Rock Music Styles: A History Chapter 15 Punk Rock/New Wave

Who is sometimes referred to as the Godfather of Punk?

Iggy Pop

Who did the Dead Kennedys attack on their EP In God We Trust, Inc. (1981)?

The Moral Majority

What became Los Angeles-based punk band X's trademark?

The duo vocals of John Doe and Exene Cervenka sung in a monotone unison or at the interval of a fifth

What did the movie The Decline of Western Civilization (1980) directed by Penelope Spheeris depict?

The hard-core punk culture that developed in Los Angeles

What were the characteristics of the music of Velvet Underground's first album, The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)?

The music was repetitious, unemotional, and only vaguely related to most commercial rock.

Which of the following characteristics of the Ramones' music became the prototype for much punk rock to follow?

Their very simple, fast, high-energy music and monotone vocals

The simplicity of new wave was not only a reaction against the excesses of other rock music styles, but it was also _____.

a return to what rock music had been during the fifties

In contrast to the performances by many glitter and progressive rock groups of the seventies, part of the attraction of new wave was its _____.

simplicity

The highly emotional expression of anger at the heart of most punk music came from _____.

the garage band sound

Formed in 1971, the New York Dolls were five men who donned lipstick, heavy eye makeup, and stacked heels to perform songs about _____.

"bad" girls, drugs, and New York street life

Identify the contributions of Andy Warhol to the Velvet Underground's first album The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967). (Check all that apply.)

-He had the band add a singer/actress friend, Christa Päffgen, to sing on some cuts. -He painted a banana for the cover of the band's album.

Identify the characteristics of Talking Heads' music. (Check all that apply.)

-It included David Byrne's forced, near-monotone vocals. -It had a simple, pounding rhythmic pulse.

Identify the true statements about British lower- and middle-class teenagers in the midseventies. (Check all that apply.)

-Rock music played by wealthy stars surrounded by grandiose stage sets and light shows meant nothing to them. -Stylish clothes were out of their reach. -Entertainment in the form of movies and dances was too expensive for them.

Identify the New York Punk bands that started in CBGB's. (Check all that apply.)

-The Ramones -Television -The Patti Smith Group

Which of the following aspects of the Velvet Underground's first efforts influenced the development of punk as a musical style? (Check all that apply.)

-The Velvet Underground's use of repetitious musical ideas -The Velvet Underground's emotionless portrayal of themes centering on alienation from human concerns

What attracted fans to the Sex Pistols more than the group's music by itself did? (Check all that apply.)

-The group's desire to repulse the establishment -The group's desire to provoke authorities into retaliating against them

Identify the true statements about the short songs of Black Flag. (Check all that apply.)

-Their songs decried the meaninglessness of their lives. -Their songs expressed the anger they felt toward the establishment and all authority figures.

Arrange the events in Chrissie Hynde's musical career that eventually led her to form a band in the order in which they occurred. (Place the first event at the top.)

1-She played guitar with a rock band while an art student at Kent State University. 2-A fan of British bands such as the Kinks and the Who, she moved to London and got a job as a music 3-She recorded a demo tape that secured for her a contract with Real records 4-She hired British musicians to from the Pretenders

What gave the Pretenders a hard-rock sound?

A strong backbeat and heavy-metal-influenced guitar lines

Elvis Costello recorded music in his pop/new-wave style until 1981, when he traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, to record Almost Blue, an album of _____.

American country music

A large hard-core punk culture developed in Los Angeles during the late seventies and early eighties and included such bands as _____.

Black Flag, the Germs, X, and Catholic Discipline

How did Lou Reed, lyricist of the Velvet Underground, view his training as a classical pianist?

Classical music could not express what he wanted to say about, and to, society.

What was the content of Elvis Costello's 1981 album, Almost Blue?

Covers of songs by Hank Williams Sr., Merle Haggard, and Gram Parsons

One of the best examples of a new-wave band that stressed a slick version of the fast pulse of punk along with chantlike monotone vocals was _____, formed by singer/keyboardist Mark Mothersbaugh and bass player Jerry Casale, who were both art students at Kent State University in Ohio.

