Malcolm McLaren passed away several days ago and as you may know he invented punk. As a guy who is a punk follower from way back when, I followed his career avidly. But I think MM's greatest invention was Sex Pistols which, if you think about it or take a listen, was a band that wasn't great musically yet was so raw that if you got a whiff of it you needed to have more. Quickly.
Here's one exemplary look back at the Sex Pistols from only a few years ago:
When the Sex Pistols were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, they behaved exactly how we expected them to. They didn’t just snub the ceremony by not showing up, but took a metaphorical crap on the establishment in a grammatically challenged letter read at the ceremony by Rolling Stone founder, and ruiner, Jann Wenner. The band’s statement was simple: “Next to the Sex Pistols, rock and roll and that hall of fame is a piss stain. Your museum. Urine in wine. We’re not coming. We’re not your monkeys. If you voted for us, hope you noted your reasons. Your [sic] anonymous as judges but your [sic] still music industry people. We’re not coming.”
It finished with this little gem: “Your [sic] not paying attention. Outside the shit-stem is a real SEX PISTOL.”
Wow. After all this time the band that brought an underground music movement to the forefront of pop culture hasn’t changed an iota, and we love them for it. Part of being punk for real is never wavering in your conviction and/or vision. A lot of hard core "anything" has forgotten that over the year. One critic who had written of Sex Pistols actually blogged this...
"You may have thought that The Sex Pistols were a tired old reanimated corpse of a band; reality TV veterans who keep reforming in more and more useless ways to convince the world that they’re still cool. Not last night."
Whew. Well, as you could imagine, the media treated the communique like a harsh statement on the state of rock ’n’ roll or a pox on the corporate know-nothings that have run the music industry into the ground. They also saw it as the continued arrogance of its leader, Johnny Rotten (now lead of Public Image Ltd.) Well, maybe it was all of the above, but the only true message is that the band used a gimmick that worked! It’s the same gimmick they’ve used since day one: as long as it fits who you are don't forget to be memorable, be outrageous, get attention.
Who knows if the Sex Pistols put any thought into what they wrote? As a PR guy who learned a lot from these and other public figures, I figure they knew exactly what they were doing. Either way, it sure got them a lot more press than just showing up and saying thank you, we love you, gosh it's the fans that got us here. It’s a risky endeavor to be so anti-everything-we-know-to-work-it. That’s a risk more of us should take to have an impact.
Malcolm always thought so.
Twitter @laermer and @badpitch
Love the post and the tribute to the great Malcolm McLaren. Punk rock can serve as a great analogy to the communications profession today.
ReplyDeleteIn the punk rock genre, corporate music execs wanted to jump on the punk bandwagon and bring on every band they could that remotely passed as "punk." It happened in the late 70's, but it exploded in the 90's and 00's when record companies would produce bands that were called "punk" but were really nothing more than watered down pop music with some distortion that served a greater purpose of selling a fashion instead of the art. *cough* Avril Lavigne *cough* Good Charlotte *cough*
In the communications profession, there are a lot of technologies that come out and can serve amazing purposes for companies and our society. The problem is that companies gobble them up and jump on the shiny-toy bandwagon without thinking first, "Is this a good idea?" "Do we have strategy behind this?" "Can we measure our success?" This can easily result in poor communication practices.
For the record, I've always been more of a Clash fan, but Never Mind the Bollocks still has a special place among my album collection. Great tribute!
Cheers,
Rich
Great post...and as one who's actually seen the Dead Kennedys perform (it was a long time ago!) I enjoyed the discussion of punk music and Malcolm.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder how much of the "behavior" of a punk band, such as the Sex Pistols is a reflection of their true selves or a communications strategy. Regardless of which it is, the Pistols (and others) have remained true to that image throughout.
I've seen companies over the years that really struggled with their image - and I think at the core of it is a lack of understanding of "what they (the company) are about." You NEVER saw that problem with the Sex Pistols, the Clash and many of the early punk rock bands.
And I agree with Rich very much on the watered-down "punk bands" out there. Ugh. Sometimes I want to bang my head against the wall.
The celebrity gossip site Holy Moly was at Malcolm McLaren's funeral procession yesterday as it went through Camden, London. You can view 47 pictures of the procession on their website.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.holymoly.com/celebrity-news/malcolm-mclarens-funeral-procession-through-london-was-amazing45716/page-17.html
Malcolm was a great showman with an uncanny ability for publicity and tapping the pulse of urban trends. He will always be recognised for his management of the Sex Pistols, but his biggest legacy will be using punk music to shake up and reinvigorate what was then a dull and unadventurous UK music industry. Never Mind the Bollocks is both a visual and musical tour de force worthy of the best collections.
Love the post and the lessons we PR people can learn from the Sex Pistols.
ReplyDeleteOne point of correction (which is possibly trivial): Malcom & the Sex Pistols didn't invent punk. Some say it was the Ramones, some say it was Television, some say it was Iggy Pop & the Stooges, some say it was the New York Dolls.
While the British punk movement generally comes to mind when the term is used, let's please not forget that the punk movement has its roots in New York's mid-70s underground.
Love the post! Thank you for this memory. An era that will never be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen 24 Hour Party People?
ReplyDelete"There were only 12 people at the Last Supper... Well 13 if you count the talent..."
And I agree with Rich very much on the watered-down "punk bands" out there:)
ReplyDelete