The birth of any musical style is inseparably related to the characteristics of the times. British director Alex Cox has insight into the relationship between music and the times, and filmed the movie "Sid and Nancy". The film is based on The Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vessels.
The film begins with the members of the band living absurdly chaotic lives, always teetering on the fringes of mainstream life. I can't find my goal, I don't have a serious job, and I live in a daze. Sid had met Nancy at a friend's house, and the two spent all day together, hurting each other but relying on each other.
Despite the chaos of the day, Nancy has no doubts about Sid's talent. To Sid, Nancy was like a light in his life. Nancy helps Sid prepare for the concert, which is eventually recognized by the entertainment company. Then, the band started to get on the right track. At this time, the relationship between the two changed, and the two were temporarily separated because of the tour.
It is a pity that the brilliant acting career did not make the two people have a better life. Instead, Sid and Nancy quarreled more and more, and the two men also changed dramatically in spirit. Accidentally, Sid ended Nancy's life, although Sid escaped legal punishment, but did not get the favor of fate.
As a biographical film, director Alex Cox keenly captured Sid's changes, and thus revealed the fate of a band to the audience. The demise of the band also represents the demise of a type of music, which may also be a sign of an era.
The Sex Pistols is one of Britain's most influential punk bands, formed in 1972 and disbanded in 1978. Although they have only been established for a short period of six years, their musical accomplishments have attracted worldwide attention. They determined the punk music style, and determined the core idea of punk music - a complete break with the world and complete self-destruction.
In the following two decades, there have been more and more punk bands, and many bands have covered their works. Sadly, no band has taken punk to its peak. The reason for this is that we should go back to the era when punk was born and see what happened in that era and how punk music became popular.
What is punk music?
Punk-style music is only a kind of punk culture, and the decline of punk music also indicates the decline of punk culture. The 1960s and 1970s were the golden age of punk culture, with fancy clothes and alternative music as the main forms of expression, especially The Sex Pistols and The Ramones Choir, which were the representatives of punk culture at that time. .
Punk culture is mainly reflected in music, which is mainly against some existing popular music models, and pursues subversion, rebellion and anarchism. Moreover, punk music is particularly powerful, and it just reflects the decadence, rebellion and anger of young people at that time.
From the very beginning, punk music inherited the spirit of the counter-cultural movement in the 1960s, and was born with the cultural genes of rebellion and subversion of the mainstream. Therefore, punk music has been doomed to its marginal attributes since its birth, and has been resisted by mainstream cultural groups.
Whether in the United Kingdom or the United States, there is a large number of young people who are keen on punk music, and these young people are mainly from the working class. They were the post-war "baby boomer" generation and were generally well educated. However, the reality cannot accommodate the ideals and hopes of these young people. In the 1970s, the global economic recession caused these young people to give birth to a kind of change, and to do nothing all day, and punk music allowed them to find a spiritual level of belonging.
Punk music is a part of punk culture, which represents non-mainstream and subculture, and is a cultural model that is incompatible with the mainstream ideology of society. For young people at that time, punk culture represented their attitude to life and was a weapon against reality.
Why is punk music a working-class culture?
World War II led to a global recession, and although Britain went through the Industrial Revolution, it wasn't the lucky one in the war. After World War II, the unemployment rate in the United Kingdom hit a record high, and the whole country was dead. In this decline, punk culture emerged.
Early punk was the social term for hooligans, and it was these "hooligans" that sparked the punk revival and made it a cultural trend. In the final analysis, it was caused by the environment at that time. The economy is depressed and the unemployment rate is high. In such an environment, young people who have just entered society cannot hope for the current environment. They express their inner dissatisfaction in a naked and direct way.
Therefore, anti-human, anti-mainstream, anti-culture, various extreme factors formed the original "punk". Because working-class families do not have land as a living condition, the entire family is facing disintegration under the impact of the economic crisis. So young working-class people formed their own cultural alliances to combat the drudgery of life.
What we can't ignore is the British gentleman culture, if these "rogues" created the word "punk". Then, the gentleman tradition in their bones gives punk a specific connotation. They found unique playing patterns in a variety of different musical styles, and referenced a lot of musical characteristics in various instruments, making punk from noise to a powerful music genre.
In this sense, punk music is the voice of the working class. They use music to express their views on society, vent their depression and depression, and represent the real voice of that era.
Why did punk culture change from prosperity to decline?
Every culture has a big background of the times. The wheels of the times are rolling forward. There will be new cultures on the stage, and old cultures will withdraw from the stage. As a representative of subculture, punk culture itself is in contradiction with mainstream culture, which leads to the exclusion and suppression of punk culture by mainstream culture. In addition, the wave of commercialization in modern society has brought a large number of subcultural elements into the commercial market. After improvement, mass production has been realized, which has also led to the gradual entry of subcultures into the circle of mainstream culture.
In such an environment, punk culture has not been spared. Punk music, which was born in the late 1960s and early 1970s, went into decline in the late 1970s after a brief period of glory. Since then, various countries have begun to develop their economies. After more than ten years of development, the unemployment rate has gradually decreased, and the global economic crisis has gradually subsided.
In the late 1980s, punk music revived in the American Northwest. Although the punk music of this period inherited the spirit of punk in the 1970s, it differed in the specific musical expression. The punk music that made a comeback in the '80s had simple melodies and heart-wrenching lyrics. Although it rejects the feeling of the record industry, it cannot resist the impact of the commercial wave.
Movies related to punk music also became popular during this period, "Sid and Nancy", "Trainspotting", "Born to Kill", "Fight Club" and so on. Niche punk music entered the mainstream cultural circle in a new form, and in this process, the rebelliousness of punk culture was inevitably weakened.
Any musical style goes through such a phase, because no musical style exists out of its era. Times will create a style of music, because music is a part of culture, there is no culture that exists apart from the times, and naturally there is no music that exists out of the times.
In "Sid and Nancy" we can see all kinds of punk elements, exaggerated dress, chaotic state, hopeless life. Although The Sex Pistols in the movie represented the punk music at its peak, with the arrival of death, it also heralded the gradual decline of this working-class carnival.
It is undeniable that until today, punk music is still a very important genre in popular music, and punk elements are not only used in music, but also appear in literature, film, painting and other artistic fields. It can be seen that the punk subculture has long since entered the field of mainstream culture from the fringe of countercultural society. This music culture, which used to represent rebellion and subversion, has also been surrounded by more young people.
From the movie "Sid and Nancy", we may not be able to explore more concretely about the transformation of punk culture, but through such a film, we can learn about a band that was once at the top of the subculture. If you understand, you can go back to the 1960s and 1970s to explore various manifestations of punk culture. Moreover, through the band The Sex Pistols in the film, we can also explore the youth culture of different eras, which makes contemporary youth culture more rich and interesting.
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