Devo

_____ was brought in for the Ramones' End of Century album (1980), but the result was a disaster in the minds of the Ramones' punk fans.

Early sixties wall-of-sound producer Phil Spector

Which of the following did Black Flag add to their music after 1984?

Elaborate distorted guitar solos and repeating bass riffs

What is the significance of Elvis Costello's album Armed Forces (1979)?

It gained him more attention and commercial success in the United States than had any previous releases by British new-wave artists.

How was the Sex Pistols' single "God Save the Queen" received by the British public?

It was banned from British radio and television.

What is the significance of the nightclub in the Bowery district of New York called CBGB & OMFUG (Country, Blue Grass, Blues & Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers)?

It was the starting place for many New York punk bands. (including the television patti smith group and ramones)

In the late seventies, punk's half-beat pulse, monotone vocals, and emotional alienation were adopted by groups that played more mainstream popular rock styles, and the term ___ ___ began to be used to categorize the music of some of those bands.

New Wave

_____ was an English back-to-the-roots movement that began during the late seventies but did not become commercially successful until later in the decade when many fans finally grew tired of large-scale rock.

Pub rock

Malcolm McLaren, owner of an antifashion clothing store called Sex, knew that one of his employees, Glen Matlock, played bass with his friends, guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook. He had an angry young customer, John Lyndon, who had no experience as a singer, but McLaren was looking for a sound that required no more polish than what Lyndon already had. McLaren put the quartet together, changing Lyndon's name to Johnny Rotten, and based the group's name on his store's name, calling them the ___ ___

Sex Pistols

What did Lou Reed, the lyricist of the Velvet Underground, initially write poetry about?

Street life, prostitution, and drugs in New York

A new-wave band whose early recordings employed punk-influenced musical characteristics in much the same way that Devo had was _____, which was formed in New York in 1975 by singer/guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth, who played bass and synthesizer.

Talking Heads

___ were a New York-based band that formed in 1974. The members named themselves after Paul Ramon, a pseudonym Paul McCartney had used for a time early in his career with the Beatles.

The Ramones

What changes did the Ramones make to their style in the early eighties?

They began branching out from high-energy punk to experiment with new styles.

How was the anger of the garage rock bands that influenced punk expressed musically?

Through a constant pounding eighth-note beat and shouted vocals

X was a Los Angeles-based punk band that played both high-energy punk and _____.

Velvet Underground-influenced pulsating drones

Declan MacManus wrote songs throughout his teenage years and then joined _____, moving to London to perform with them and record demos of his songs.

a British bluegrass band called Flip City

The music of Black Flag shared characteristics such as _____ with British punk bands like the Sex Pistols.

a fast beat, distorted guitars, and monotone vocals

The throbbing pulse that punk bands created by angrily strumming their electric guitars was transformed by new-wave bands into _____.

a fast, clear playing of repeated notes on the electric bass

In addition to using punk's familiar rhythmic throb, the Clash took Jamaica's music of rebellion and added _____ to some of their music.

a reggae beat

In Lou Reed's songs on The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967), he sang as if he were intimately aware of all aspects of urban street life, but _____.

alienated from it and from any concerns about the people involved

The title track of the Velvet Underground's album White Light/White Heat (1968) was Lou Reed's anthem to _____.

amphetamines

Elvis Costello began his career by portraying an extreme example of male insecurity in modern culture, whereas singer/writer/guitarist Chrissie Hynde displayed _____.

an image of a strong, tough, and yet somewhat vulnerable female

British and American West Coast punk bands dressed in torn secondhand clothing with large safety pins holding the pieces together to symbolize their common theme of _____.

anarchy

For the most part, the Damned played fast, hard punk music that stressed _____.

anger for anger's sake

The attitude of midseventies British lower- and middle-class teens was one of anger, frustration, and violence; they were _____.

