Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

After buying the pricey 35th Anniversary Super Deluxe Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols import box set I got to thinking, wow, will there ever be a band like this again? There are definitely a love em or hate em type band, I know a guy at work that is STILL pissed off that Kiss is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and "yet that no talented vulgar band composed of junkies and killers is" (his words). Actually, there is only one killer in the band: Sid Vicious. But did he really kill Nancy??
As for the Clash, they had a longer career than the Pistols. Their crowning achievement of course is London Calling. Rolling Stone called this album The Eighth Greatest Album of All Time, which seems about right to me.
I believe during their prime they were once called "The Only Band that Matters". The energy and passion of this group was second to none, especially live.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

I don't think so. The Clash and Sex Pistols came up through the mid 70s in England and were in part a reaction to the bloated dinosaur acts like Emerson Lake and Palmer. Also you had a Malcolm McLaren behinf the scenes. Conditions today are different- music isn't the cultural force it once was amongst youth. Nowadays it's competing with video games, internet etc.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

No.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

They just did not become commercial enough
But my vote goes to the originators of hardcore punk :

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Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Still blows me away that the Pistols were only 18 when they started. Can you imagine 18 year olds today doing what the Pistols did?

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Part of their appeal was their "underground" credentials. With the internet and cell phone cameras, I don't think it would ever be possible to be famous like they were famous, if that makes any sense.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

No. No we will not.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

But wouldn't a new punk band be in part a reaction to the bloated corpses of the Pistols and Clash? Maybe stuff like this has been so co-opted by the establishment that the best you're ever going to get is another Green Day type band.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

well both bands were massively popular right out of the gate. And both were on major labels (the Pistols were on a few). So both bands had ZERO "underground credentials". You can't have a #1 single as your first single and be "underground" (hence maybe the reason you put it in quotes?)

BUT... there was a mysteriousness and "word of mouth" rumors to them that could not be captured today with the internets and cell phone cameras.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Is there a musical form that grownups hate but will make a big impact in the future? I hope so.

I did enjoy seeing a Christian television program deploring a video from Lady Gaga. And it made my day when Pussy Riot embarrassed the government enough that they were arrested.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

I do sort of miss the 1980s, when you had the PMRC and all of these preachers flipping their shit over devil worship in heavy metal music. Now they've pretty much given up.

And a little bit of me died inside when I learned that Blackie Lawless (W.A.S.P.) has become some kind of right-wing Jesus freak and doesn't play "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)" any more.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Will we see another punk band with that kind of impact? No.

Will we see some form of music pop up that the establishment hates and old farts decry as the end of civilization? Most likely.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

The Pistols and The Clash had music that was in some ways digestible by the mainstream that is why they became as famous as they did.
Their songs had very catchy melodies & hooks. The Clash eventually evolved as a band and experimented with alot of different genres.
Labels were willing to take a chance and invest in these bands because they had a fresh sound that might make them money.
Punk eventually became much heavier, less melodic, more political & more threatening to the mainstream (compare Discharge to The Sex Pistols).

Underground music stays underground because it despises the 'business' aspect of music.
Fugazi have been offered tons of money from major labels but they refuse because they feel that they will have to compromise themselves.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Will we ever experience another Katy Perry or Lady Gaga? Seriously guys.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

You don't really have musical movements anymore, scenes don't really have time to marinate in a vacuum these days so everything it out there instantly. Also we haven't really seen anything "new" that wasn't a rehash or mashup of different styles, since Hip Hop and that's been stale for close to two decades.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

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Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

This is actually closer to what I was trying to say. There was something non-mainstream about them, even though they were extreamly popular. Today, they would explode thanks to instantaneous communication.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

But there was also something extremely transgresive about them so that the older generation HATED them.

Will there ever be a new music movement or sound that divides the generations? Yes

Will it sound like late 1970's punk rock? Probably not

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Will there be another Stiff Records? Or will all future transgressive music be released through Warner/Universal/Sony?

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Hip Hop (and punk, for that matter) is a rehash and mashup of different styles. Nothing has ever marinated in a vacuum.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Labels are so 20th Century. You want transgressive? Look for the stuff being posted by the artists themselves and spread via social media.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

Growing up in England in the 70's and 80's, I was always a lot more interested by the more underground bands like Crass and Discharge, who came along almost as a reaction to the Pistols and the Clash being seen as "selling out". Having said that, I did see pretty much every punk band except the Pistols in their heyday, including the Clash, Damned, UK Subs, Buzzcocks, Dead Kennedys, Joy Division etc.
It's a lot harder to shock people nowadays than it was in England in the 70's/80s. I remember my dad finding my Stations Of The Crass LP in 1979 and snapping it in half after he read the lyrics. :)
I told Steve Ignorant about that when I saw him last year and he got a good laugh out of it.

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

20 years ago, but Rancid did well!

Re: Will we ever experience another Sex Pistols or Clash?
 

I enjoyed/enjoy Rancid, but they were a "retro" band in many ways. They were to 70s punk what the Stray Cats were to 50s Rockabilly.