| Art punk | |
|---|---|
 Jerry Harrison (left) andDavid Byrne (right) of art-punk bandTalking Heads performing atJay's Longhorn Bar inMinneapolis, 1978 | |
| Other names |
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| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Mid-1970s, United States and United Kingdom |
| Regional scenes | |
| Brixton, London | |
| Other topics | |
Art punk (also known asavant-punk orexperimental punk) is a subgenre ofpunk rock influenced byart school culture in which artists go beyond the genre's rudimentarythree-chordgarage rock conventions, incorporating more complex song structures, esoteric influences and a more sophisticated sound and image.[1] While retaining punk's simplicity and rawness, art punk draws more fromavant-garde music, literature and abstract art than other punk subgenres, often intersecting with the more experimental branches of thepost-punk scene. Subsequently, attracting opposing audiences to that of the angry, working-class ones that surrounded the originalpunk rock scene.[2]
On December 12, 1977, writer Stanley Mieses ofMelody Maker used the term "art-punk" to describe the American bandDevo.[3] In 2004, music historian Ian Gittins noted that the term "art-punk" began to be used prominently by several music publications during thepost-punk era primarily to describe artists deemed too sophisticated and out of step withpunk's dogma, though some critics used it as apejorative. Gittins stated:[1]
In the post-punk years at the end of the 1970s, it became a lazy journalistic habit to refer to certain groups as “art-punks”. This generally meant no more than that they deliveredgarage rock’s adrenalin rush with a moderate degree of intelligence (i.e. they weren'tSham 69). Some fundamentalist critics even flung the term at bands as an insult, implying they weren't as “authentic” as punk's dogma: demanded. You had to “mean it, maan” asJohnny Rotten once drawled (even though, withPublic Image Limited, Rotten was to later prove himself the most contrary art-punk of all).
In the rock music of the 1970s, the "art" descriptor was generally understood to mean either "aggressively avant-garde" or "pretentiously progressive".[4] MusicologistsSimon Frith and Howard Horne described the band managers of the 1970s punk bands as "the most articulate theorists of the art punk movement", with Bob Last ofFast Product identified as one of the first to apply art theory to marketing, andTony Wilson'sFactory Records described as "applying theBauhaus principle of the same 'look' for all the company's goods".[5]Wire'sColin Newman described art punk in 2006 as "the drug of choice of a whole generation".[6][7]
Art-punk artists often utilize angular guitar riffs, intricate rhythms, and a wide array of influences equal to that ofpost-punk which included but was not limited tokrautrock,dub,funk,free jazz andglam.[8] Music criticSimon Reynolds in his book,Rip It Up and Start Again,[9] attributed the rise of avant-garde movements like art punk and post-punk in the late 1970s to British government art school grants and funding:
Especially in Britain, art schools have long functioned as a state-subsidizedbohemia, whereworking-class youths too unruly for a life of labor mingle with slummingbourgeois kids too wayward for amiddle-management career.
AuthorGavin Butt[10] writes that:
People went to art school to be in a band. That was even the principle principal reason they went […] this was because art school was a place where you could get a local authority grant, have the costs of your tuition paid for by the government, and have three years to do whatever you wanted.
Additionally, post-punk and art punk are not mutually exclusive and frequently intersect. Although, some artists such asPatti Smith have been described as "art punk" with no relation to the post-punk scene.[11] Art punk is defined as a more avant-garde and artier form ofpunk music, blending poetry, literary and abstract influences and general art school culture with the genre. British post-punk bands such asWire,Gang of Four,Pere Ubu,Delta 5 andthe Raincoats have been described as "art punk" byLouder, who define art punk as "bands obsessed with the form of their music, of avoiding ‘rockist' clichés and aiming for something more avant-garde and challenging".[12]
Art punk is often marked by well-read musicians with middle-class sensibilities, bookish lyrics, art school backgrounds, and a stripped-back fashion style that rejectspunk fashion clichés (as seen with bands likeTalking Heads,the Fall andWire).[9]
During the late 1950s to early 1960s, members ofthe Beatles,the Rolling Stones,the Kinks, the Who,10cc,the Move,the Yardbirds andPink Floyd attended and drewavant-garde ideas fromart school, which they incorporated into a traditionalrock and roll framework. These musical developments later led to the emergence ofart rock.[13][14] Art punk drew influences from art rock bands likethe Velvet Underground.[15][16]Pitchfork attributesMayo Thompson,[17]Captain Beefheart,[18] andLou Reed[19] as "the primary oracle for a generation of art punks".[17] Whileexperimental rock artists such asthe Residents,[20]Frank Zappa,[21]Monks[22] and Germany'skrautrock movement would also prove influential to the genre.[23][24]
By the early 1970s, the influential English art rock bandRoxy Music[25] emerged, singerBryan Ferry had briefly attended art school,[26] while keyboardistBrian Eno, drew influences from Germany's krautrock scene, alongside frequent collaboratorDavid Bowie, who would also collaborate withIggy Pop,[27] on his solo albumThe Idiot, and released the influentialBerlin Trilogy.[28] Brian Eno released influential art rock albums such asHere Come the Warm Jets andTaking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), and later produced for art punk bands likeTelevision,Devo andTalking Heads as well as theNo New York compilation album.