antigovernment, antisociety, and antifashion

Punk groups from California had a very different _____ from that of their British counterparts.

attitude

The Velvet Underground's album White Light/White Heat (1968) was not commercial, but it functioned to express the _____ Lou Reed saw in the world.

coldness and gloom

Devo's work after Duty Now for the Future (1979) continued to use humorous, dehumanized electronic music, but much of it had evolved into _____.

commercialism

When British punk bands like the Sex Pistols and the Damned toured the United States, their music, though _____ struck a nerve in both San Francisco and Los Angeles and sparked a punk movement there.

commercially unsuccessful

Unlike the New York Dolls, the Sex Pistols were _____.

completely caught up in highly emotional anger

The punk sound in Detroit and New York was reflected in the Sex Pistols' use of its _____.

constant pounding and loud distorted guitar

X, a Los Angeles-based punk band, added to their music occasional touches of _____.

country, rockabilly, and heavy-metal styles

The name of the new-wave band Devo was a play on the word _____.

de-evolution

The main purpose of Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale in putting together a band was to produce The Truth about De-Evolution(1975), a film that took a humorous and sardonic look at the _____.

dehumanization of modern society

Blondie, formed in 1975, was a band that played with enough of the characteristics of punk or new wave to gain a reputation within those styles, even though much of their music _____.

did not fit into the new-music genre

The music of the Dead Kennedys condemned the U.S. government and other institutions for a multitude of offenses, and yet also _____.

displayed a sense of humor

The Sex Pistols had gained such a reputation for their anarchic themes that other bands began forming, copying their _____ even before the Sex Pistols had an album out.

distorted guitar, bass, and drums instrumentation with monotone shouted vocals

The energy and often the anger of punk were present in the Pretenders' music, but Chrissie Hynde made the _____ more important than the fast, pounding punk beat.

element of melody

Devo's clean electronic sound and their songs about a modern world in which human beings are dehumanized by the increasing dependence on robots and computers were _____.

entertaining and accessible to a mass audience

During the late seventies, many rock fans felt that rock music had gotten old, fat, and complacent and was in need of an infusion of new energy. Punk certainly had the necessary energy, but it was _____.

far too violent and antiestablishment to appeal to the mass audience

The Dead Kennedys formed in San Francisco in 1978 and played _____.

fast, heavily distorted music with shouted monotone vocals

British and American West Coast punk groups wore torn clothing as a symbol of their _____.

feelings of alienation

Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating her Silver Jubilee in 1977, and at the same time, the Sex Pistols released a single called "God Save the Queen," which contained _____.

foul and insulting lyrics

The loud, raw, rebellious sound of the MC5 and the Stooges and the alienated attitude of the Velvet Underground were picked up in the early seventies by the New York Dolls who added some _____ to punk and then passed it on to other New York groups and to the angry youth of London.

glitter

The band the Velvet Underground met pop artist Andy Warhol in 1965, and he had the band play for _____.

his traveling artwork, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable

The songs "Strange Pursuit" and "Triumph of the Will" on Devo's second album, Duty Now for the Future (1979), rendered emotionless one of the most common rock song themes, _____.

human attraction and love

While at university, Lou Reed played the guitar in rock bands with another guitarist, Sterling Morrison, and the pair met avant-garde composer and multi-instrumentalist John Cale in 1964. The three decided to work together, _____.

leaving traditional rock and roll styles aside to experiment with new forms of expression

A high school rock band called the MC5, who connected themselves to a radical political group called the White Panthers, developed a _____ style of music.

loud and angry

Punk band X's singer/bassist John Doe and singer Exene Cervenka, his wife, were both _____.

modern-day Beat poets

In most of the places in Europe and the United States that the Sex Pistols toured, they were received _____, so with nowhere left to go, they disbanded in 1978.

more as oddities

With the new stage name Elvis Costello, Declan MacManus took Buddy Holly's boy-next-door image and changed it from naive to _____.

