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Explain the asthetics of Punk

Here's a fascinating essay describing the Sex Pistols performance at San Francisco's Winterland, January 1978:
http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/the-sex-pistols-concert/3054-7788.html?utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=090616
As an old fashioned "peace-love/classic rock" lover, this episode of music completely eludes me. Didn't The Who catch the same vibe but with a lot more musical skill and integrity? Nonetheless, the essay gives a good snap shot surrounding the Sex Pistols and a glimpse into the punk musical phenomenom. If punk had been a satire, it'd be hailed a triumphant post-modern concept piece. The fact it is "real" is even more amazing to me. Excuse me, I have to put on a Judy Collins records to feel "clean again". LOL.
jwong
cyclonicman
693 posts
 
Nonconformist teenage angst, pushing the envelope further away from convention. Just part of the evolution of Rock. Punk doesn't even sound so punkish anymore!
martykl
3,578 posts
 
I think that it's fair to say that Punk was an angry attempt to reverse the increasingly "corporate" or commercial character that began to dominate rock music after the '60's, when business realized that there was real gold in them thar hills.

Marty

PS - Jaybo & Hodu, Sebastian's point re: Fleetwood Mac is taken. For the record (pardon the pun), cue up "Come" from Fleetwood Mac's "Say You Will". None of the punk bands mentioned here has (to my knowledge) recorded anything with the seething anger and crazed intensity of that track. Lindsey Buckingham is absolutely deranged - and I say that with the greatest respect and admiration. I also think that he doesn't like Stevie Nicks very much.
martykl
3,578 posts
 
One more thought: Fleetwood Mac has got to be THE most misundertood band in the world. People think of Christine and Stevie when they should think LB. "Tusk" was a purer rejection of commercial interests (it ain't Rumors II, and from almost anyone else, you can bet that it would have been) than anything from the Punks, because Fleetwood Mac put REAL MONEY at risk by delivering quirky, challenging music when no one wanted it. For me, Tusk is on the very short list of truly great RnR records.

Marty
jaybo
4,478 posts
 
it was a response to corporations deciding what 'the message' would be. the germs, the adverts, the buzzcocks, penetration, stiff little fingers the only ones, and on and on and on....thousands of bands. as is always the case, the corporations now package it as nostagia in TV commercials, etc(and censor like everything else). For the uninitiated, start with the clash-london calling, and buzzcocks-singles going steady....if they don't 'knock you out' no harm done, and go back to Fleetwood Mac(sorry to use them as an example..I love them too). Its all poetry at this point anyway......Anarchy In The UK by the pistols is the ultimate loudspeaker 'killer'. It will destroy any speaker not up to the task of rock music....try it.
jazdoc
365 posts
 
Punk was not an 'asthetic', it was an attitude. An essential punk primer is the Ramones documentary "End of the Century".
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