Five artists who couldn’t stand the punk movement
The punk movement wasn’t subtle as it took over the world. Leather, denim, declarations of hate, anarchy and attitude ran amok as the world of rock was pushed aside and forced to make room for a new sound.
There were a few things that led to the development of punk. One of the first was society as a whole. Britain was in a real state, as the country had been in a steady economic decline ever since the end of World War II, which meant that a lot of people were out of a job, and those who were working were stuck in a factory somewhere with little to no prospects. There was anger bubbling, and that trickled into the sound of punk.
Something else that led to the development of the genre was other rock music. The rise of styles such as prog and psych meant that the rock which people had come to know and love was becoming more and more complex, and for many, this meant it was more and more inaccessible. Punk was a return to basics, as people rebelled both against the system and also the music which was supposed to hold said system to account.
The movement had enemies from all sides, especially those the genre targeted politically and creatively. Today, we will focus on the latter, as these were all artists making music at the same time as the punk movement, and they couldn’t stand this new genre at all.
Five artists who hated punk with a passion
Angus Young
The ethos of AC/DC was a pretty easy one to understand: play simple rock music, and play it well. Punk, as a movement, only met the band halfway, as while they also played pretty simple music, they didn’t play it particularly well. Instead, punk was messy and tricky to really pick out artistic merit in. For a lot of listeners, that was the point, but Angus Young wasn’t a fan at all. In addition to the music, Young wasn’t a fan of the crowd that the punk movement attracted, claiming they ruined many a good gig.
“[Punks] were locked into selling anarchy, like a political thing. To be honest with you, the first time I heard the word ‘anarchy’, I had to get a dictionary to look up the fucker! I’m limited, meaning a limited education, so that wasn’t communicating anything to me,” he said, “We would get punks showing up, and spitting, and when anyone got hit by gob, we’d be in the audience punching the shit out of them.”
David Crosby
There isn’t a lot connecting the music of bands like the Sex Pistols and that which David Crosby made, except for some political themes. Both acts have always been happy using their music as a means to make their opinions on the world around them clear; however, this similarity wasn’t enough for Crosby to become a fan of the genre.
He let his disdain towards the punk movement be known on social media, as when he was asked whether he wanted to share his thoughts on it, he simply said “no”. Later, when elaborating slightly on his comment, he kept his opinions short and sweet, as he said it was “pretty much all dumb stuff” with “no musical value at all and mostly childish lyrics”.
Queen
Freddie Mercury had a run-in with the Sex Pistols once when they were recording at the same studio. Sid Vicious and the Queen singer particularly didn’t get on, as a longtime roadie for the band, Peter Hince, remembered. “One afternoon when Queen were working in the control room, Sid Vicious stumbled in, the worse for wear, and addressed Fred: ‘Have you succeeded in bringing ballet to the masses yet?’ (A reference to a quote Fred had made in the music press),” he said, “Fred casually got up, walked over to him and quipped: ‘Aren’t you Stanley Ferocious or something?’, took him by the collar and threw him out. So much for the mean edge of punk.”
Queen were very much on the scene when punk music was rising to prominence, and their preference for grander music was clear in what they, as a band, put out during such a time. The two tracks that stand out are ‘We Will Rock You’, which was released as a statement of intent, and ‘We Are The Champions’, which was a sly dig at the punk scene as a whole. “No time for losers, because we are the champions…”: it’s subtle, but it’s there.
David Gilmour
One thing is for certain, a lot of punk pioneers certainly weren’t fans of David Gilmour. John Lydon famously wore a Pink Floyd t-shirt that he had scribbled “I hate” at the top of, making his disdain known. Despite this very visible critique, Gilmour didn’t detest punk because of it; he saw it as a pretty necessary moment in time. It was the lack of longevity that Gilmour couldn’t stand, as he saw the movement as something which burned bright and fast, and that didn’t hold merit later down the line.
“I thought [punk] was quite lively [when it first came out],” he said before adding that he wasn’t sure it “had a particularly lasting significance”. The Pink Floyd guitarist continued, “It wasn’t the first time it happened, either. I mean, people being incredibly rude and playing music incredibly badly and being incredibly obnoxious has always been a teenage sort of thing.”
John Lydon
Yes, he’s on the list. While John Lydon and the Sex Pistols may have been the band that brought punk music to the masses, he seems to detest the majority of bands that he inspired or came up alongside. It leads to only one conclusion: that John Lydon can’t stand the bloody genre.
When he set the scene for what gave rise to the Sex Pistols, he spoke about the state that Britain was in, citing strikes, unemployment, and a clear societal imbalance when it came to different opportunities. However, he also said that he hated the punk bands that came after him. “Out of all that came pretentious moi, and the Sex Pistols,” he said, “And then a whole bunch of copycat wankers after us”.
