British Punk Movement Causes

British thug Movement CausesWas the Punk causal agency in Britain merely a functional curriculum response to the advent of Thatcherism and free-market ideas?Im in love with Marg art Thatcher that is what the Notsensibles ironically sang, or let us say yel lead, in 1979 (Im in love with Margaret Thatcher). Maggie, Maggie you beef added violently the Exploited in 1985 (Maggie, Horror Epics). The corpus of songs written on, or rather against, Margaret Thatcher is sort of extensive, not l nonpareil(prenominal) during the Punk years, which is not surprising since she was the only British Prime Minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive terms-May 1979, June 1983 and June 1987. At the time of her resignation in November 1990, she was Britains longest endlessly serving Prime Minister since 1827. During the el flush years she spent at number 10, the change of style she imposed on British regime and rescue was tremendous to the extent that to virtually commentators there was no turning back (J one and only(a)s et al. 666) and it would be a euphemism to say that nobody remained unconcerned about Mrs Thatchers revolution.No call into question then, that between the Punks wearing their leather jackets, smoking sixty cigarettes a day and staying up all night on speed (Savage 133), and the dressed up to the gild woman from Grantham, who was an Oxford educated Conservative and a Methodist, the clash was inevitable. That is the reason why it is chiefly interesting to ask the following question Was the Punk movement in Britain merely a working class response to the advent of Thatcherism and free-market ideas? In other words, is it possible to re new-fangled to a major shift in politics one of the close to celebrated, aggressive, contradictory, and yet ephemeral phenomenon of British popular culture?If such a question might appear quite obvious disposed(p) the contemporaneousness between the emergence of the Punk culture-or subculture-and Thatchers rise to power, it will nevertheless require a balanced answer. Indeed, one of the key elements of our analysis will be, root, to pullulate a closer look at the sociopolitical context in order to break the stereotypes. We will then be led to wonder whether the nitty-gritty conveyed by the Punks was rather concerned with a certain type of society at large. Finally, we will observe that the artificiality of Punk medication and its merchandising definitely challenges the so-called worker revolt against a new political and economic order.There is nothing easier and to systematically oppose Thatcherism and the British Punk movement since they approximately emerged at the same time. Margaret Thatcher had become leader of the Conservative Party in 1975 and had begun formulating her own brand of Tory policy while the following single from the Sex Pistols-probably the most famous and influential Punk band in Britain-was released in November 1976 Anarchy in the UK (Savage 563). Nevertheless, that would be forgetting that most of the social strain had been accumulated under the Callaghan-Labour-governmentBy July 1975, England was in recession. The unemployment figures for that month were the worst since the SecondWorldWar . . . . Not only had output shrunk, but public spending had risen to 45 per cent of the issue income, and was threatening to unbalance the whole economy. (Savage108)Dave Laing, in One Chord Wonders, analysed the subject-matter of the lyrics on the debut albums of the first five cheesy groups to achieve prominence in 1976-7 (27) and genuinely interestingly concluded that the overwhelming number . . . of social and political comment lyrics came from the first Clash album The Clash (29). That proves that social (economic, political, etc.) preoccupations were already there in the first place Margaret Thatchers first premiership, before a truly Thatcherite government was ever established. Therefore, the idea according to which the Punk movement would be a mere response to Thatcherism is being challenged quite importantly here.We have used the word Thatcherism several times already, but what does it really mean? An attempt to peg down what that could be might prove in truth useful to our analysis. According to OverbeckThatcherism is a reasonably coherent and comprehensive concept of control for the restoration of bourgeois rule and bourgeois hegemony in the new dowery of the 1980s . . . The central elements in the Thatcherite concept are the reorientation of Britains foreign policy and the redefinition of its place in the world its attack on the position of the portion out unions and the Labour Party (Thatcher aims to eliminate socialism as a serious political force) the restructuration of the role of the state in the economy and at long last a range of the balance of power between different fractions of capital in Britain. (inJessopetal. 