PUNK CULTURE AND INFLUENCE
HOW PUNK ARE YOU?
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http://punkrock.org/
History of Punk
What are some characteristics of “punk?”
Pre-70’s “punk”- term to describe a young, male hoodlum or gangster
 Fast, hard music (often not pleasing)
 Short songs with stripped down instrumentation
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Usually 2 electric guitars, bass guitar, drums and singers
 Distorted power chords by guitars, guitar solos are self-indulgent and
unnecessary. Relentlessly repetitive Bass rhythms.
Lyrics often shouted and typically confrontational and to the point. Vocal
characterized by lack of variety and shifts in pitch.
Political or nihilistic themes
 Youthful rebellion (anti-convention, anti-authority, androgyny)
 Do-It-Yourself attitude (connection to Gandhi)
 Wildly energetic performances
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Destruction of instruments on stage
Crowd pogos, body slams, body surfs
Self mutilation and body contortions (Iggy Pop)
Goading, Insulting the audience (Johnny Rotten)
SCHLEIM KEIM
AKA SAUKERLE
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Schleim Keim (Slimy Germs) YouTube Video Selection
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One of most popular E German bands and the first to release in West
Otze (one of founders) once said: "In the beginning punk meant for me: I
stuck a safety pin in my cheek, hung a chain on it and thought, that rocks!
And on my back I had an Elvis patch. We had heard two punk songs on the
radio and we immediately tattooed 'punk' into our arms with a needle.“
Equipment: Klaus built his guitar himself, some wires from a bicycle had
to do as strings; Their amplifiers were built from old radios. The band's
first practice space was in the washroom of Otze's parents' farmhouse.
Bassist Dippel said about this early stage: "Thinking back I have to say, I
never heard such music, as it was played in that washroom back then,
again!“
To buy instruments Drummer Otze sold brass knuckles to hooligans;
They played their first gigs in churches; churches were the only place were
the authorities and the Stasi (Staatssicherheit, the secret police) had no
power; resistance against the state was formed there! More rarely, they
played art galleries or universities, because artists and students were
sometimes involved with (illegal) civil rights movements and the likes.
OTHER GERMAN PUNK BANDS…
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Feeling B (YouTube Video Selection)
Pankow (YouTube Video Selection)
Die Skeptiker (YouTube Video Selection)
THE SEX PISTOLS (YOUTUBE VIDE0 SELECTION)
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Featuring Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious
Short-lived career (3 years as this line-up), 4 singles and
one studio album
the Sex Pistols have been described by the BBC as "the
definitive English punk rock band."[1] The Pistols are
widely credited with initiating the punk movement in the
United Kingdom[2] and creating the first generation gap
within rock and roll.[3]
The Sex Pistols emerged as a response to the "increasingly
safe and bloated" progressive rock,[4] disco and
manufactured pop music of the mid-1970s. The band
created controversies which captivated Britain,[5] but often
eclipsed their music.[6] Their shows and tours repeatedly
faced difficulties with organizers and authorities, and
public appearances often ended in mayhem. Their 1977
single "God Save the Queen" was regarded as an attack on
the British monarchy and British nationalism.[7]
CBGB’S: HOME TO SOME MAJOR POP PUNK (POWER POP)
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The Ramones (YouTube)
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Formed 1974 and believed by many
to be 1st punk band
2002 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame
The band members adopted a
uniform look of long hair, leather
jackets, t-shirts, torn jeans, and
sneakers, which emphasized
minimalism
Tommy Ramone recalled that, both
musically and visually, "we were
influenced by comic books, movies,
the Andy Warhol scene, and avantgarde films. I was a big Mad
Magazine fan myself."[39]
They were a loud-fast punk-pop
band, mixing humor and horror in
equal measure and giving their
urbanized fans a way to purge all
the pent-up energy that comes from
living in a concrete jungle (a
localized New York scene).
A Ramones set, especially in the
early years, rarely lasted half an
hour, and they might perform
fifteen or more songs during the
sonic blitzkrieg.
CBGB’S: HOME TO SOME MAJOR POP PUNK (POWER POP)
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Blondie (YouTube) – scroll down
for “X Offender” (more punk) and
“In the Flesh” (more pop)
 Band originally called “Angel
and Snake” but changed to
Blondie because that is what
truck drivers called out their
windows as they passed her.
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According to their producer,
she performed with "utter
aplomb and involvement
throughout: even when she's
portraying a character
consummately obnoxious and
spaced-out, there is a wink of
awareness that is comforting
and amusing yet never
condescending."
HIGH PUNK IN THE NEW YORK SCENE
(1965-1970) (1970-1973)
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Velvet Underground (YouTube Video Selections)
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Rolling Stone wrote of their seminal album, “The Velvet Underground
and Nico: the androgynous sexuality of glitter; punk's raw noir; the
blackened-riff howl of grunge and noise rock. It is a record of fearless
breadth and lyric depth.”
 The instrumentation has an experimental quality
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Nico was a German model, who joined the Velvet Underground and
wanted to be as “ugly as possible.”
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Her lyric has almost a masculine strength to it.
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She explains that she was judged and adored as
an object of beauty for so long that her quest to be
ugly is a means of empowerment.
The music functions in a way that creates a mood
that opens the door to heightened awareness and
challenges the sensibilities of musical conventions
to that point.
