No, Blondie was new wave not punk.
In their early days Green Day sorta cashed in on punk as a way to get somekind of cred among teens and young adults - the irony is that that kind of consumerism and exploitation seems to be in direct oppositon to one of the tenants that punk is SUPPOSED to hold dear.
THeir music was new wave, but they were considered punk in 1977. I'm not the only one who thinks so, either.
Amazon.com: Blondie, from Punk to the Present: A Pictorial History (Musical Legacy Series, 1) (9781892477231): Allan Metz: Books
In their early days Green Day sorta cashed in on punk as a way to get somekind of cred among teens and young adults - the irony is that that kind of consumerism and exploitation seems to be in direct oppositon to one of the tenantsthat punk is SUPPOSED to hold dear.
Useless factoid;
When my brother lived on 21st St in NYC the previous tenant was Debrah Harry and the apartment was owned by Bonnie Riat.
They didn't decide to market themselves for the future by hanging out with punk rockers to gain credibility. It is where they legitimately got their start. They cashed in on their talent to write and peform songs that evolved beyond basic punk music. So what?
Meh I've worked for SPIN and Rolling Stone. They were new wave:2razz:
Like I said - - their music is new wave when viewed through the lens of history. The term "new wave" was not in common parlance in 1976 or 1977, though, as the term had not yet achieved wider recognition as distinguishing between types of music. It is more a case of music that arose from the punk scene being called punk and being called punk due to attitude more than actual music.
I'm saying that they were considered punk, not that they WERE punk.
They didn't decide to market themselves for the future by hanging out with punk rockers to gain credibility. It is where they legitimately got their start. They cashed in on their talent to write and peform songs that evolved beyond basic punk music. So what?
[/FONT][/COLOR]Here is why he is wrong...
The start date for punk rock is entirely arbitrary. However, the first widely recognized bands playing what was called punk was the Pistols and Ramones, so starting with them is a fairly logical point.
Like I said - - their music is new wave when viewed through the lens of history. The term "new wave" was not in common parlance in 1976 or 1977, though, as the term had not yet achieved wider recognition as distinguishing between types of music. It is more a case of music that arose from the punk scene being called punk and being called punk due to attitude more than actual music.
I'm saying that they were considered punk, not that they WERE punk.
They were also one of the first if not the first band to incorporate hip hop in a commercially viable tune.
Since it looks like I have an unexpected hour to kill this morning and have some caffeine in me now, will attack the first article. Since I like videos, will break this up into a number of posts with a video each.
First we have to define our terms(and I can see this is going to be a problem already). This is something the blog writer did not do, and it contributes to the mess. So, definitions:
Punk: punk rock is music rooted in the DIY culture, that rejected and directly opposed heavily engineered, sentimental, overproduced 70's rock. The things every punk band has or had was that DIY attitude, plastering their hand made flyers for shows, recording on an 8 track, usually live, less time spent engineering and adding effects. Much of punk was centered around faster tempo, simple instrumentation, shouted lyrics, and this is what tends to be associated with punk, but there are enough examples of punk bands that did not fit that mold. Malcolm MClaren is often given credit for coining the term punk, but Iggy was called a "stooge punk" as early as 1970. The actual origin of the term is lost. Punk is generally credited as "officially" starting with The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, and since the cutoff between proto-punk and punk is arbitrary, that is as good a place to draw the line as any.
Proto-punk: punk bands before there was a punk scene, any band that played punk style music before Ramones and Pistols.
New Wave: Originally it was a marketing tool, since punk was not going to get radio play. Quickly taken over by the scene to refer to the second generation of punk bands. Later evolved into it's current form, referring to pop based music, usually with keyboards and other electronics, but with a punk ethos.
This is just to set the stage, these will be needed for my take on the blog, and since arguments over these terms are beginning, Note that these are how I use the terms, and they are not universal, though I think will be fairly generally accepted. Next post, the blog article.
Is that what you call it? Men from Mars eating cars, bars and guitars?
No, Blondie was new wave not punk.
THeir music was new wave, but they were considered punk in 1977. I'm not the only one who thinks so, either.
Amazon.com: Blondie, from Punk to the Present: A Pictorial History (Musical Legacy Series, 1) (9781892477231): Allan Metz: Books
tenets - Noun: A principle or belief, esp. one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy.
tenants - Noun: A person or group that rents and occupies land, a house, an office, or the like, from another for a period of time; lessee.
And you have the gall to tell others to use spell check.
Grammer nazi-not punk.
From these beginnings it didnt take long for the mainstream Rock media (with a little help from Malcolm McLaren) to cling on to and co-opt the term "punk rock" so that by the mid 1970s the term "punk" had gone from meaning someone who was an outsider, junkie, homosexual criminal, to someone who was a snotty, Pop Poseur in the mold of the Sex Pistols and the rest of their BritPunk ilk.
But this fabricated brand of Punk Rock really had very little to do with the original punk rock of the late 60s/early 70s. The fact that mainstream "music critics" were not hip to punk culture until the mid 70s doesn't mean it didnt exist prior to that. It did exist, although nowdays it has been given the dismissive label of "Proto-punk" in a posthumous manner intended to be used as a marketing devise in much the same way the term "Classic Rock" was coined as a marketing device in the early 1980s when it first infiltrated the Mainstream Rock narrative (many years after most "Classic Rock" music had already been created).
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