QUADERNO DI RICERCHE SULLA GRAFICA PUNK
Giovanni Bonassi
QUADERNO DI RICERCHE SULLA GRAFICA PUNK
Giovanni Bonassi 914473, C2 Storia delle Comunicazioni Visive A.A. 2019/20 Professori: Luciana Gunetti Walter Mattana Design della Comunicazione Politecnico di Milano
INDICE
INTRODUZIONE
2
PRIMA SEZIONE Punk Graphic Design Icons Teal Triggs, 1992
SAFETY PINS AND LETRASET Jamie Reid: The Rise of the Pheonix
4
Richard Hollis, 1999
ALTERNATIVES TO INTERNATIONAL STYLE Punk in Britain
6
Russel Bestley, Ian Noble, 1999
PUNK UNCOVERED: AN UNOFFICIAL HISTORY OF PROVINCIAL OPPOSITION
8
Roger Sabin, 1999
TOO LOW TO BE LOW Art pop and the Sex Pistols
10
Amanda Gluibizzi, 2014
SAVILLE ROW: STYLE IS THE MAN HIMSELF The dressing-gown means art: Saville as artist
12
Jenny Brewer, 2018
MALCOLM GARRETT ON HIS FIRST EVER BUZZCOCKS ARTWORK
14
Artefatti
16
SECONDA SEZIONE Punk and Postmodernism Ryan Moore, 2004
POSTMODERNISM AND PUNK SUBCULTURE Cultures of Authenticity and Deconstruction
22
Ivan Golobolov, 2014
IMMIGRANT PUNK: THE STRUGGLE FOR POST-MODERN AUTHENTICITY
24
Artefatti
26
TERZA SEZIONE Punk Zine Teal Triggs, 2006
SCISSORS AND GLUE: PUNK FANZINES AND THE CREATION OF A DIY AESTHETIC Sniffin’ Glue
32
Teal Triggs, 2006
SCISSORS AND GLUE: PUNK FANZINES AND THE CREATION OF A DIY AESTHETIC Ripped & Torn and Chainsaw
34
Christian Schmidt, 2006
MEANINGS OF FANZINES IN THE BEGINNING OF PUNK IN THE G.D.R. AND F.R.G.
36
Anna Richardson, 2010
‘ZINE SCENE
38
Artefatti
40
CINEMA PUNK Rossana Morriello, 2016
BREVE RASSEGNA SUL CINEMA PUNK
46
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
48
BIBLIOGRAFIA
50
Copertina di “Sniffin’ Glue” n°6, 1977, Mark Perry, Londra 1
Questa è la copertina di Sniffin’ Glue di Mark Perry, considerata la prima fanzine punk, e la storia che essa racconta tratta di una musica nuova, che si intuisce negli Stati Uniti degli anni ‘70 ma che mette le proprie radici a Londra nel 1976, con la nascita dei Sex Pistols. Il punk è una musica rozza, urlata, strappata, che raccoglie ciò che vede della società contemporanea, lo distrugge e lo rigurgita in forme nuove come i vestiti di coloro che la ascoltano, come i concerti delle band che la suonano e come il mondo della grafica che si forma intorno ad essa. La prima sezione, “Punk Graphic Design Icons”, tratta dei nomi più celebri della grafica punk, soprattutto dell’universo punk inglese di fine anni ‘70 e inizio anni ‘80. I designer delle band più celebri come Jamie Reid, Peter Saville e Malcolm Garrett erano essi stessi delle icone e le loro copertine e poster sono stati essenziali per la formazione dell’estetica punk. Anche se la grafica punk era ricca di principianti con pochi strumenti e conoscenze, essi guardavano a questi mentori come alle loro band preferite per produrre i proprio artefatti. La seconda sezione, “Punk and Postmodernism”, analizza il rapporto tra il postmodernismo e la cultura punk. Le declinazioni culturali del punk sono coerenti tra loro perchè si basano su un sentimento comune di rifiuto dell’inautenticità della cultura postmoderna di quegli anni. Il punk rifiuta qualunque tipo di regola imposta, strappa i propri vestiti, urla la propria musica e scrive male e in grande i propri titoli, è una cultura del dissenso. La terza sezione “Punk Zine”, si addentra nel mondo delle fanzine punk, strumento simbolo della cultura “Do It Yourself”, emblema della grafica punk. Fan senza qualunque nozione di grafica scrivono su fotocopie in bianco e nero le recensioni dei loro album preferiti, prendendo pezzi di pubblicità come di giornali, prendendo in giro la grafica alta come quella bassa. Segue alle tre sezioni l’analisi di quello che è considerato uno dei migliori documentari sul punk americano, “Decline of Western Civilization”, in cui Penelope Spheeris tra il 1979 e il 1980 si aggira per la California documentando l’esplosione delle band che avrebbero fatto la storia del genere, vivendo con loro e osservando quindi da un punto di vista privilegiato e il più autentico possibile. Non avendo la possibilità di visitare archivi e biblioteche fisicamente tutti gli articoli sono stati reperiti online, molti sono tratti da riviste di design, in particolare Eye Magazine, Design Week, Journal of Design History, It’s Nice That, dal testo di storia della grafica di Hollis o da articoli accademici. Molte delle immagini di artefatti sono prese dall’archivio del MoMA e dagli archivi on-line dei grafici stessi, come quello di Peter Saville, altri sono presi da articoli on-line. Nella seconda sezione, trattando della cultura punk in modo più generale ho deciso di inserire fotografie dell’epoca tratte dagli archivi dell’agenzia Magnum e dei fotografi Janette Beckam e Derek Ridgers. Le fanzine della terza sezione sono state più difficili da reperire perchè molte di esse sopravvivono solamente in vecchie e poco curate scansioni reperite da articoli e blog online. Nella mia ricerca ho cercato di offrire uno sguardo sulle ragioni, le origini e il mondo della grafica punk, spesso ignorata dalla critica e dalla cultura accademica ma che rappresenta un pagina unica e indimenticabile della storia della grafica. 2
