Why Punk HAD to happen

[Andy in Sig]

This is why punk was.

Hippy.

You make it sound like a marketing ploy. It certainly attracted a lot of kids who perhaps shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near a musical instrument. A very few of them did turn out to have some sort of musical ability and so survived. One telling sign is that only a very few members of punk bands who were hitting the headlines at the time have stayed the course musically. I think the problem with music is that if you want to use it as the vehicle for whatever point it is that you are trying to make, some sort of basic technical ability is more or less necessary.

I suppose that music is the most universal of the art forms: I mean that if punk had happened in normal art e.g. painting, no-one would have taken a blind bit of notice of it and if it had happened in literature, not one of the books would have been read to the end but with three minutes of incompetent chord thrashing, people are probably too lazy to walk across the room to turn the radio off, probably on the off chance that something they like might come on next.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

[QUOTE 3001609, member: 1314"]AiS during punk's heyday.
View attachment 41042 [/QUOTE]

And AiS today.

 

[asterix]

Punk? Too commercial.

 

[Andy in Sig]

And AiS today.

Just for the record, I think I must have seen every major punk band bar the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks which is a bit of shame because I really like the Buzzcocks.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Are some of your best friends punks then?

I really don't know what you're trying to get at. I've got nothing against punk. Had I been 15 or so when it burst on to the scene, I'd probably have been crazy about it. As it was I found it in itself mostly to not be of interest but it certainly paved the way for changes which were needed. And FWIW there were some bands which got tagged punk who clearly weren't: The Stranglers, The Beat, even Ian Dury and (at one point) Eddie and the Hot Rods who I thought and continue to think were absolutely brilliant.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Eater?

Didn't they have a twelve year old bass player or some sort of novelty thing? I've got a feeling they might have been second or third on the bill one night. Seeing them is one thing, remembering them is another. I remember not liking Souxsie and the Banshees but had a chat with the guitarist (Scots lad if I remember aright) and he seemed like a really decent bloke.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Are some of your best friends punks then?


No, I thought not.

You're taking this way too seriously... I think.

 

[albion]

Not many bands stay around. Punk is no different yet had more than its fair share of creative performers.
It quickly morphed too. Apart from the Sex Pistols was anything else successful really punk?

I saw the Buzzcocks , Siouxsie and even Magazine as accomplished. But were they really punk?
I guess everything needs a pigeon hole.

 

[Andy in Sig]

Not many bands stay around. Punk is no different yet had more than its fair share of creative performers.
It quickly morphed too. Apart from the Sex Pistols was anything else successful really punk?

I saw the Buzzcocks , Siouxsie and even Magazine as accomplished. But were they really punk?
I guess everything needs a pigeon hole.

That's the curse of the British music scene though, isn't it? On the one hand there was punk the genuine youth phenomenon which brilliant for the kids who wanted to be part of it and there was punk the sellable commodity which the marketing men loved. Were those bands punk? Depends how you define it: if you are talking about kids waking up to the possibilities of what they could do, probably not. If you're talking about bands who seized the moment to show something new, that there was an alternative to the bloated, fatuous end of the music industry as well as to the nightmare of 70s pop, then possibly yes. I suppose the sad thing for any genuine youth thing is that there is an industry there poised to make it anything but genuine.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I'm not sure we need to all fall out over this, what's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

Anyway moving back to the music let's raise the intellectual bar with one of music's finest moments...

 

[Andy in Sig]

Do we have an award for the fastest backpedal? Maybe @User3094 could take it on?

From this yesterday:


To this today:

There's no contradiction between the two. The fact that kids had the chance to do what they wanted doesn't mean that they would necessarily produce something which lots of other people would have found enjoyable. To produce things on a musical instrument which anybody other than yourself might enjoy requires some sort of technical ability (however minimal). As I said to you, I had nothing against punk but not much of it appealed to me personally. OTH it was good to see it happening in terms of the wider effects it had. If you want to engage in a possibly fruitful discussion, I'd be delighted to join you. If you want to score points that aren't there to be scored, then crack on.

 

[MarkF]

"ha ha - ever had the feeling youve been had".........................

 

[Andy in Sig]

"ha ha - ever had the feeling youve been had".........................

Frequently ... but not on this occasion.

 

[AndyRM]

After a vague scan through this thread, I've not seen any proper* punk bands mentioned.

*Actual

 

[MarkF]

Frequently ... but not on this occasion.

My post, "ha ha - ever had the feeling you've been had", wasn't directed at you, specifically, Andy, was at lots.