3)That long definition seems to establish Thatcherism as a political theory, an ideology, such as Marxism for instance. Nevertheless, most modern commentators share the . . . view that Thatcherism does not represent a coherent ideology (Evans 2). Indeed, as Peter Riddell reminds us the first Thatcher administration has not followed a sublimate free-market or monetarist programme, though strands of both have clearly been important (6). He suggests another definition Thatcherism is essentially an instinct, a series of moral set and an commence to leadership rather than an ideology (7). We have to leave there the definitional considerations for it would be too long to go through all of them-full books have been written on the matter-but it was interesting to point those out because since some specialists argue that there is no such thing as Thatcherism, we could have a hard time severe to prove that the Punk movement in Britain merely was (or was not) a working class response to it.As far as the working class is concerned, when one reads the lyrics of Maggie, a song by the Exploited we have already alluded to in our introduction, it is real that it clearly refers to its financial difficultiesTwenty five great deal to live on, septet days a week to survive Five and twenty pictures of the queen You wont see the starvation in her eyes Twenty five plug to dish out and youre already ten in debt, so with fifteen singles left over the landlord gets the restMaggie, Maggie you cunt Maggie, Maggie you cunt Maggie, Maggie you cunt Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie you jailer cuntTwenty five reasons for trouble Three million mouths to feed Theyre destroying your mind and body while they increase their own needs. Twenty five quid of insult Two meals soon kills your health They want to see you suffer They want to see you dead (Horror Epics)Indeed, despite the end of the recession in 1982, unemployment proceed to rise and reached a peak of 3.2 millions in 1985 and the cost of unemployment benefit . . . on those in work continued to increase (Evans 29). One o f the government counter-measures was to make it less flaccid to qualify for unemployment benefits (op. cit.). But, nevertheless, if we take a look at the structure of the popular vote in the 1979 and 1983 general elections we observe that the working class-a shrinking category-vote swung from the left to the right. This is a phenomenon called dealignment, which Peter Dorey defines as such the changing allegiance and electoral behaviour, particularly with regard to identification with, and regular support for, a political party (154). The reasons for dealignment are numerous and we cannot go through all of them here but let us just say that, among other things, the crisis had brought on a great incredulity about the future and that Labour was not trusted anymore to solve social issues. Furthermore, Mrs Thatchers law and order policy was appealing to people living in poor and unsecure areas. As a result, Labour . . . witnessed its working-class support fall to 50 per cent in 1979 ( and to 42 percent in 1983) (Dorey 155).Finally, British toughie bands political orientation was ambiguous La semaine o God bear the Queen sortit, les Sex Pistols furent simultanment accuss dtre communistes, anarchistes et mme dappartenir au National see (Chastagner 80). Thus, it was hard to see who they were fighting for-but themselves. Moreover, as Laing points outRight to work by Chelsea was one of the best known of the early stumblebum songs. Its title echoed the guideword of a left-wing campaign against the rising jobless totals of the mid-1970s. But though the song is a kvetch about standing around just wait for a career, its diagnosis of the cause of unemployment was impeccably right-wing the lyric blames the power of the trade unions. (31)Bearing in mind all those considerations, we should now wonder whether the Punk movement in Britain was a reaction against a certain type of society as a whole rather than just a working class response to Thatcherism and free-market i deas-for that view proved being too restricted and frequently even wrong. The Punks were born in a society which had left them actually little hope for the future-in God Save the Queen (Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols) the terms Theres no future for you and No Future are repeated many times and were even taken as a leitmotif to describe the chinchy generation later on-and they reacted violently against a social system which had disadvantaged them of their very essence. To exist, their only chance was then to incorporate the conventional symbols of that society and to throw them back at people in the most absurd and deep manner-thus foreshadowing post-modernism quelle que soit la russite des diffrentes sous-cultures exprimer le dsarroi de groupes sociaux, gnrationnels ou ethniques et leur identit collective, cest bien leur fonction de rsistance symbolique qui est souligne (Le Guern 46). Otherwise, who could understand the significance of a safety-pin used as a ja w piercing for instance, or the blurred political messages conveyed by the successive punk bands-from Stalinism to Nazism?Of course, what we called a kind of society as a whole also includes