During the early-to-mid 1970s,New York City artists such asTelevision,Patti Smith,Richard Hell and the Voidoids andTalking Heads would emerge from the burgeoning early NYC punk scene, performing at local clubs likeCBGB andMax's Kansas City. Their music blended the raw energy of early punk with influences frompoetry as well as local art and avant-garde scenes, contrasting with what would become the standard rudimentary punk sound associated with Britishpub rock and American acts likethe New York Dolls,Heartbreakers,Dead Boys andRamones.[9]
Talking Heads, originally known as "the Artistics," formed while studying at theRhode Island School of Design in 1975.[29] InOhio, bands such asDevo,Mirrors,the Styrenes,Electric Eels,[30] andPere Ubu would form, blendinggarage rock andproto-punk withavant-garde experimentation.[31] Additionally,Oklahoma band Debris' who mergedthe Stooges withBeefheart,acid rock and earlyRoxy Music have been described as a "proto-art-punk band".[32] Other early art punk groups were often formed at art schools or composed primarily of musicians who had studied at art schools.[33][9]
In 1975,Patti Smith released her debut albumHorses produced byJohn Cale previously of the Velvet Underground. The album was retroactively described byAllMusic as "essentially the first art punk album".[11] Subsequently, retrospective reviews citedTelevision’s debut albumMarquee Moon as "jazzy art punk,"[34] and Talking Heads as graduating from an "art punk jangle to maximalist post-modern funk orchestra".[35]
In the UK, thepost-punk scene often intersected with art punk, bands such asthe Fall,the Raincoats,Public Image Ltd andMagazine being attributed the label interchangeably with post-punk.[12] AuthorGavin Butt linked art education as a "really important part of the cultural ecology" ofLeeds-based bands such asDelta 5,Gang of Four,Scritti Politti andthe Mekons.[36]
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However,Simon Reynolds[9] cites that not all bands in the British post-punk scene had gone to art school:
Some accused these experimentalists of merely lapsing back into theart rock elitism that punk originally aimed to destroy […] Of course, not everyone in postpunk attended art school, or even college. Self-educated […] figures likeJohn Lydon orMark E. Smith […] fit the syndrome of the anti-intellectual intellectual.
By late 1977, English bandWire released their debut albumPink Flag, marking the start of a string of highly influential records—includingChairs Missing and154 that would go on to define and lay the groundwork for art punk and broaderalternative music.[37][38] Other bands such asSwell Maps whose debut single "Read About Seymour" gained cult success after being played on theJohn Peel show, blendedDIY sensibilities with more experimental and artier influences. Their albumsA Trip to Marineville andJane from Occupied Europe, later became staple art punk releases.[39]
By the early 1980s, bands such asthe Feelies came to further define the genre, with their debut album "Crazy Rhythms"being described as "oddball art punk".[40] Followed by, Kansas bandthe Embarrassment described as "Midwest art-punk heroes", who blended the nerdy sound ofJonathan Richman'sThe Modern Lovers with the quirky, cerebral style ofTalking Heads.[41] Audiences noted that "they looked more like nerds than punks", resulting in the band being retrospectively assessed as a template forgeek rock.[42][43] In England, the bandCardiacs madeavant-prog andpost-punk influencedart rock, withthe Guardian describing the songR.E.S. as an "art-punkBohemian Rhapsody".[44]
Subsequently, groups such asthe Slits,Alternative TV,Au Pairs,the Flying Lizards andthe Pop Group would further develop the art punk sound, crafting songs that blended abstract lyrics and avant-garde music withpunk andpost-punk elements, whilst bands such asHalf Japanese,[45]the Birthday Party, andBlurt incorporated anoise rock influence.[46][47] Later, the New Yorkno wave scene also saw brief intersections with art punk, evinced by artists likeJames Chance and the Contortions,Rosa Yemen,Mars,Theoretical Girls,the Static, A Band,Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and most notablySonic Youth.
Californian punk bands such asMX-80 Sound andthe Minutemen took influences fromjazz, blending intricate rhythms, and unconventional song structures to create a more experimental and cerebral form of punk.
The scene also took form internationally, Anna Szemere traces the beginnings of theHungarian art-punk subculture to 1978, when punk band the Spions performed three concerts which drew on conceptualistperformance art andAntonin Artaud'sTheatre of Cruelty, with neo-avant-garde/anarchist manifestos handed out to the audience.[48]
In Ireland, the bandStump drew influence fromCaptain Beefheart andPere Ubu further developing the sound of art punk into the late '80s, as they were featured on theNME's infamousC86 cassette compilation, alongside other art punk groups such as theManchester-based bandbIG*fLAME.[49]
By the late 1980s to early 1990s, Scottish bands likeCountry Teasers andDog Faced Hermans emerged from the scene, with the latter forming in art school. They continued the legacy of experimental and art-driven punk, though they were preceded bythe Fire Engines a few years earlier.[50] Subsequently, American bandThinking Fellers Union Local 282 blended the sound of experimental art punk with that ofindie rock.[51][52]
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In the early 2000s, thepost-punk revival scene briefly revived the art punk sound with bands likethe Rapture, and theYeah Yeah Yeahs, the latter being labeled bythe Guardian as "New York's favourite art-punk rockers".[54][55]
During the 2010s, Canadian groups such asPreoccupations,Ought andWomen, alongside American bands likeProtomartyr andParquet Courts. While Australian bandTropical Fuck Storm, Danish bandIceage and Britain'sGilla Band continued to develop the art-punk sound. Additionally, theegg punk scene pioneered by Indiana-based punk trio the Coneheads,[56] and later proliferated by groups likeUranium Club[57] andSnõõper who incorporated art-punk elements.[58]
By the late 2010s and early 2020s, a new wave of UK and Irish post-punk bands began to gain popularity. Originally emerging out of Brixton'sWindmill scene, terms such as "crank wave" and "post-Brexit new wave" were used to describe these bands,[59][60] who blended the more experimental sides of post-punk withpost-rock,no wave and other art-based influences, some of these bands includeSquid,[61]Parquet Courts,[62]Dry Cleaning,Fat White Family,Shame,Black Country, New Road,Idles andYard Act.[63]