They only did it 'cos of fame
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What a fucking wanker.
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I don’t know how anyone can stomach the hammy fake reactions of the idiot judges. Watched a few seconds of this show and that was too much.
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I have to imagine most of the extreme “radical” musicians are just posers looking for a niche to cash in on gullible people with money.
Even the most extreme “Tear it all down and burn it all up. Destroy all capitalists!” bands’ music is laden with copyright warnings and they have accountants and lawyers and corporations to guard their income.
Even tax the rich and support the working poor icons use every tax dodge they can find:
Crass seem to mostly avoid all of those (I can find one album that has a © on it, it isn’t on their label and it has no other warnings).
I remember all the shit Chumbwamba got from other anarcho-punk bands for signing to a major label too. Then Chumbawamba went on television saying that fans should shoplift their albums if they couldn’t afford to buy them.
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Because they brought greater attention to the genre because of McLaren’s desire to culture jam… he viewed them as a situationist style prank meant to be an act of culture jamming (hence he steered them towards a major rather than one of the indie cropping up at the time out of record shops across the UK). It did indeed make the genre seem dangerous and punks became public targets of violence. They also shaped the style of a lot of later punks, and their music was more imitatable, like the Ramones and they influenced lots of other bands after them, both in their local scene and in other places. Sure, there were certainly better bands and more interesting bands, but they were willing to get themselves arrested for publicity, so… 
As a punk historian, I’ll say that their importance is that I listed above, not their talent…
They seemed to really care about their message and living it in their daily praxis…
That reminds me that there is that documentary about them I want to see…
Also… there was that time that Jello Biafra got the shit beat out of him at the pit at 924 Gilman by a punk name Cretin and his friends while calling him a sell out…
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oh, most definitely. i mean, if KISS could do it, they definitely could.
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Yeah, excellent rundown. What’s always bothered me about them is how little their legacy has to do with music and how much it has to do with style and marketability. It’s foolish to ascribe an ethos to an entire genre, but if there is one, they seem to represent the opposite, or at least a parody of it.
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Wait… Johnny Rotten is alive?
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True, but punk was never just about music, I’d argue. Fashion played a role, as did community, discussions about commerce and culture in modern or postmodern society, discussions on space for youth, activism, politics, etc…
Maybe if you look at it from a post-hardcore view which was much more into authenticity and rejected “success” as the mainstream culture defined it, but parody and culture jamming was a key element of the first wave of punk, which is what attracted McLaren in the first place and made him want to use it in that manner. The “77 wave” as it’s sometimes called wasn’t as interested in building those alternatives or counter publics that the HC wave eventually did build - even if it could end up being more “conformist” to their own cultural norms and sometimes much harsher about enforcing those subcultural boundaries (to the point that it became pretty heavily pale and male into the 80s). But I’d say what they do share is a contempt for mainstream society and a desire to knock it all down…
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The Sex Pistols were formed by their manager to promote a clothing store.
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That’s a pretty thin reading of McLaren’s motives… But I’m sure you or this guy who made a video on the youtubes knows more than someone who spent years writing a biography of the man who had access to his archives…
I mean, even from the outset, the guy making this video has no understanding of McLaren’s motives…
Also, how shitty is “heroin addicted twink” to describe Sid. His life was a legitimate tragedy. WTF? It’s videos like this who make millennials seem like utter vapid shit heads who are little more than cynical assholes.
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I was disappointed when John Lydon adopted MAGA, but it didn’t seem that out of character for him to take an obnoxious, provocative approach.
Despite this, I still can’t bring myself to disown or dislike him.
I haven’t seen The Masked Singer but he has such a distinct vocal delivery that I’m wondering how it wasn’t obvious that it was him?
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But, I’m glad he’s still around for Nora…
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Have not and will not watch a single second of shows like this, but how on earth does one not recognize John Lydon’s singing?
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I wouldn’t have figured it out from this.
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Billy Idol did/does. I remember Iggy Pop throwing the suggestion out there in radio interviews that he would do it for less pay than others demanded. I mean, punk credibility ™ aside, it’s a sweet gig with a parking spot, a suite of floors, usually carte blanche on your show as long as customers keep showing.
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I’m sure you’ve read Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century? While not historically accurate i thought it was considered as a sort of definitive mythology of punk bringing in all those things you mention including the influence of movements like the Situationist International - giving bands the idea of wrapping their record sleeves in sandpaper so it erodes other records next to them on the shelves etc.
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As I understand it, he always was a raging asshole. He just is the public face of young, dumb and pissed at the old farts to old, dumb and pissed at the young punks. And always more willing to just let the world go to shit and screw those do-gooders who want to fix things rather than get drunk/high/stoned.
I think that’s a bit harsh.
He was always outspoken, provocative and ostensibly obnoxious. But in his defense, at a young age he was villainised by the UK press and ever since has had a strange relationship with the media. On the one hand, he’s a recording artist and courting the media is part of that job, and on the other hand he’s an intensely private individual who clearly (with good reason) mistrusts and hates the media.
He always (as @anon61221983 alluded to earlier) had a strong moral compass and he publicly accused Jimmy Saville of being a pedophile many years before that was widely suspected and IIRC, he threw light on other sketchy behavior going on in the BBC.
If you want to get an insight into his character, I’d recommend checking out his appearance on I’m a Celebrity…
He came across as surprisingly sensitive and caring.
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