands point out that there is a common enemy in Society. They are forcing the mainstream to realize unpleasant truths about the culture that they inhabit. The future of England was unknown, and these songs were written during a time where people were worried about their place in the world. Faith in the system was dying and these bands gave way to a future generation to improve upon society that will present a more positive and equal multicultural Britain. Through the music it is clear that multicultural Britain was complicated; there were tumultuous times that these bands were commenting on, which pitted races against each other but also brought them together in fighting back against suppressive societal

This was as a result of the studies he carried out on the UK’s media and social reaction to the ‘Mods and the Rockers’ in the 1960’s. The research was based upon a group of working-class youths; there were two groups of people who fought on the Clacton beach leaving many beach huts vandalised. Therefore this became front page news within the media, the press claiming that ‘Clacton had been terrorised by rampaging groups of ‘Mods’ and ‘Rockers’’ (Jones, 2001; 84). The media captured the interest of the public by using eye catching head lines and phrases, some of the phrases incorporated in the test include ‘riot’, ‘siege’, and ‘screaming mob’ (The Guardian). They use such words in a ‘moral panic’ to try and catch the attention of the public’s eye.

Music, in the past, has often spelled bad news to society at large. It can challenge norms and invoke a sense of hype in places that modern culture may be uncomfortable with, such as sex, sexuality, and drugs. Personally, when I think of punk music, I see a genre that stands to be individualistic, aggressive, and rebellious. Phrases such as ‘anti-establishment’ also come up. This notion comes from many aspects of punk subculture, including dress, music, performance, and my interpretations.

In Jonathan Epstein’s novel, he suggests that the band’s following viewed the group as a hierarchy, separated socially and personally. Similarly, Charles Manson’s group, known as The Family, were willing to live and die for him, all for his ideologies. Unlike Manson, the band people never explicitly asked for people to follow them, but it is not secret that people in the entertainment industry always look for an audience. Not only artists, but the people who are in charge of our government as well, seek out for those who agree and are willing to support their message. It is unlikely that one would not have strong opinions on the mechanisms of our society, and it appears that now more than ever people are becoming more aware and an advocate

During the popular music culture of the 80’s, many music groups started standing out in the crowd to us as extremely controversial; none more than the highly controversial

Most of the original rebellion was directed towards the British class structure. They wanted to express their disapproval of the structure that governed their country. In The Jam’s “Eton Rifles”, the band sarcastically attacks the upper class, calling them arrogant and preaching to them that rugby is the only thing making them strong (Punk 68). The Sex Pistols’ album “God Save The Queen” portrays the Queen of England with a safety pin through her nose on their cover. The reaction to this outburst of shocking rebellion from the mainstream society was a strong, displeased one. American writer Greil Marcus defined punk as, “…refusing the future society has planned for you.” Thousands of social misfits attempted just that. Through the many causes for this rebellious political expression: communism, anarchy, feminism, etc., the punks of England had a focus and a reason. It was this that made the “punk” a valid, yet undesired member of society, and the British public got to see this sociological change first hand (Chamberlain par.8). Although this movement was short lived, its impact was a phenomenon, and its effects were long- lasting, which distinguished this group from previous generations.

With the economic decline and availability of jobs with upward movement, a culture of youths formed in Britain that challenged the ideals and cultural norms of the generations that came before them. A consistent movement from traditional society through youth subcultures brings light through the eyes of the musicians that describe their generation’s feelings of homelessness in an era filled with unemployment, low wages, and violence. The insurgence of the counterculture movement, poor economic conditions, and the commercialization of previous Rock and Roll music in Britain directly led to the punk subculture because it allowed youths to speak up about their conditions and frustrations through an easily understood and accessible medium while maintaining a different stance than their predecessors.

Throughout Hanif Kureishi’s novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, there is a focus on the emergence of the punk scene in London during the 1970s. The first obvious encounter we have with punk in the novel appears on page 129, when Karim and Charlie go to the Nashville and see their first punk band. The Nashville is a popular venue where many punk bands got their start, and a lot of famous bands, such as the Sex Pistols, performed. Karim describes the scene that they come upon with a great detailed description of the outlandish appearances of both the audience and the band members. He also describes the unusual way they are acting, the aggressive way they are dancing and the abuse between the band and audience. Though his attention is mainly on the emergence of the

The teddy boys in the 1950s and 60s wore Edwardian suits and cropped hair, and created violence on the streets. Next were the Mods and the Rockers of the 1960s, the former dressed up in tailored suits and desired to be the upper class whereas the latter wore leather jackets and went against the upper class principles. Britain’s declining economy and the immigration of foreigners led to the emergence of the violent Skinheads who were extreme nationalists and racists. British media theorist and sociologist Dick Hebdige wrote in his book subculture: the meaning of style that “we are interested in subculture , the teddy boys and mods and rockers, the skinheads and the punks – who are alternately dismissed, denounced, canonized; treated at different times as threats to public order and as harmless buffoons (1979,