They often performed at Andy Warhol’s Warehouse
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Warhol Shot a film in 1966 with title of the same
name as the album above.
THE CLASH
(YOUTUBE VIDEO SELECTIONS)
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Paul Simonon came up with the band's name, The Clash, after they
had considered alternatives including "The Weak Heartdrops" and
"The Psychotic Negatives".
Simonon explained how he came up with the name, "It really came to
my head when I start reading the newspapers and a word that kept
recurring was the word 'clash', so I thought 'the Clash, what about
that,' to the others. And they and Bernard they went for it.”
The music was often criticized for not being “radio friendly”
The band's music was often charged by a leftist political ideology.
They are credited with pioneering the advocacy of radical politics in
punk rock, and were known as the "Thinking Man's Yobs” by many
simply for voicing a political slant other than anarchism.
They were never driven entirely by money; even at their peak, tickets
to shows and souvenirs were reasonably priced.
GLAM PUNK: ZIGGY STARDUST (YOUTUBE)
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Gender Bending and Androgyny / Works against conventions of gender
"Ziggy Stardust" is a Martian who comes to Earth to liberate humanity from
banality. It is the fictional rock superstar in Bowie’s 1972 album
"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars" arrived with
the audacity of a slap in the face. Bowie offered noise and glitz and sexual
ambiguity as a statement - a finger up the nose of pop sincerity; a gob in the face
of chart-fodder and froth; a boot in the collective sagging denim behind of hippie
singer-songwhiners" - Rykodisc Sound+Vision booklet (1990)
"Ziggy, particularly, was created out of a certain arrogance. But, remember, at
that time I was young and I was full of life, and that seemed like a very positive
artistic statement. I thought that was a beautiful piece of art, I really did. I
thought that was a grand kitsch painting. The whole guy." - Bowie (1977)
IGGY POP/THE STOOGES (YOUTUBE)
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Prior to first recording The Stooges performed 5 songs.
Believing that would be enough for the for their first album, the
Stooges were told by Elektra that they needed more material.
According to Iggy Pop, "We handed (the five-song version of the
album) in and they refused it. They said, 'There aren't enough
songs!' So we lied and said, 'That's OK, we've got lots more
songs.'" (liner notes of 2005 reissue, p.9)
3 more songs written overnight
“The Stooges” listed as 185 of 500 by Rolling Stone’s Best
Albums of All-Time
Known for wild stage antics and provocation through shock
value (i.e. contortions and self-mutilation)
Also glam punk (or proto punk)
NEW YORK
GLAM PUNK
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The New York Dolls (YouTube Video Selections)
 Also promoted androgyny
 Raw, loose style. They created a sound that critic Stephen Thomas
Erlewine wrote "doesn't really sound like anything that came
before it. It's hard rock with a self-conscious wit, a celebration of
camp and kitsch that retains a menacing, malevolent edge."
 Had major influence on New Wave music and 80’s hair bands
 Other notable acts who have been described as glam punk include
Hanoi Rocks, Manic Street Preachers and D Generation.
PUNKS WITH A SATIRICAL SIDE…
Die Toten Hosen YouTube Video Selection
 Die Ärzte YouTube Video Selection
 The Dead Milkmen YouTube Video Selection
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Contemporary Punks - KMFDM
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Kein Mitleid fuer die Mehrheit (no sympathy for
the masses)
German industrial band formed in the 80’s and
still going.
 KMFDM describes their sound as "the UltraHeavy Beat"
 Bombastic beats with heavy synth riffs and
effected vocal
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The band claims its music is highly political, anticapitalism, anti-convention – many of its songs,
however, seem more focused on selfaggrandizement and creating a “MOOD” for the
“stompy” crowd that body slams and slings.
You might recognize some skin head types (Nazi
Punks) in the violent scrum on the dance floor.
KMFDM (YouTube Selections)
IN THE PUNK SPIRIT
Old school industrial
frontrunners, Skinny Puppy
perform their identity as
animal rights and peace
advocates.
 Their politically and liberally
charged music along with their
stunning stage performances
provoke and challenge.
 Skinny Puppy (YouTube Selections)
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Cyber Punks Continue to Provoke Social Consciousness
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Tactical Sekt, an electro-industrial band from Germany, and other aggrotech bands like The
Us Electric and Suicide Commando are anti-fascist, anti-oppression, anti-capitalism, etc.
Tactical Sekt have been called pessimists. We have been called negative. Two labels with
which we disagree. What Tactical Sekt will say is that it has become discontent with guile.
We will not stand by and watch the world eat itself up with its desire to play the part of God
and forcing nature's hand to create the monstrosity that is immortality or the "perfect"
child. Playing with the power of the human gene. Sentencing our fellow men to death. Life
is a puzzle and these abominations are the pieces that Tactical Sekt wishes to lose.
Tactical Sekt is our way of shouting at the masses. It is our instrument of change. If this
small voice is heard amidst the chaos then to us it is worth it.
Tactical Sekt (YouTube Selections)
Suicide Commando (YouTube Selections)
SOURCES FOR THIS PRESENTATION
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YouTube.com
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Various interviews, guest appearances and
performances
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
 Individual Band Pages
 Rolling Stone Magazine Archival Materials
 BBC
 Nico Icon (1995)
 http://www.fastnbulbous.com/punk.htm
 Filth and Fury (2000)
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