PUNK CULTURE AND

INFLUENCE
HOW PUNK ARE YOU?
 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
 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
 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

 Schleim Keim (Slimy Germs) YouTube Video Selection

 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…
 Feeling B (YouTube Video Selection)
 Pankow (YouTube Video Selection)
 Die Skeptiker (YouTube Video Selection)
THE SEX PISTOLS (YOUTUBE VIDE0 SELECTION)
 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)
 The Ramones (YouTube)
 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 avant-garde
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)

 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.
 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)
 Velvet Underground (YouTube Video Selections)
 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
 Nico was a German model, who joined the Velvet Underground and wanted to be as
“ugly as possible.”
 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.
 Her lyric has almost a masculine strength to it.
 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
 Warhol Shot a film in 1966 with title of the same
name as the album above.
THE CLASH
(YOUTUBE VIDEO SELECTIONS)

 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)
 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)
 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

 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

 Contemporary Punks - KMFDM
 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 Ultra-Heavy
Beat"
 Bombastic beats with heavy synth riffs and effected
vocal
 The band claims its music is highly political, anti-
capitalism, anti-convention – many of its songs,
however, seem more focused on self-aggrandizement 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)
Cyber Punks Continue to Provoke Social Consciousness

 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
 YouTube.com
 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)