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...
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...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.
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