The hippies had failed to cause effective action to create significant change. If anything they should be credited with inspiring alternate lifestyle in the generations to come, but they did not change the world. They simply brought awareness to the problem that existed in the world around us.
Even escapist attitudes seeped into Rock music and culture by establishing the only thing that mattered to mainstream Rock: Sex, Drugs, & Rock 'N' Roll (add Cash in there too ;-). Instant hedonistic pleasure became the focus of generation fully capable of bringing about significant change.
Punk Rock challenged these escapist attitudes by attempting to innovate Rock music by pushing it into the future in an unknowingly important direction. What people don't know is that Punk Rock was necessary in a time of cultural crisis when music sterility lingered in the sound-waves of the times. Whether it be the television, radio, or the record store...the music stunk...just like everything else in the 1970's. There is a reason that there were no "Beatles" in the 1970's. Simply because no one was starting up any bands. Everyone was too distracted amongst their many distractions which fueled the escapist attitude. For example, escape the urban cities to the suburbs, take drugs to forget about your problems, if drugs won't do it get yourself a partner have cheap sex. All this reminds me of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
Pardon my ramblings, but I just hope you get the idea of how bad the 1970's were and that they wreaked of hedonistic beliefs. The 1970's mainstream caused strenuous problems on Rock music by causing the world to think that a person had to make it "big" to succeed. Thanks to Punk Rock this mentality has been challenged and thrown out the window many times.
Take a look at this interview of Lester Bangs, it is everything you need to know about the 1970's, before Punk. Bangs was a great antithesis against the Rock music sterility at the time:
No comments:
Post a Comment