History of Punk
The British rock band manager, Malcolm MacLaren, once remarked that rock music remained the only form of culture that youth - those most receptive to radical ideas, who hold the most potential for social action - cared about. For the young, everything flowed through rock'n'roll: fashion, slang, sexual attitudes, drug habits, and poses. Once he realized the financial potential behind these sociological traits, the cunning MacLaren kept an eye on the rock music underground as a bell whether indicator for the British youth. It was here that MacLaren recognized the highly visible, wildly energetic and anti - social punk was the heir apparent for the youth of the UK. In order to capitalize on this new sound and evolving trend, he began promoting The Sex Pistols. As a savvy businessman, MacLaren knew that in order to succeed he and The Sex Pistols had to reach the largest number of pop culture participants in the most cost-effective manner available. This required a shift from the underground scene into the mainstream mass media. While their ploy was successful, success had its price. The deluge of manipulation and the waves of newly found fame forced on The Sex Pistols caused the original punk to become lost. In spite of placing punks . . .
Here, The Sex Pistols; Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and al unleashed their foul-mouthed, in-your-face opinions on a still largely British public. The Clash adopted a more global approach, finding their angst in the uneven distribution of wealth, underhanded tactics of the police, and superpower politics. But one must recognize that the desire to be different can be applied to any previous teen generations. Objecting to his capture in a statement at the end of the last Sex Pistols tour, he said "Have you ever felt you've been cheated?” Here he was discribing his own fate rather than those in the audience. (The female punk presented a paradox: a hint of the feminine beneath the hardened exterior). Punk had caused the British public to take a long overdue look at themselves through their youth. A question still remains why all the fuss? Primarily, it was because the punk movement grew at an alarming rate, as if the floodgates had opened to release an army of anxious, eager and angry youths. Most believe that the public reaction against punk began in 1976 when Malcolm MacLaren arranged for the new voice of the young to be interviewed live on the BBC. The British education minister of the 1970s' said The Sex Pistols were "a symptom of the way society is declining. This became the constructed punk: a sterilized figure, a shadow of his mindless adolescent ancestor. It was the retribution that followed punk that exceeded the norm. on a worldwide stage, success was the end of the quintessential punk and the beginning of punk as a constructed image.
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