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Like the majority of their British counterparts, the original American punks had been making music for years before they began to receive acknowledgement in late-1975. In common with the Brits once again, the biggest problem was that nobody had a clue what to call it. Drawing their wild, high-energy style from such Detroit-based rock acts of the late-1960s ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Punk exploded on to the stagnant British music scene in the mid-1970s with short, fast songs, played with maximum energy and often fuelled by angry lyrics. A musical and social phenomenon, punk was a reaction to the indulgence of glam rock bands, and the perceived elitism of the often highly musically proficient musicians who played in the ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

In our heads we can all imagine a noise called punk rock. It’s nasty, brutish and short. It’s played on cheap guitars at high speed. In fact it’s possibly played on cheap speed. The songs are basic to the point of wilful stupidity. If they have any message, it will probably be negative. The general effect will not be ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

Proto-punk bands, like all ‘proto’ genres, are by definition only identified retrospectively and generally share subversive and anti-establishment attitudes. Although punk rock was primarily a British phenomenon, there were several notable American punk bands and its musical roots lie more with these American bands than with British bands. The energy of pub rockers like Dr. Feelgood and Eddie ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

The roots of punk lie in rock’n’roll, itself a rebellious spin-off from rhythm and blues. ‘Louie Louie’, written by Richard Berry in 1955 and a US No. 2 hit for The Kingsmen in 1963, is often cited as the first punk song with its raw sound and almost indecipherable lyrics (nonetheless investigated by the FBI for obscenity). The song ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

Punk rock is about attitude more than music. It’s not about how well you can play, it’s about how well you can communicate. Its roots go back to the beginning of rock’n’roll in the 1950s. The rebellious spirit of MC5 and The Stooges in the 1960s helped to define the punk attitude, while Velvet Underground singer Lou Reed and ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

Punk was pronounced dead on many occasions, as early as 1977 when The Clash signed to CBS and when The Sex Pistols split up the following year. By 1979 there was a consensus that, although the original impetus had died down, a thriving post-punk environment had arisen. Liverpool spawned the new psychedelia of Echo & The Bunnymen and ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

By early 1976, The Sex Pistols were playing intermittent gigs in London, getting a reputation for the random acts of violence that surrounded their shows. They were also inspiring others to form punk bands – notably London SS, who never released a record or even played a note in public but were directly responsible for the formation of ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

As The Sex Pistols passed through three record companies in the first half of 1977, sacked their songwriting bass player for liking The Beatles and struggled to find venues that would let them play, they became a side-show in the thriving British punk scene now led by The Clash. In London, new punk clubs sprang up and found ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

February MC5 Kick Out The Jams Often credited as the first intentionally punk band, MC5’s live debut album detonated in 1969. Forming at their Michigan High School, singer Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith, bassist Michael Davis and drummer Dennis Thompson were mentored by political activist John Sinclair of The White Panthers. They were ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

January Ian Dury’s Rhythm Stick Hits No.1 An unlikely punk, Ian Dury was 35 when his first solo single, the anthemic ‘Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll’, was released. A childhood polio victim, Dury had previously led pub rockers Kilburn & The High Roads. The album New Boots And Panties made him an equally unlikely star ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

Early ’76 The Sex Pistols’ First Gigs The Sex Pistols played their first gig at London’s St Martin’s School of Art in November 1975, racing through a batch of Faces and Who numbers plus some of their own, including ‘Pretty Vacant’ and ‘Did You No Wrong’, while Rotten sneered at the audience, calling them ‘f***ing boring’. The pattern ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

January The Sex Pistols Get The Bullet On 6 January 1977 EMI Records terminated its contract with The Sex Pistols, saying it was unable to promote the group’s records ‘in view of the adverse publicity generated over the past two months’. The media furore over the Pistols’ TV appearance six weeks earlier had barely abated and now politicians were weighing ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

All Dolled Up In New York Throwing a fistful of glitter into the mix, along with some debilitating drug problems, The New York Dolls tottered unsteadily along the line between punk and glam rock in the early 1970s. Fronted by the pouting Jagger-esque David Johansen, the band lost drummer Billy Murcia to a drug overdose before their self-titled ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent

The Pistols On Film Polish-American director Lech Kowalski based his punk documentary, D.O.A: A Rite of Passage, around The Sex Pistols’ American 1978 tour, which ended in the band’s dissolution. Footage from the tour was intercut with live performances by other British punk bands, Generation X, The Dead Boys, Rich Kids, X-Ray ...

Source: Punk: The Brutal Truth, by Hugh Fielder and Mike Gent
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