Overview
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Americans were listening to psychedelic music, folk rock, funk, and pop. At the same time, a new genre of music was developing in the underground scenes of the United States and the United Kingdom: punk. Punks rebelled against pretentious, over-produced rock stars and the corporations that promoted them. Instead, punk musicians focused on being as anti-corporate as possible. Punk music’s lyrics often emphasize a sense of isolation and alienation from everyday human emotions and issues. The genre of New Wave arose in the late 1970s as the aloof cousin of punk rock. New Wave music maintained a sense of detachment and alienation, but it often included musical language that was more familiar and relatable than that repetitive, distorted, screamed sounds of punk rock. A number of New Wave artists frequently turned to the music of the 1950s and 1960s for inspiration.
Objectives
- Identify several important proto-punk groups and artists
- Recall how and why New York was the center of the emerging punk rock movement
- Recall how the music of punk rock musicians reflects their aesthetic and social values
- Identify the similarities and differences between punk rock and New Wave
- Recall the significance of CBGB in the early careers of New Wave bands such as Talking Heads and Blondie
- Examine the role of earlier styles of rock and popular music in the recordings of groups such as the B52s and the Cars
The Roots of Punk: The Velvet Underground
Lou Reed was a poet who joined forces with avant-garde composer and violist John Cale and guitarist Sterling Morrison to form the Velvet Underground in New York in the mid-1960s. The three musicians chose to experiment with new musical forms, instrumentation, meanings, and modes of expression, and they were uninterested in pursuing "traditional" rock forms or styles. For example, Reed would recite his poems while Cale accompanied him on the electric viola. The group then added a drummer, Maureen Tucker, who played standing up, used mallets instead of drumsticks, and rarely included cymbals in her drumming.
The group's music is a far cry from most of the rock music that was popular at the time. The Velvet Underground's outright refusal to conform to any commercial styles of music helped establish them as an important aesthetic predecessor of the punk rock movement.
Reed's lyrics focused on dark topics such as social alienation, drug addiction, violence, and sadomasochism. The music was repetitive in form and style, and it often featured passages of screeching feedback. At other times, Reed would intone his monologues over a dronea repeated pitch that is sustained for a lengthy period of time , a repeated pitch that is sustained for a lengthy period of time. Reed's delivery was emotionally unaffected, despite the intensity of the subjects portrayed in the lyrics.
In 1965, the members of the Velvet Underground met the pop artist Andy Warhol. Warhol, who was famous for his prints of objects such as Campbell's soup cans and portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, invited the Velvet Underground to play for his pop art happening, The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. The Exploding Plastic Inevitable was a multimedia show that was performed in several different cities in 1966 and 1967. The relationship with Warhol was beneficial for the Velvet Underground. Not only did they receive increased exposure for their music by participating in the show, but Warhol also helped them secure a recording contract with Verve Records. Warhol also encouraged the group to include his friend Nico (Christa Päffgen) on some of their recordings. The result was the album The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967), which was also produced by Warhol. Warhol designed the image on the album's iconic cover: a banana.
The music of The Velvet Underground and Nico is dark and experimental. Nico only appears on three of the album's tracks. "Venus in Furs ♫" is a song about sadomasochism and bondage, and it features Reed playing the ostrich guitaris a type of tuning in which all strings on the guitar are tuned to the same pitch but in different octaves . Ostrich guitar is a type of tuning in which all strings on the guitar play the same pitch but in different octaves, and the technique is audible during the final section of the song. "Venus in Furs ♫" also includes Cale playing the electric viola in a style that evokes folk music. Tucker's drumming is sparse. She does not drum on each beat of every measure, and she does not include any cymbals. Another influential song on The Velvet Underground and Nico is "Heroin ♫," in which Reed graphically describes the use and effects of the drug. The song falls somewhere in between endorsing and condemning drug use. Over the course of the song, the speed accelerates and the instruments increase in volume and complexity, in imitation of the user's drug high. Like many of the Velvet Underground's songs, a sense of nihilism pervades "Heroin ♫."
The Velvet Underground was an important model for bands who had no interest in conforming to the rules, forms, or standards of mainstream rock music. Their experimental forms, graphic lyrics, unusual instruments, and unaffected delivery were influential on the musicians of the emerging punk scene.
“The whole punk scene is, of course, responsible for the Go-Go's ever getting created. Because before punk rock happened, you couldn't start a band if you didn't know how to play an instrument. But when punk happened it was like, 'Oh, it doesn't matter if you can play or not. Go ahead, make a band.' And that's exactly what the Go-Go's did.”
