CHAPTER 19 | ROCK ENTERS THE 1970s 473best-selling album. When planned and timed correctly, album sales and ticket sales
could reinforce each other synergistically. For groups like Fleetwood Mac and the
Eagles—or, at the more cartoonish end of the spectrum, Alice Cooper and Kiss—
this strategy led to high-grossing album sales and performances before thou-
sands of enthusiastic fans in high-capacity venues—hence the name arena rock to
describe this segment of the market. Another name, album-oriented rock (AOR),
more accurately describes a late-1970s radio format that favored the longer songs—
up to a complete LP side—characteristic of both progressive and arena rock bands.
Despite its commercial success, arena rock failed to win the hearts of young
listeners for whom the laid-back soft rock of the Doobie Brothers could not be
the soundtrack for any revolution. Those disaffected youth found a music more
in tune to their oppositional stance in the discordant sounds of bands that
offered a darker view of life. Back in the late 1960s the New York avant-garde art
scene (centered on Andy Warhol) had produced the Velvet Underground, whose
version of rock was far more pessimistic and rough-edged than that of the arena
rockers. At around the same time, Detroit was the home of both the Stooges,
with provocative lead singer Iggy Pop, and the MC5, whose “Kick Out the Jams”
(1969) was an early harbinger of 1970s punk.
Punk in the United States found its fi rst home at CBGB, a rather seedy bar in
New York City’s Bowery district. CBGB featured performers such as Patti Smith,
Television, the Voidoids, and the Ramones. Led by Joey Ramone, the Ramones
performed in 1950s-style leather jackets and blue jeans, replicating the sneering
poses of early Elvis and Marlon Brando’s motorcycle tough in The Wild Ones. The
Ramones reinvented early 1960s surf rock to create music that was loud, fast,
frenetic, and aggressively simpleminded. Each of the songs on their fi rst album,
Ramones (1976), is less than three minutes long—at a time when guitar heroes and
prog-rockers were stretching songs out to fi ll entire sides of an LP. The group’s
nihilistic worldview, quirky sense of humor, and infectious blend of teenage fun
and rebellion are captured in their lyrics and even titles of songs such as “Now I
Wanna Sniff Some Glue” and “I Wanna Be Sedated”—the latter featuring a guitar
solo consisting of steady eighth notes on a single pitch.
American punk got a shot in the arm with the arrival of such British punks
as the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, who were reacting
against progressive rock in much the same way their American peers were react-
ing against arena rock. Momentarily reuniting British and American trends, the
punks placed high value on simplicity, volume, speed, and a do-it-yourself (DIY)
attitude that prized raw, amateurish energ y over technical command. Their music
was assaultive and abrasive, an expression of punk’s social values,
which placed rebellion and anarchy above any political philosophy.
Perhaps it was inevitable that punk’s ferocity would be diluted
to reach a wider audience. In the late 1970s some punk acts, such
as Blondie and Elvis Costello, modifi ed their sounds and found
commercial success as New Wave artists, joined by bands such
as Devo, the B-52s, and Talking Heads. New Wave bands replaced
the angry rebellion of punk with a cool irony more in tune with
trends in the visual arts—indeed, Talking Heads consisted of
former students from the Rhode Island School of Design. At its
best, the New Wave produced songs that were arty and intellec-
tual, like Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” (1977), where a catchy
g roove contrasts strangely w ith ly rics that seem to represent theK Four key fi gures of 1970s
punk and New Wave (left
to right): Joan Jett; Debbie
Harry of the group Blondie;
David Johansen of the New
York Dolls; and Joey Ramone
of the Ramones.punk172028_19_468-494_r3_sd.indd 473 23/01/13 11:05 AM