Sex Pistols and Censorship
Punks have always been known for pushing the envelope, but the Sex Pistols pushed it farther than anyone to date in the genre of punk music. The Sex Pistols boisterous lyrics and edgy appearance led for them to be heavily censored by the radio and print media and even banned in many places, Britain and abroad.
They were like nothing seen or heard before. Their torn clothes and spiked hair sent a visual message that they did not care what others thought. The band was actually put together by Malcolm McLaren, who used the band as an advertisement for his fetish clothing store. Their chains, tight leather, and torn clothes have since been associated with punk.
The Sex Pistols’ first single, “Anarchy in the U.K.” released in 1976, went to #38 on the Billboard charts in the U.K., but even though it was successful, their record label E.M.I. dropped them soon after they hit the charts. The song, which begins: “I am an anti-Christ, I am an anarchist,” was censored by all of British radio, partly because of the lyrics, but mainly because the band’s image and behavior.
Their behavior was first seen by the masses in an interview on the “Today” show in London on December 1, 1976. Guitar player Steve Jones was quotes as saying, “you dirty bastard ... You dirty f***er ... What a f***ing rotter” on live national television. They were soon banned from the show.
While their antics gained them instant fame and popularity among many of Britain’s youth, who were searching for a voice, many adults became irritated by the band. The public backlash from that interview caused promoters to cancel 16 of the band’s 19 tour dates amid newspaper headlines of “The Filth and the Fury” and “Never Mind the Morals or Standard...
... middle of paper ...
...d himself because his punk rock lifestyle was too much for him to handle.
One London resident in the 1970s said, “I can tell you, The Establishment sincerely believed these guys were of the Devil. ” The popularity of the Sex Pistols and the punk movement “provoked the last genuinely widespread Great British Moral Panic. As they gained popularity, it seemed to many that the forces of Antichrist genuinely stalked the land.
Bibliography:
Rockmine Music U.K. “Sex Pistols Diary 1976.” 27 September 2001.
Zibart, Eve. “Death of a Punk Star; End of the Vicious Road to Fame.” The Washington Post. 3 February 1979. D1.
Rockmine Music U.K. “Sex Pistols Diary 1976.” 27 September 2001.
Chittenden, Maurice. Sid Vicious Meant To Die With Girlfriend.” The Ottawa Citizen. 7 May 2000. A6.
Ibid
Yesterdayland. “The Sex Pistols.” 27 September 2001.
Rosen, Steve. "Rock's Dark Side: Manson Resurrected as an Anti-'60s Icon." The Denver Post (April 17, 1994): pg. F-01. Online. Internet. 5 June 2001. Available: Lexis-Nexis Universe.
Now a days, we are used to shocking lyrics and eye catching looks. It seems that every artist now is fighting to be so different that everyone is drawn to them. It was not always like this. In the late nineties and early two-thousands, most artists tried to fit in with the other blonde, processed pop stars that the industry was spitting out. When there was an artist who was not always happy and did sing about PG rated topics, they were blamed for what was wrong with the world, especially teenagers. In his article ‘I’d Sell You Suicide: Pop Music and Moral Panic in the Age of Marilyn Manson”, Robert Wright delves into and debunks claims that rock music, especially that of Marilyn Manson, is a main cause for teenage suicide.
When the music group Radiohead first burst on to the music scene seven years ago, it became immediately evident through information means such as music articles, album covers, and an extensive website, that this particular band was not just another long-haired, head-bobbing grunge group only out to sell as many albums as they could. This band had a much greater mission than that. It was to inform as many people as they could of their political, social and economic convictions through their personal website. While dozens of other websites have cropped up about Radiohead, this website remains uniquely their own because of its direct listing name and multi-faceted page within a page of personal comentaries, many written in a barely legible free-hand style, of such issues as upcoming protest rallies, animal testing, predictions on Middle East genocides, wrongful government spending, and barely sqeezed in daily journal entries on their current music progress. With Radiohead's political accusations constantly being updated in oversized bold print, their political cartoons of talking teddy bears appearing on a vast amount of web pages, and an often rushed-looking hand-written on their musical progress, it becomes evident that this website was created more as a world news commentary than a self-indulgent display case of itself.
What is censorship? An encyclopedia defines censorship as "the control of what people may say or hear, write or read, or see or do1." There are many reasons why people censor entertainment such as literature and music. Many governments or groups try to preserve their standards of morality by preventing people from learning about or following other standards2, commonly found in the two previously mentioned mediums. There are different ways to censor things. It can be on a local level, such as libraries refusing to carry a controversial book. It can also be on an entirely larger scale. In the 1770’s, French author Beaumarchais had two of his plays, The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, banned by King Louis XVI.2 Back then, these plays were considered outrageous and sometimes blasphemous. To fully understand how our system of censorship works today, we have to look into history to see how censorship got started.
When the Punk Movement emerged in the mid-1970s in both the United States and United Kingdom, it spanned into such areas as fashion, music, as well as youth mentality and thus became its own type of subculture. However, this movement can also be considered a form of social deviance when viewed through the lens of Robert Merton’s theory of anomie. This deviance stems from the anti-social and anti-conventional nature of the movement’s members in response to lower and middle class socio-economic strain. Therefore, the Punk Movement can be categorized as a combination of two of Merton’s types of adaptation to strain, including retreatism and rebellion, due to the subculture’s rejection of capitalist values, withdrawal from the workforce and apathetic attitude.