music and we should not forget that the Punk movement was also a response to the jolt establishmentRocks neo-elite no longer speak to this new generation . . . and rock superstars were overindulged rich men who lived in foreign countries to avoid paying taxes that helped to service the working class. As a form of protest against the rock establishment, punkers adopted the attitude of rebellion and dressed themselves in the leathers of the original teen rebels of the American fifties, a sharp commentary on the twisted values of establishment rock. (Eliot 188)As Chastagner pointed out Le mouvement punk redonnait la musique aux sans-grade, aux malhabiles, aux frustes. Pas besoin dapprentissage, dinitiation, nimporte qui pouvait monter sur scne et jouer (81). The One Chord generation was born and their music was vilified by many. Analysing how punk rock was described in the daily and weekly newspapers, Dave Laing noticed a great variety of words pertaining to the following semantic fields genial illness, physical illness, unpleasant effects, and violence (100). One could think of such an opposition as being the main cause of the short-lived punk experience but it actually was reinvigorating according to Philip H. Ennis punk concentrates all the passion once carried by mature rock into an explicit repudiation of adult life (366). Therefore, punk rock could both be seen as a political, social, and artistic movement (independent and nurtured on new trends, such as International Situationism), and as the renaissance of rocknroll in its true form, i.e. before the latter became a product of the consumer society. Rock Roll was once loathed-Franck Sinatra declared Rock n Roll is the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of appearance it has been my misfortune to hear (in Burn ett 29)-and produced by independent labels it is this existence on the fringe of society that also gave to punk music its apparent authenticityIf BBC radio 1 had been willing to give immediate heavy rotation treatment to, say, the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen the day it was released, then the disc would probably never have been conceived. Popular culture, if it is to be progressive, must embody an element of opposition to the establishment, provocatively questioning the status quo. (Bennet 167)It is definitely not surprising then, that in the racing shell of the Sex Pistols it was their arrival at commercial stardom that marked the end of their social relevance (Eliot 188). But we will look into that more extensively later on.For now, we would standardised to shed light on some of the Punk movements intrinsic contradictions. We have just alluded to independent labels in the previous paragraph. It is relevant to observe here, that many of the anti-Thatcher records were released o n independent labels-arguably themselves models of Thatcherite entrepreneurial flair (HeardBBC News). Moreover, we must remember that Mrs Thatcher asserted the primacy of the individual (Savage 110) and that she valued very much self-reliance, obviously derived from Samuel Smiles notion of self-help described in the late 19th century (Self-Help). We cannot help thinking that those values were not totally incompatible with the kind of selfish attitudes that had emerged during the events of 1968 and which extensively developed in the 1970s on with the Punk movement-one of the Sex Pistols first singles, released in 1976 along with Anarchy in the UK, was titled I Wanna Be Me (Savage 563). To Muggleton subcultures are manifestations of self-expression, individual autonomy and cultural revolution (167).After those reflections on punk musics relationship with society and culture, we are now obviously led to question the credibility of the Punk movement. We have gathered some obvious clue s so far, but what will put another nail in the coffin of Punk music is its artificiality. Indeed, it developed mainly under the run of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, whose preoccupations were very often far from the working classLa naissance du mouvement punk doit beaucoup Malcolm McLaren, crateur des Sex Pistols. Il ny a rien de spontan, rien de la rvolte creature des opprims, aucune rbellion des damns de la terre dans le travail de McLaren. Cest un intellectuel, ancien tudiant des Beaux-Arts et nourri des crits situationnistes. Fascin par mai 68, il essaya, avec sa compagne de lpoque, Vivienne Westwood, de faire violence au corps social britannique en se servant de la mode. Ils ouvrirent une boutique de vtements sur Kings Road, Londres. . . . Le succs narrivant pas assez vite, McLaren eut lide de se servir bawl out groupe de rock comme vitrine pour ses vtements et porte-parole de ses thories. . . . On se rend bien vite compte que la naissance des Sex Pistols et le mo uvement punk qui en a dcoul nest pas une raction spontane aux conditions sociales de lpoque. Il y a au dpart . . . une stratgie bien loigne de la rvolution proltarienne. . . . La rhtorique classe ouvrire est surtout un argument publicitaire. (Chastagner 