Overview
Objectives
- Identify the main differences between American and British punk rock
- Examine the career of the Sex Pistols and their role in the development of British punk
- Examine the relationship between politics and punk rock
- Recall a number of other punk bands that were popular in the late 1970s in order to discuss how they differed from each other
British Punk Bands in the Wake of the Sex Pistols continued
Another British punk band formed in the wake of the Sex Pistols was a Manchester group called the Buzzcocks. The Buzzcocks’ founding members were Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto, who met after Shelley placed a classified advertisement in his college’s newspaper looking for fellow fans of the Velvet Underground. They began playing live shows on campus, and by 1976, they had recorded a four-track EP called Spiral Scratch on their own New Hormones label.
The Buzzcocks, true to the do-it-yourself aesthetic of the punk rock movement, were one of the first punk groups to create an independent record label. Spiral Scratch featured the single "Boredom ♫," which is repetitive, angry, energetic, and unpolished. Unlike a number of other punk singers, however, Shelley’s voice was high-pitched and his singing was more melodic than the gruff, monotonous utterances typical among bands such as the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.
The Buzzcocks were signed by United Artists Records, and their first single was entitled "Orgasm Addict ♫." The song dealt with sexuality frankly and humorously, and it was banned by the BBC and sold poorly. The music of the Buzzcocks is typically characterized as pop punk a style of punk music that punk is inspired by the music of earlier punk bands such as the Ramones and the Sex Pistols in its speed, aggression, and themes of anarchy or non-conformity, but it is also more melodic; examples include Green Day and Blink-182 because the melodies were clean and singable and the rhythm section was cohesive. The pop punk style of the Buzzcocks was less messy than that of other punk groups, but it still contained the relentless energy of punk rock. In the late 1970s, the Buzzcocks released three LPs that sold relatively well in the United Kingdom but did not attract much attention in the United States.
Another pop-oriented British punk band was called the Jam. The Jam was inspired by the looks and sounds of the Mod movement, although the Mod movement had faded years earlier and most popular Mod musicians had moved on to new musical styles. The members of the Jam wore tailored black suits, which was a stark contrast to the ripped jeans, leather jackets, and safety pins that many other punk bands sported.
The Jam’s music had the hard drive and fast tempo of punk combined with the catchy hooks of popular music. Despite the pop-oriented sound, the Jam addressed political issues such as police brutality and their displeasure with the British Empire. "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight ♫" tells the tale of a man who is robbed and beaten in a London Underground station. The Jam also one of the most commercially successful of the British punk bands, releasing eighteen consecutive top 40 singles between 1977 and 1982, four of which went to number 1.
I was about 16 when punk started to happen. It was so exciting. You had a social depression going on in the U.K. There was a sanitation strike. London was really grim, gray. You had Margaret Thatcher coming in. It was a really revolutionary time.”
“I was about 16 when punk started to happen. It felt like you had this naïve idea that you could change things just by wearing something.”
"Johnny Rotten has described [the Sex Pistols] as "musical vaudeville" and "evil burlesque," admitting that their image and stage shows are as important as their music. Alice Cooper was a big influence on him."