Punk subculture was about expressing oneself and having freedom of speech. Punk rockers express themselves by their music, fashion and many other different forms of expression. This subculture is mainly characterized by its anti-establishment views. This first started in the United Kingdom when the famous band the Sex Pistols rebelled against their Queen. This idea of anti-establishment views was not accepted in the mainstream society of Britain. The punk culture began to overwhelm the British society. One of punk’s main beliefs was going against higher power. The British Monarchy is a very important symbol in the British culture, for it represents the union of their nation. Yet, the punk culture did not respect the British monarchy. A very influential band called the Sex Pistols clearly expressed disrespect in their song, “Go...
McLeese, Don. “The Spirit of a Rocker.” New York Times. 18 October 1987. Web. 11
The Clash’s third studio album, 1979’s “London Calling,” was arguably one of the greatest musical achievements of the late ‘70s and almost certainly the most significant contribution offered by the punk rock movement to rock as a whole, a contribution acknowledged not only by those who take punk seriously as a genre, but also by mainstream music critics—“Rolling Stone” magazine placed the album at number eight on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time . “London Calling” is full of genre-defining (and genre-defying, for that matter) material and outstanding songwriting, but one track in particular truly stands out as the album’s most prophetic, haunting, and influential. It makes sense, then, that the album was titled “London Calling” after this most compelling song.
The Punk Rock movement of the 1980’s was an explosion of hybrid and eccentric beats and lyrics that caught everyone’s attention, especially the young adolescents of the time period. The movement of Punk Rock took a major role in shaping the culture in the 80’s. The template for the 1980’s Punk Rock emerged from its preceptor of the 70’s Punk Rock which emerged from London. It’s loud and reckless tunes, to some sounded like noise, but to others it imposed many political standings and raised discussions of controversial topics in its lyrics. From this movements figurative and literal expressions through its bold fashion and uncensored lyrics, it definitely made a stance in the history of music and the 20th century.
Punk rock was crude, loud, simple music. Many punk rock songs were rude or used bad words. Punk rock musicians often dressed in ripped or torn clothes, leather jackets, and black leather boots. Punk rock musicians sometimes had strange hairstyles, such as hair "spiked" with hair gel or shaved off. Well-known punk rock bands from Britain included The Clash. Well-known punk musicians in the United States were the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie and Black Flag. ~ http://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Rock_and_roll#Punk_rock ~
One thing the Rolling Stones were always known for, their stage act, started in 1962. As “Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys” became “The Rollin’ Stones”, Mick Jagger, the front man of the group, slowly gained confidence. Stephen Davis in his 40-year span of the Rolling Stones entitled, “Old gods almost dead. The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones”, describes Mick’s act as: “tossing his hair, rolling his eyes, dipping his shoulders, suggestive hand gestures, tight little spins, acting out the risqué lyrics with is eyes and especially his lips” (Davis 24). Eventually the shows in packed 400-person clubs would end ...
The Clash was an English punk rock band that was formed in 1976. They were known for bringing controversy into the world of rock and roll with their politics, lyrics and the image they created. They were often referred to as “the only band that matters” in the punk rock world. Unfortunately, the band broke up in 1986 because of drug addiction and drama between band mates, but they made a lot of great music during the time they were together, earning them a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January of 2003. They were also listed number 28 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. The Clash has had many popular songs, but three that really stand out are London Calling, Should I Stay or Should I Go, and Rock the Casbah.
In the early 80s another type of music began to surface, a racist type of music called hate music. The skinhead culture in England produced a group of people who felt that other races were ruining their country, and the music style quickly blossomed in the UK and travelled to the US. Ian Stuart is credited with starting it with his band, Screwdriver, “Stuart found an audience in the emerging skinhead subculture in Great Britain (and later in the U.S.) ... But Stuart provided energy and direction for a growing number of racist skinheads (a minority of all skinheads), who, following in Stuart's footsteps, formed bands of their own” (The Anti-Defamation League). The music had a continuous following throughout the next decade, “During the ensuing decade, hate music (often called "WP music," or "white power music," and "R.A.C.," or "Rock Against Communism") increased its hold among young racists around the world” (The Anti-Defamation League). In the middle 90s the internet has caused a rise in hate music because of the ease of accessing it, and the ability of the members of the movement being able to connect across great distances. The internet has allowed hate music to spread and make a ton more money than it had previously: “[T]he emergence of the World Wide Web radically
On May 14th, 1970, Rolling Stone printed an article called, “One Guy Standing There, Shouting ‘I’m Leaving.’” The Beatles had split up. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had broken up one of the world’s most popular and loved bands. It had been a hard and fast decade for the British Fab Four and only six years of real time and direct influence on the tumultuous counterculture movement in The United States. Like The Beatles, America started the ‘60s off clean cut but ended the decade entirely different; transformed. The Beatles evolved with and within the 1960s and reflect a time of great social change, and their psychedelic phase coincided with the hearty years of the counterculture movement, forever placing them in the discourse of that era.
...d like “ransom notes” with the cut out letters and rugged appearance (Candi). Punks enjoyed the freedom to express themselves in any way they felt like. This direct push from conformity frightened and angered many. Although in the twenty-first century, the punk phenomena is not as eccentric as it was back in the day, the same ideals are still in the hearts of the new-born punk. Many punks today still believe in the DIY method is the best, and most hate the Big Brother like government and large corporations. Although it is hard to be a total reject of society, some still try and many more nod their heads at the trailblazers that catalyzed what it is to be a punker.