Copertina di “Anarchy in the UK”, fanzine promozionale per il tour dei Sex Pistols Jamie Reid, 1976
PRIMA SEZIONE: PUNK GRAPHIC DESIGN ICONS
SAFETY PINS AND LETRASET Jamie Reid: The Rise of the Pheonix
Teal Triggs, 1992 Eye Magazine, Spring
[...]What is revealing about Reid’s work, whether seen in the context of the current neo-punk revival or viewed as a retrospective, are the elements of humour, spontaneity and political commitment which have survived intact over the last three decades. Reid has avoided joining the ranks of mainstream graphic design and the commercial fine art establishment, opting instead to continue to subvert conventional forms of art and design practice. In part, Reid is a product an art school system once considered to be a centre of artistic innovation and now felt by many to be a slowly dissipating. He attended the Wimbledon Art School (1962-64) and Croydon College of Art (1964-68) where he first met Malcolm McLaren, later manager of the Sex Pistols. After a series of odd jobs, Reid began a community magazine called Suburban Press, publishing six issues from 1970-75, each distinguished by a mix of technologically primitive graphics and Situationist texts. There were numerous examples of Reid’s earlier subversive ‘agit prop’ efforts, or what critic Jon Savage has described as ‘art that was political but didn’t shout it’. The Suburban Press stickers ‘This Store Welcomes Shoplifters’ and ‘Save Petrol Burn Cars’ (1972-73) were exhibited alongside ‘stolen’ Cecil Beaton portraits of the Queen collaged with safety pins, swastikas and ransom note twwypography. These have since become recognised as the methods of anarchic subcultural bricolage. The images are immediate and recognisable. Their success lies in the appropriation of conventional media imagery to subvert the very same political, social and cultural conventions such media portrays. Jamie Reid’s work and the message embodied in it have become myth. His lexicon of ‘do-it-yourself graphic design’ has been universalised and ‘acculturated’. Specific meanings are no longer to be found in the ritual and secret codes of punk. Rather, Reid’s graphic and linguistic ‘language’ has in some measure become part of the establishment. 4
Prima sezione
Cover per il singolo “God Save The Queen” dei Sex Pistols Jamie Reid, 1977
Reid parodies this, as well as his own career, by producing his own pragmatic design aid in Letraset Multi-Punk (1988). Instead of creating random note texts with the aid of scissors and newspapers, Reid sees the advantage of a rub-down Letraset sheet. Such commodification institutionalises his graphics, reducing it to both a do-it-yourself form and a conventional medium and process. It is perhaps this formal rejection and subversion of conventional ideology that stabilises new media, allowing them to be elevated to high art, and encourages purely artistic readings of what has traditionally been understood (and is probably still considered by Reid) to be pure ephemera. 5
Punk Graphic Design Icons
ALTERNATIVES TO INTERNATIONAL STYLE Punk in Britain
Richard Hollis, 1999 “Graphic Design. A Concise History” Thames & Hudson, Londra
[...]The first important extension of graphic language in the early 1970s was through mass culture. Punk, in its most obvious form, was a London street style, part of the culture of drugs and pop music, rebellious and with a desire to shock. Punk ‘fanzines’ - magazines of music groups’ fan clubs - used torn-out letters and imagery recycled from popular newspapers, typewriter text and handwriting with ready-made images, stuck together to produce an originai for reproduction by lithography or photocopying. Dada had been against Art; Punk was anti-Design.[...] [...]Punk found a ready response among designers disenchanted with Modernism. It emerged in similar forms in other European countries, noticeably in Netherlands. In England, Colin Fulcher, who adopted the nam Barney Bubble , was the most original talent. After a conventional apprenticeship as a design assistant, Bubbles designed record sleeves and advertisements in music magazines. His 1977 symbol for the Blockheads band is an ideogram of startling invention, perfectly expressing their aggressive wit. Bubbles was unique in his ability to find imagery for a verbal idea. His designs did not depend on obvious aesthetic effects nor did they borrow from fine art, as had the Modern Movement designers like Rand. The image was locked together with the words to make an idea; its references were only within the design itself, without connections to a broader culture. Certainly Bubbles used some of the direct unsophisticated approach of Brutalism, exposing the process of fabrication, like printing from children’s printing kits with rubber letters. In fact, he exploited the direct use of the process camera in the studio, constructing his designs by a series of improvisations and manipulations of scale, crude and delicate, positive and negative.[...] [...]A former art editor of Vogue, Terry Jones, produced Not Another Punk Book in 1977, itself a caricature of punk graphic techniques - torn newspaper cuttings and ready-made images and plastic lettering pro6
