The end of an era for many aged around 40, the late 70's became a turbulent period in rock, Malcolm MaClaren had his ear close to the ground, sensed the mood and was in the right place at the right time.
Most rock fans were becoming bored with the music scene and the time was ripe for change - Glam rock was becoming jaded, Heavy rock bands were falling apart from overtouring, Prog was becoming overblown and rightly needed a good kick up the arse - enter Punk, like an uninvited nasty cousin who turns up at your wedding drunk and worse for wear, though in rock nothing is new but recycled, and musically Punk borrowed heavily from early 60's Rock'n'Roll, adding safety pins to the leather jackets and chains.
The girls ripped their tights and looked like 5 year olds who had been let loose on their mother's make up and dressing up boxes, the boys were your obnoxious kid brothers who had nicked your old leather jacket and raided your early record collection for riffs, Maclaren capitalised on fashion trends and presented himself as a sympathetic older brother. Intrigued members of Led Zeppelin turned up to see Punk bands, everyone in the Rock establishment felt very uncomfortable and wondered where it had all gone wrong, Punk was all over the news, staking their claim on the Bill Grundy interview, embarrassing the Queen's silver jubilee celebrations but fans were in spitting distance of their idols for a change, and indeed for a while ugly became beautiful.
After a couple of years the Punk party got boring and was overthrown in turn by neo Mods and New Romantics, MacLaren moved on to some rather clumsy projects including Hip Hop, though the effects of Punk remains in the public psyche and is still an influence. MacLaren will be up there with the Angels, probably already attaching safety pins to their wings and teaching them three-chord riffs.
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Topic: Malcolm MacLaren, 1976/77 and all that... (Read 889 times)