This course, part 2 of a 2-course sequence, examines the history of rock, primarily as it unfolded in the United States, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. This course covers the music of Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, Carole King, Bob Marley, the Sex Pistols, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Metallica, Run-DMC, and Nirvana, and many more artists, with an emphasis both on cultural context and on the music itself. We will also explore how developments in the music business and in technology helped shape the ways in which styles developed. Emerging out of the experimental and ambitious years of late-60s psychedelia, rock splintered into a variety of styles in the 1970s as the music business continued to expand. By the end of the decade, punk and disco had challenged the excesses of the hippie aesthetic, as rock became more commercially streamlined and radio friendly. The emergence and rise of MTV transformed pop music and propelled the careers of Michael jackson and Madonna, while heavy metal and hip hop dominated the late 1980s. Nirvana leads alt-rock's return to simplicity in the early 1990s.
UK Punk 1974-77
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Del curso dictado por University of Rochester
History of Rock, Part Two
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Mainstream Rock, Punk, and New Wave (1975-79)
Rock style from the early 70s are streamlined and labeled corporate rock, as the music business expands even further. The mega-album. Punk reacts with a return to simplicity. New wave develops the punk attitude. [Read Chapter 10 and work through listening guides and dedicated video.]
Conoce a los instructores
John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
We turn now to a consideration of punk in the UK.
And it's a story that starts with one guy and that guy is Malcolm McLaren.
When we talk about the rise of punk in the UK.
you know, we probably should think about before we talk about Malcolm McLaren, we
probably should think about some of what was going on in the culture in the UK.
At the time, the UK had very, very troubling financial it, a very troubled
economy during the 70s. US did, too, but the fact is that most
middle-class kids in the the United States had plenty of toys to play with.
But in the UK, it wasn't so clear. Ad it was a kind of could be a kind of a,
a despair situation of dispair for many who felt like it didn't matter that they
did, they would never be able to move out of where they were.
In the culture, they'd never be able to rise up, and so there was a sense of why
bother, no hope. And so, punk music is often associated
not just with the aesthetic of I like the way that music sounds.
But as a kind of cultural expression of the despair that was part of the life of
a young person during that period. I think that's one way in which the UK
scene and the US US scene for punk are kind of different because it wasn't
really so much that way in the US, but it was in the UK.
and those of you who are, who are taking this course from the UK can say a bit
about this on the discussion forum. What life was like there in the 1970s.
Not to say it was horrible, but there was, was certainly, an amount of despair.
So along comes this guy, Malcom McLaren. Who by trade was a haberdash, and owned
his own shop and managed it, on the King's Row.
And was a bit of a put a, poke a stick in your eye kind of guy.
when it came to the establishment and the more sort of upper-crusty aristocracy
types that, business types that would, that would frequent some of the other
stores where he was. He had a, a store that was called Let It
Rock. It later changed its name to Too Fast to
Live, Too Young to Die. They kind of sold biker jackets and
leather wear and that kind of thing. And this was Malcom McLaren's way of
acting out a bit next to, next to stores that would have, you know, the most
elegant of men's wear and suits and that kind of thing.
And you come by Malcom McLaren's store and he's selling biker garb and leather.
Thought they are a peril in that kind of thing.
He wanted to make a bigger splash in the world.
And so when he saw the New York Dolls, I think he thought this is a group that I
would like to manage. I think he even actually supplied fore
them these red leather outfits that they would sometimes wear.
But the The New York Dolls by the time Malcolm McLaren got to them 1974 or so
1975 were really on the verge of breaking up.
As the story is sometimes told, I don't know how accurate this is, but there was
one group of members, the New York Dolls who were addicted to drugs.
And another section of the group who were addicted to alcohol and they just
couldn't get along with each other, the drug addicts and the alcoholics.
Whatever was going on there, that may be unfair to them, the group broke up.
And it was too late for Malcom McLaren to get involved with the New York Dells.
So, he thought that he would start his own group because he still wanted to make
the kind of shocking impression the New York Dolls made when they came over to
London and appeared on television. he renamed his shop Sex and sold not only
leather clothing, but also fetish wear. A, a further sort of stick in the eye of
the the elegant and very sort of prime and proper clientele on the street next
to him there. As, I've heard the story told many
different ways and some of the is probably apocryphal.
But that, that the the show window was too scandalous for people to be able to
sort of see. The prefer to be a full walking by to be
able to see it, so we covered it all up with paper except for a little hole in
the window where you could look up and see what was in the show window if you
really wanted to. So, it wouldn't be offensive to people
walking by, but anybody who wanted to see, could.
And of course, that just made people want to see more and that was perfect for him.
