"The Future is Unwritten": The Clash, Punk and America, 1977-1982
1993; American studies; Volume: 34; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2153-6856
Autores Tópico(s)Music History and Culture
ResumoThere'sno future, Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten sangin early 1976. Many who called themselves saw no hope in future as they reacted against perceived failures of their elders and pessimistically viewed future. The Pistols sparked punk movement, but their quick demise enabled another English band, Clash, to become a leader of fragmented movement and move punk ideology beyond Pistols9 anarchic rage and despair to one that hoped the future is unwritten. The story of Clash from 1977 to 1982 illustrates conflicting ideology of punks, who believed on one hand that state and corporate control had created a new dark age, while on other that human beings could prevail and create a more open and egalitarian society. Yet, although punk style persisted into 1980s, American audience proved unreceptive to Clash's vision of an egalitarian future and it vanished beneath market pressures they had themselves denounced.1 Punk arose in England during 1976 in midst of a terrible recession that appeared to many English youth as failure of British socio-economic system. More than one million persons were out of work and inflation rate soared above 18 percent; The New Statesman estimated that 35 percent of those under twenty-five years of age were unemployed. After graduation at sixteen, thousands of young people immediately went on dole, which quickly symbolized problems in Britain.2 Bernard Rhodes, who worked with Sex Pistols creator Malcolm McLaren and who later managed Clash, described times:
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