WE DEMAND KITSCH, DIRT, PRIMEVAL SLIME

epub or mobi, with thanks to the original sharer

The youth underground of the late seventies - centred on punk - was far weaker (in terms of the broadness of its social base) than that of the sixties, in that its existence was dependent on rock music in a way that the more heavily politicised underground of a decade earlier was not. In retrospect, punk also appears as a very straightforward progression from the sixties, whereas at the time it was perceived as a break. The entourage around the Sex Pistols - in particular - appears to be little more than a copy of the milieu attracted to Warhol's factory. One of the problems faced by the blank generation - that sixties youth did not have to overcome - was an institutionalised youth, and 'post-youth', culture. During the sixties magazines such as "Oz" and "International Times" didn't have to compete with the likes of "Time Out" or liberated teenage magazines, which took away a general youth audience for 'zines such as "Sniffin' Glue" and "Ripped & Tom". It was this situation which forced the underground press of the late seventies to provide specialised music coverage. It was a weakness created by the success of the previous generation. Punk had a music, fashion and politics but socio-economic factors caused an increasing specialisation in (and separation between) the various disciplines united under its banner. Thus the broad social base that might have developed was, instead, weakened and destroyed. Many laudable strands emerged, but as a movement punk was finished very soon after it began.