Author, Lecturer, Broadcaster & Cultural Arts Expert;
President of Art Collage JANG/J Music/J Art/J Books & Media.
Author of over 40 books published on Amazon, including The Crimson Horror series and The Great and Immortal Painters’ Stories series.
Dedicated to sharing insights into art, culture, literature, and creative expression through writing, lectures, media, and content creation.
Following the last week, I am going to
start my 70th lecture.
The topic for this week is “Punk”, the
9th theme of “The History of Rock”.
This lecture is a summary of the
contents of “70. History of Rock Music: 9. Punk” introduced on November 26,
2016.
Punk rock or Punk is a genre of rock music
that was formed in the United States, England and Australia in the mid-1970s.
Punk rock bands rejected mainstream rock in the 1970s and generally sang short
or fast-tempo songs with cool melodies and song styles, the most basic
performances excluding everything unnecessary, and often political and
dissident lyrics.
The term "punk" was first used by some American
critics in the early 1970s to describe the Garage Bands of the 1960s and their
subsequent acts. The bands considered to be punk rock pioneers include New
York-based Television, Patti Smith and Ramones, London-based Sex Pistols, The
Clash and the Damned, Los Angeles-based The Runaways, and the Saints in
Brisbane.
Patti Smith Group
Ramones
The Runaways
The Saints
Punk rock vocals sometimes snort, the singing is like a scream rather
than song, guitar playing is free and wild without any restriction, and bass
players often use picks instead of fingers to play the bass guitar for fast
successive playing. The lyrics of punk rock are generally outright,
confronting, talking about social/political issues compared to other genres,
and the central goal of early punk rock in England was to anger for and shock
the mainstream.
The songs such as the Clash's "Career Opportunities"
and Chelsea's "Right to Work" talk about the unemployment and gloom
of city life, and Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" and "God Save
the Queen" undermined British political systems and social stereotypes.
The Clash
American male punk rock musicians settled the image of punk rock with retro
style such as the style of biker youths in the 1950s linked to rockabilly style
and the style of T-shirts, motorcycles, jackets and jeans favored by British
rock musicians in the 1960s. The picture of the Ramones' 1976 debut album cover
became the standard punk style, and punk rock musicians imitated it.
Ramones (1976)
Early
female punk musicians showed a variety of styles, from the bondage gear of Siouxsie
Sioux to the unisex style of Patti Smith. In addition, tattoos, piercings and
metal accessories have become common elements of punk fashion for both punk
musicians and fans.
Siouxsie Sioux
Many grunge artists in the early 1990s,
including Nirvana, acknowledged that they were influenced by punk rock bands,
and the success of Nirvana led major record companies to re-recognize the
potential of punk rock bands.
As a result, at the end of the 20th
century, punk rock began to join the mainstream as pop punk, and punk rock
bands such as Green Day, the Offspring and Blink-182 have contributed
popularity of the genre.
Green Day
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Following the last week, I am going to
start my 58th lecture.
The lecture topic for this week is “Pop
Music in 1970s”. It is a summary of the contents of “58th ACJ Music Academy,
History of Pop Music: 3. 1970s”, which was introduced on August 20, 2016.
Disco, which appeared in the
1970s, was one of the most popular music genres of this period. Rock music was
still a popular music genre during this period, in particular, the sub-genres
derived from Rock, such as Hard rock, Progressive rock, and Heavy metal, had
great success. In addition, the development of electronic music was remarkable
during this period, and with the development of synthesizers, Synth pop, which
mixed Electronic music with Pop music, was born.
First of all, looking at Rock,
the 1970s was the time when Hard rock, one of the most prominent sub-genres of
Rock, appeared. Among the Hard rock artists, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Led
Zeppelin, Nazareth, and Black Sabbath gained great popularity in the first half
of the 70s and AC/DC, Kiss, Aerosmith, Van Halen, and Ted Nugent were very
popular in the second half of the 70s.
Nazareth
AC/DC
Arena rock’s popularity was
increased with musicians such as Styx, The Who and Pink Floyd.
Styx
Country rock is a fusion of
Country music and Rock music. In particular, one of the representative bands of
the genre, The Eagles, became the most successful Country rock artist of all
time with the album “Hotel California,” released in 1976.
The Eagles
In the 1970s, Southern rock, a
style similar to Country rock, gained popularity among country music fans due
to the bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band and The Marshall
Tucker Band.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Progressive rock was gradually
moved to more Pop rock-oriented bands such as Boston, Foreigner, Journey and
Kansas from innovative musicians such as Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and
Blood, Sweat and Tears, and they had commercial success with the British bands,
Supertramp and Electric Light Orchestra.
Boston
Electric Light Orchestra
In the late 70s, many American
bands began making experimental New wave music with synthesizers, and the
representative musicians are Talking Heads, The Cars, and Devo.
The Cars
The bands such as The Knack,
Cheap Trick and Loverboy created Power pop, combining Punk rock and Pop music.
The Knack
In the mid-1970s, Punk rock,
originated from Garage Rock in the 1960s, appeared and The Ramones, Patti Smith
and Blondie are examples of the first American Punk rock bands that have made
Punk rock popular in the UK and the United States.
The Blondie
The most notable Pop/Soft
rock groups of the 1970s were The Carpenters, The Jackson 5 and Bay City
Rollers, and they gained great popularity in music charts and radio broadcasts.
In addition, Fleetwood Mac, one of the representative groups in this genre,
released the album “Rumours” in 1977, which was one of the most sold albums
of the time.
Bay City Rollers
Fleetwood Mac
For Country music, the most
successful female Country singer in the 1970s was Loretta Lynn, who was ranked
number one on the Billboard Top Country Singles Chart for three weeks with
"Coal Miner's Daughter", released in 1970.
Loretta Lynn
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