[net.music] I was a punk before you were a punk

wm@tekchips.UUCP (Wm Leler) (04/06/84)

Punk.  Hmmmm.  Well, when punk and "new wave" (whatever that
means!) first came out, I was very happy.  I was getting very
bored by what I would call "formula" music -- the stuff that the
big record companies were very good at producing.  The whole
music scene had slowed down.  Records were such big business,
and promoting a new band or a new record was so expensive that
the companies were unwilling to take any chances.  Most record
companies were spending more time maximizing their profits by
fighting record pirates and copyright violators, than by finding
and developing new music.  So more than ever before we were
getting a bunch of schlock.  Don't you remember?  To me, the
whole "new wave" scene was a reaction against this.  A reaction
against commercialism.  The music didn't sound that different,
even hard core punk music was nothing new.  There have always
been bands around whose signal to noise ratio was negative.  The
main difference was the lyrics.

People keep mentioning the Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, and such
like that, but to me they were not the bands that really effected
the change.  Take Blondie (... please).  On their first album, who
can forget the lyrics:
	Giant ants from space, waste the human race.
	Then they eat your face, never leave a trace.
The music from that album sounded more like late 50's.  But the
lyrics definitely were not designed to maximize air-play.

Then, of course, american industry discovered that these records,
which were not designed to be commercial, were enormously commercial.
Teeny Boppers *loved* DEVO.  And you could even dance to the B-52's.
Who listened to the lyrics anyway?  (Remember Ina-gadda-da-vida?)
Which brought on the downfall of new wave.  It's also why half
the readers of this note probably snickered when I mentioned Blondie.
It's the old Jefferson Airplane -> Jefferson Sellout syndrome.
For the punkers it was even worse.  If you are openly contemptuous
of the record industry, why not take money from it?  Who cares if
you become one with the objects of your disgust?  Most of the
punkers were pretty disgusting anyway.

But, then again, maybe I've just been listening to too much Iggy
Pop lately.

			Wm Leler   503/627-5151
			wm.Tektronix@Rand-relay
			{ucbvax|allegra|decvax}!tektronix!wm

toms@syteka.UUCP (Tom Shearer) (04/06/84)

	as I just said to billy l, there is no such thing
	as too much iggy. I advised him, and y'all, to
	try industriously for overdose however.
	mr.(last day)mincemeat.