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Book report

Brian Johnson

Period 3, World History

May 17, 2012.

Book Report

           

            The book Babylon’s Burning from Punk to Grunge, by Clinton Heylin gives a detailed account of the birth and evolution of Punk rock. The author begins the book by describing early bands that played the legendary CBGB venue in New York. The main band he discusses is Television one of the pioneering punk bands at the time. The band drew inspiration from Iggy and the Stooges. An early band that is considered by many to be “Proto punk” yet the author doesn’t discuss the stooges much in the book. Heylin describes Televisions troubles musically. He describes them as not being musically talented at first, since the band was founded by members who weren’t musicians in any sense of the word. Then when they did reach a level of talent, the members had conflicting ideals on where they wanted the band to go. The thing that set this band apart from others in the early seventies, according to the book, was their appearance. Before their first show the band members got haircuts so they’d all have short hair which was strange back then. Through various eyewitness testimonies, Televisions career is described leading to other bands appearing such as the Ramones. Now after talking about Television the author jumps around various bands around the world, including the Ramones, and doesn’t go too in depth about them until discussing the Sex Pistols. The first thing that is described is the early times of the band. The Sex Pistols unlike Television were extremely well accepted at first in the music scene of London. This didn’t prevent the oncoming problems that occurred due to band in fighting. The Sex Pistols weren’t around for very long, but they did make a huge impact with their album “God Save the Queen”. After describing The Sex Pistols it goes into discussing the hardcore scene of the 80’s. The scene started in Washington D.C and spread across the United States. This scene would eventually spread to Seattle. The Seattle scene was slightly different from the scenes everywhere else. It had an all around different sound and would get its own name. It would be labeled Grunge, because of the sound of  the music and the appearance of the musicians. One of these bands would go on to be the biggest band in the world, Nirvana. This is where the book ends with the discussion of Nirvana.

            I enjoyed the book and found it very informative, but I had a few problems with it. The author wrote it in such a way that it jumps around by increments of five years randomly.  This can cause some confusion, and become quite annoying. I also didn’t understand why the author would start talking about a band and this switch to another one or another topic within a paragraph.  This also caused confusion and annoyance. The book also failed to go into detail about various things, such as the music scenes and fans. It had more focus on the musicians than the music and the impact of the music. What is good about this book is that when the author goes in depth about something he really goes in depth. There is a great amount of detail put into the book the author does this by using eyewitness testimonies. These testimonies come from mostly band members or producers. Though the book does skip various things it goes in depth, therefore it gives a fairly accurate description of Punk Rock.

           

CBGB

Considered the Birth place of punk CBGB

sources

Works Cited

 

American Hardcore. Dir. Paul Rachman. Perf. Greg Ginn, Ian Mackaye. Envision Films, 2006. DVD.

 

Heylin, Clinton. Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge. New York: Canongate, 2007. Print.

 

Kurt & Courtney. Dir. Nick Broomfield. Perf. Courtney Love, Nick Broomfield, Kurt Cobain. Strength Ltd., 1998. DVD.

 

"Lower East Side & The Rise of NY Hardcore -- Harley Flanagan's Take." Huffington Post (blog). Huffington Post, 16 May 2012. Web. 17 May 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/camilla-webster/lower-east-side-harley-flanagan-punk-rock-_b_1480495.html

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Neyfkah, Leon. "Ideas." BostonGlobe.com. The Boston Globe, Nov.-Dec. 2011. Web. 18 May 2012. http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2011/11/05/the-rise-punkademia/zVtXDJT5WJt0mzejttS1gI/story.html.

 

White, Josh. "Why a History of Punk Rock Matters." Huffington Post. The Huffington Post U.K, 20 Nov. 2011. Web. May-June 2012.  <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/josh-white/punk-rock-history_b_1103667.html>.