neurotic

For the album This Year's Model (1978), Elvis Costello formed a new backup band, the Attractions, and his music moved from pub rock to _____.

new wave

The beat and vocal style of Elvis Costello's album This Year's Model (1978) were exactly the modern sound _____ fans wanted, and Costello's career was launched.

new-wave

In the late 1970s, the Sex Pistols toured Europe and the United States in order to continue performing because _____.

no promoters in England would hire them

Whereas punk was almost always played only by guitar, bass, and drums, new-wave bands _____.

often added electronic keyboards, saxophones, or other instruments

When the Velvet Underground first formed, lyricist Lou Reed recited his poems to simple and repetitious melodies, while John Cale _____.

played a continuous, pulsating drone on his electric viola

One of Elvis Costello's favorite subjects was _____, as was heard on his first single, "Less than Zero" (1977).

politics

Elvis Costello teamed up with a California-based country-rock band called Clover to record the album My Aim Is True (1977), and in true pub-rock tradition, most of the music on the album followed a Buddy Holly-influenced _____.

pop-rockabilly style

Deborah Harry, the blond lead singer after whom Blondie was named, seldom sang in a new-wave monotone and tended more toward _____.

pop-style melodies

Almost any new sound from the sixties onward was temporarily dubbed new wave until it became mainstream and a newer wave took over, but the label finally stuck for the _____.

postpunk music of the mid- to late seventies

The song themes of Elvis Costello's album Armed Forces (1979) dealt with _____ on both a personal and international level.

power struggles

Punk and new wave's emphasis on simplicity put rock music back into intimate settings, which in most parts of England were _____.

pubs

Malcolm McLaren, the owner of an antifashion clothing store in London called Sex, brought the New York Dolls' and the Ramones' _____ to London.

raw, pounding music

Elvis Costello's second single, and his first hit in Britain, "Watching the Detectives," was _____.

reggae-influenced

Many British lower- and middle-class teenagers in the midseventies had come to believe they were caught up in an economic and class-ridden social system over which they had no control—one they viewed as _____.

relegating them to a life of near poverty

In 1967, James Jewel Osterberg formed his own band, Iggy and the Stooges, and played _____.

repetitious, angry, and pessimistic music

The torn clothing worn by British and American West Coast punk bands reflected their rejection of _____.

respectability

Black Flag remained true to violent punk-styled music until 1984, when they broke away from hard-core punk and included _____.

some very long songs with heavy-metal characteristics

Television's first bass player, Richard Hell (Richard Myers), _____, creating an image that became standard for British punks.

spiked his hair and wore torn clothing

After Devo released Duty Now for the Future (1979), instead of continuing to make statements about modern society, they began to _____.

stress a dance beat and older rock styles

Television was formed in 1973 by poet/singer/guitarist Thomas Miller, who gave himself the stage name Tom Verlaine, after the French poet Paul Verlaine who was known for his use of _____, all of which Miller tried to emulate.

symbolism, metaphor, and lyricism

In addition to playing fast, angry music, the Damned engaged in such punk stage activities as _____.

taunting and spitting at the audience while accepting the same in return

Declan MacManus was raised in Liverpool, where _____ was popular and being updated by such groups as the Beatles and the Hollies.

the American sound of Buddy Holly and the Crickets

Most punk music featured a fast throbbing pulse of a guitar or bass, behind which _____.

the drums usually played a traditional rock backbeat

Groups of British lower- and middle-class teenagers in the midseventies had grown to detest _____.

the lifestyles and traditional values of their parents

With two guitars and plenty of distortion, the MC5 combined a raw garage band sound with _____.

the power of heavy metal

The Dead Kennedys' album Bedtime for Democracy (1986) attacked _____ in "Chickenshit Conformist" and "Macho Insecurity."

the punk community

The energy level of the Sex Pistols' music was high, and _____ at their performances became common.

violence

Instead of just expressing the multidirectional anger the Sex Pistols had, the Clash zeroed in on some of the central causes of punk rebellion, which were _____.

youth unemployment, racism, and police brutality