The Death of Punk and the Turn of a Decade: 1979

My essay will highlight the major socio-political events of my chosen year, 1979, before relating how the rock genre, in particular, punk-rock changed and mirrored, to an extent these events in England.

Some say 1979 marked the end of an era. Certainly, as the end of a decade, what came after this tumultuous year was a decade that seemed fairly reluctant, in the case of some musical genres, to let go of the past. In NME’s Rock ‘n’ Roll years they describe how the ‘80s ‘would spend much of the decade ahead celebrating it’s past rather than building for it’s future.’ (NME 1992:336) So, if it was into this uncertain time that the world of music was heading, something must have been lost from the highs that defined for so many the 1970’s.

At the beginning of this year, England was experiencing many social problems after having weathered the ‘winter of discontent’ tha

. . .
Jon Savage (1991:540) points out in his book ‘England’s Dreaming’ that England did not change overnight. At least it was in the eyes of everybody save a few pretenders congregating at the genre’s previous stomping grounds. ’ (Colegrave & Sullivan 2001:342) The people that had created and defined punk had had enough. However, for punk music the hourglass was running low. If a percentage of the punk record buying public had voted conservative the ideals that punk had stood for were obviously vanishing or already vanished. Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, Johnny Rotten, Billy Idol and others had decided to abandon the sinking ship and try their luck over the Atlantic.

In conclusion, punk’s exodus from Britain, along with the New-Right power politics of Thatcherism meant 1979 was a year in which the rough edges were smoothed and the freedom which punk represented became institutionalised and watered down by it’s musical successors. ‘Punk and all its intentions were now well and truly finished for pretty much everyone, beggars excluded (Colegrave & Sullivan 2001:342)

With the death of Sid Vicious on February 2 and Malcolm Mclaren’s Glitterbest management company being forced into liquidation, Punk was all but dead. This was an eerie fulfilling of the Sex Pistol’s prophecy ‘Watching all the rubbish, Wasting my time’. ‘The Conservatives’ victory did mark the end to the period of social unrest which punk had charted so intimately’ (Jon Savage 1991:541). Styles like Two-tone, New Wave, electro, hip-hop and the New Romantics all were effected by punk, even if some of the genres only were related through their oppositeness in the case of electro and the New romantics. Colegrave & Sullivan (2001:342) affirm in their cronicle that ‘New York was where punk as an entity now truly belonged’. ‘The Kings Road still attracted the punk minions but the whole style had transmogrified into an absurd caricature of itself. The final nail in the coffin came on 3 May when Thatcher’s Conservative government won the General election by 43 votes.

Common topics in this essay:
Colegrave Sullivan, Rock Roll, Punk Decade, Jon Savage, Dreaming England, Britain New-Right, Mclarens Glitterbest, Jam Police, Two-tone Wave, Sex Pistols, colegrave sullivan, sullivan 2001342, colegrave sullivan 2001342, jon savage,

Approximate Word count = 622
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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