My Thoughts

Punk rock in my opinion has probably impacted everyone today in someway or another. Whether it's their friend with a Mohawk or the music they're listening to. Whether or not people like it, it's there and it has had an impact. It has been the reason heavy music is now the way it is. If it weren't for punk Metal to even Pop music would be completely different. It made this severe of an impact within 40 years. Not many other movements within music canc claim to have done that. Even in recent times theworld is impacted by punk beliefs. As more and more people and discovering the music and developing a do it yourself attitud. In my opinion it's only a matter of time before punk comes back.

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

  This song is what basically launched Nirvana into stardom. It also helped propel MTV into the household name that it is.

Hair

These would be your typical punk rockers. This used to be frowned upon in society, dieing your hair funny colors, mohawks, and spikes were all uncommon. Now you see these at leaste once a week, which is another way punk has influenced our culture.

The State of Punk Today

Punk rock without a doubt has died down in the past decade. The emergence of pop punk has caused many die hard members of the punk culture to question whether it's still alive or not. Many claim that pop punk goes against the ideals of punk therefore it's not real. The reason they are believed to go against the ideals of punk are that these bands are extremely, commercially successful. For example Green Day, and Blink 182 both multi platinum bands. These bands have had some impact on culture within the past decade. Green Day's album American Idiot, anyone living in America heard of that album and the controversey behind it, because of the 911 terrorist attacks. Blink 182 helped popularize skate attire by always wearing skate shoes and shorts. Although the punk scene seems dominated by these "pop punk" bands, there are still some who are making an impact without going down the pop route. For example Rise Against is a more recent band that is considered by many to be punk. They have very political songs and influence many people on politcal decisions, along with that they also inform many people of things happening in the world.

Holy Hardcore

Well at this point in time I think it's appropriate to discuss the the Hardcore scene and it's effects on culture. The Hardcore scene began in Washington D.C, with bands like Minor Threat and Black Flag. The scene emerged in the late 70's and early 80's after the initial wave of Punk. The scene was defined by its straight edge philosophy and violent concert atmosphere. Straight edge is the philosphy of sustaining from drugs and alcohol. The concert atmosphere would often times concern parents since most shows were all ages shows. These hardcore bands would go on to influence waves of heavy bands, frome death metal such as Morbid Angel to newer punk bands like Rise Against. Within the hardcore scene bands with more musical ability started to appear.These bands were more melodic than the standard 3 power chords played really fast in hardcore, hence melodic hardcore. Examples are Bad Religion and Social Distortion. Both bands would go on to influence various other musical groups as the years passed.

New post......and these won't be in chronological order, because that's for posers.

So we are going to make a slight time jump of about 20 years. Its not like I'm skipping 100+ years like some people. The 1990's the age of gangsta rap and grunge. Grunge is considered by many to be a sub genre of punk. The 1990's saw the rise of a little band from Seattle called Nirvana, due to Nirvana's success many other Grunge bands exploded on tho the scene, many would later call this the point when Punk Rock exploded into the mainstream. It was now cool to be the kid wearing flannel and ripped jeans. In high end fashion shows you no longer saw people wearing fancy black thin line dresses, but what was seen were people walking down runways wearing flannel. It seemed that punk rock had finally arrived, yet there are many who feel this wasn't the time for punk, but they believe it was 1994 with the commercial success of bands like Green Day and Rancid.Though these bands didn't have a massive impact on culture like Nirvana, they did bring what many felt was real Punk to the masses once again.

First post....Have fun

The reason I chose this topic is that punk rock happens to be my favorite form of music. I also believe it's influenced our modern culture more than most people realize.

Punk Rock is a form of music that developed in the mid 1970's. Punk came about after the 60's peace and love movement. Many felt that music at the time had taking rock n roll and changed into something that it wasn't, with flashy guitar solos and more emphasis on fashion than the music. Many then took up a do it yourself attitude and started their own bands as a result. Many of these bands consisted of people who had no musical experience or were just mediocre musicians. No one knew at the time that these bands would change the landscape of music and culture. Due to the advent of punk many things came about, the rise of independent  record labels. Many other things came out of the rise and fall of punk that we see in our culture on a daily basis. In this fantastic blog I will touch on quite a few of those things.