So, he has this store called Sex. So, he decides to call the band he puts
together specifically for this purpose, The Sex Pistols.
Well, you can imagine just the name of the group is already a bit of a kind of
outrageous kind of act. And the Sex Pistols become, surprise,
surprise a famous for their scandalous and notorious punk behavior.
Absolute disregard and disrespect and all authorities in any kind of form.
Appear on British television and use swear words and become a real kind of it
did become the ultimate bad boys of, of, of popular music during this period and,
and Malcom McLaren works this masterfully.
He gets an advance from EMI but then the Sex Pistols do something outrageous and
EMI says you can keep the advance. We don't want you, you're done.
So then he signs with A&M records, and gets an advance.
And they do something scandalous. And they say, get out of here we don't
want you. Keep the advance.
So, how he's got two advances. He hasn't even put the album out yet.
He finally puts the album out. For Virgin Records, after getting a third
advance, the input is off one album but got three advances on that record.
Never mind the Bollucks, Here's the Sex Pistols from 1977 goes to number one in
the UK but only number 106 in this country.
It's easy when we talk about the Sex Pistols for you to think, oh this must of
been the same thing that was happening in the US.
But no, the Sex Pistols were largely unknown in 1977, the Queen's Jubilee
Year, Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee Year. Where the Sex Pistols rented a barge and
came down the times during a celebration with the queen and royalty and
aristocracy, playing on a barge. Of course, they were arrested.
Perfect, that's exactly what they were shooting for.
Anything they could do to get in the papers with their scandalous behavior.
The big songs for them, 1976, Anarchy in the UK, God Save the Queen, from 1977.
The Sex Pistols had a relatively short career.
But everywhere they went, everywhere they played in the UK, it seemed like four or
five punk bands sprung up from that performance.
They had a short period of time where they were in the sun.
I mean, how long can a group that's as volatile as that really survive?
I mean, you, you really can't. Some, something's bound to blow.
Something's bound to give. And so,the Sex Pistols did not last all
that long, but they had a very lasting and foundational effect in establishing
the, the punk style, the punk approach. And other groups would then come along
and really develop that and capitalize on it.
Some of the other groups that would come along the Clash, led by Joe Strummer.
If the Sex Pistols were anhilists, the Clash were political protesters.
Their album from 1977, The Clash featured the song White Riot, which was a pretty
good representation of them. for those of us in this country we didn't
really here much about the Clash until 1980.
Okay, so this is three years after the big, the big Sex Pistols scandals and all
that, right? We're hearing about the, the Clash with
the album London Calling, which made it to number 27 in the US here.
in the song Train in Vain, Stand by Me, which was a number 27 hit.
So by that time, the whole excitement about punk and the bad boy attitude was
pretty much at, had pretty much gone underground again.
And the Clash, though they had their roots in punk, maybe by that time would
be thought of more as a new wave group, but we'll get to that in the next video.
Other groups that we want to mention with regard to UK, the UK punk scene, during
this period The Buzzcocks, lead by Pete Shelley, where maybe a little bit more
pop oriented. their album from 1978, Another Music in a
Different Kitchen, is a pretty good example of that.
The Jam Led by Paul Weller, drew their musical style, stylistic influences from
Mod culture. remember we talked about the, the Mods
and the Rockers from back in the 60s. They were sort of looking back to Mod
culture. Their 1977 album, This Is the Modern
World. And 1978 All Mod Cons are pretty good
representations of what they were up to. Talk a little bit about, also about women
in the punk scene. And women that the, the, emergence of
women in pop, in rock music again. Not just as singers but sometimes as
instrumentalists. Really starts to happen in punk and new
wave at the end of the 70's. And that's a an important development
from the, from the UK punk scene. We could talk about Siouxie and the
Banshees fronted by Siouxie Sioux. But also The X-Ray Spex featuring Poly
Styrene and her all girl punk group called The Slits.
Anyway, this all as I say, sort of developed by the Sex Pistols having been
influenced by the US scene in New York. Which was Largely unknown in the US, but
which Malcolm McLaren had observed in trips to New York.
In fact, the, the guys from The Clash said that they learned to play guitar
playing along with those Ramones records, right?
So, that's how important the American scene was in England as a foundation for
the UK scene. But what's going to happen now is the UK
scene with the Sex Pistols and all the trouble that they're, they're stirring up
in this country in, in, in the UK makes it back to the United States.
And now Americans are introduced to the idea of punk rock, even though it's been
going on in New York City going all the way back to the early 1970s.
But when they're introduced to it, it won't be Punk for very long.
It will be transformed into something we call New Wave.
And it's New Wave that we turn to in the next video
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