77-78)The first Sex Pistols concerts took place in Art Schools, it was not a music born in the streets-unlike what is very often said-and it could then be seen as a form of art which message was primarily dedicated to an enlightened university educated elite, and delivered with a fake working class accent. Dave Laing stresses that Lydons pronunciation was very artificial, notably in the song Anarchy in the UK in which the unnatural rhyming of the last syllable of Anti-Christ with Anarchist shifts the attention away from the message to the rhyme-scheme and could momentarily set up an ambivalent signal about the sincerity of the whole enterprise (58). The artificiality was also found in the names. Johnny Lydon was rechristened Johnny R otten-the figment says that it was because of his very bad dental hygiene-and John Simon Ritchies stage name was Sid Vicious.Moreover, McLarens will to sign his group with a major company is another proof of punk musics ambiguity it seemingly struggled to fit in the very system it was claiming to reject, to destroy. We witnessed to a love-hate relationship with the music indus tense, particularly with the very famous EMI episode The Pistols received a $100,000 advance upon signing, only to be released two days later after a wave of protests from shareholders.... (Eliot 188). The band changed record companies several times before finally becoming one of Virgins best selling artists-even though the relationship with Virgin was very tense too. It is also interesting to point out that God Save the Queen was originally titled No Future but that the name was changed into a more commercially effective one to coincide with Elizabeth IIs jubilee and, according to Eliot, the song aspect to number two, and the group disbanded. Success killed the message a familiar rock scenario (189).As early as the summer of 1977, cracks started to appear within the punk movement it looked like things were being made safe again, opposition was being channelled and recuperated, rebellion commodified (McKay 73). A new vanguard known as the post-punks denounced the business punk music had become, even giving a new lease of life to the formerly declining record companies while the punk message had always been-at least, politically speaking-to clearly crash the establishment. But as Laing observes Whether or not punk rock was dead after 1978 i.e. after the Pistols fragmentation, the punks themselves were not. . . . By 1981 the performances of bands such as The Exploited had all the characteristics of punk music (109). He continues, referring to unrefined who attacked punk bands who had sold out (113). Crass is very interesting to look into since they were seen by anarchist thinkers to be the only band carrying the political-musical line forward.... (McKay 77) and because one of their btes noires was, of course, Margaret Thatcher. Their opposition to the Iron Ladys Falklands war was very strong and gave birth to no less than two songs Sheep Farming in the Falklands, which was one of the best-selling punk records of 1983. . . . (Laing 113), and How Does It Feel (To Be the Mother of a Thousand Dead)? (McKay 81).Crass found themselves largely alone on the punk scene in . . . criticizing the actions of the British government. . . . Nevertheless, they nonoperational managed to avoid recuperation and to maintain political and artistic autonomy in the music industry of all places. That is such an achievement. If punk was a discourse of authenticity, . . . Crass must be placed at the centre of it. (McKay 81-82)However, we do think that their do it yourself, DIY attitude-described by McKay as a strategy of bricolage (78)-seems to echo Thatchers thought in an uncanny fashion recovery can only come through the work of individuals. . . . And the worst thing a Government can do is to try to smother it completely with a sort collective alternative (Speech to Conservative Rally in Cardiff). Some individualistic values were shared-we already observed that before with the Sex Pistols-both by the Punks and Margaret Thatcher, therefore it remains impossible to clearly oppose them.To conclude, we shall remember that we attempted to demonstrate that, for various reasons, the British Punk movement was not a mere working class response to Thatcherism and free-market ideas. Firstly, punk social protests started before the emergence of Thatcherism-if such a political doctrine can even be considered to exist at all. Plus, both the lack of clarity in the punk political message and the working class disillusionment for left-wing ideals led us to think that the issue was far more complex. That is the reason why we then tried to briefly analyse the implications of the Pun ks criticism of society, notably as a strong symbolic force, and as a vehement opposition to the establishment in general. However, we finally realized that the artificiality of the Punk movement, along with its intrinsic ambiguities pervading our analysis, prevented us to define it as being truly anti-Thatcherite, proletarian, or opposed to free-market economy.