Prima sezione
Logo design per il singolo “What a Waste” dei Blockhead Burney Bubble (Colin Fulcher), Stiff Records, 1977
duced on a labelling machine. Jones went on to launch a street-style magazine, i-D, in 1980. It was the most energetic expression of every kind of new technology, which it used by abusing it - enormously enlarged photocopies and copies distorted by moving the paper, Polaroid instant photographs over- or under-exposed and scratched or painted on. ‘We treated the computer’, said Terry Jones, ‘as another new, fun tool - to add to the box of graphic effects.’ This was an attitude resolutely Punk, to turn the limitations of new technology into positive attributes. So the matrix within which the shapes of letters were formed became an important part of the texture of the printed page. 7
Punk Graphic Design Icons
PUNK UNCOVERED: AN UNOFFICIAL HISTORY OF PROVINCIAL OPPOSITION
Russel Bestley, Ian Noble, 1999 Eye Magazine, Autumn
The subcultural codes contained within the sleeves and band ‘identities’ acted as factors in defining the sense of belonging and membership both in a local and national sense. These codes often took the stereotypical devices of punk – hand-rendered and stencilled typefaces, ransom-note typography and photocopied imagery, often borrowed from newspaper stories of the day and related to the topical nature of the lyrics. In other cases the look or feel was less deliberately DIY [do-it-yourself] and employed images of local significance and genuine low-tech production such as the use of typewritten text and crudely rendered images. This approach exemplified a persistent refusal to engage in sophisticated design values despite subsequent commercial success. These designers and artists went on to produce work that refined the style of earlier production, but maintained its raw disregard for more mainstream commercial aesthetic values. Where it is possible to trace elements of a more considered design sense in earlier punk sleeves, we find that this is still employed to ironic or knowing effect. The sleeve front for the Human League’s single ‘Being Boiled’ (FAST Product, 1978) (see GTF’s Visual Essay, Eye no. 31 vol. 8) and the reverse side of the Normal’s ‘Warm Leatherette’ (Mute, 1978) make use of the ‘sophistication’ of Letraset’s rub-down illustrations. Architectural and interior design reference figures of happy, bland, carefree couples – dancing, watching TV – are juxtaposed with typefaces from the catalogue that dominated graphic design departments of art colleges during that period. Before the Macintosh, this provided an alternative to expensive phototypesetting and time-consuming letterpress production. The impact of available and affordable Xerox copies should not be underestimated as a design tool during the late 1970s both in the art colleges and outside. The outer sleeve for the Adicts’ Lunch with the Adicts (Dining Out Records, 1979) is a simple photocopy cut down to size and folded in half. Inside and loose with the disc itself is another 8
Prima sezione
"Being Boiled-Circus of Death", singolo di The Human League Cover Artwork, Fast Records, 1978
photocopy with sleeve notes. This approach can be seen again on the packaging for the ‘O’ Level’s ‘We love Malcolm’ (Kings Road, 1978) – a blank labelled disc with no details, in standard factory white slip cover. The only information is provided by a stark black and white photocopied and hand-rendered illustration of three about-to-be-executed prisoners, which is cut (for no apparent reason) with dressmakers’ pinking shears at an angle on the bottom edge. 9
Punk Graphic Design Icons
TOO LOW TO BE LOW Art pop and the Sex Pistols
Roger Sabin, 1999 “Punk Rock: so what?” Routledge, Londra
If the Pistols are the first band that springs to mind at the mention of the word punk, then the first images that would spring to mind would be the visuals created for the Pistols by Jamie Reid. Reid’s work is important not just because it amounts to the greatest single contribution to punk’s visual identity, but because it also articulated the most vital aspects of the Pistols’ critique of pop. It was, therefore, more than just simple publicity material, a collection of posters, record sleeves and flyers. Reid’s work became even more than a visual equivalent of the music; his visuals inflected the experience of listening to the music to the extent that they became a part of it. The most direct way in which Reid’s visuals relate to the Pistols’ music is in terms of their montage form, their decentred pillaging of fragments of pop-cultural detritus. Reid appropriated his materials from the trash populism of tabloid culture and downmarket advertising, and he added to this a vital element in the form of his appropiation of the language of the ‘alternative’, or to use a phrase of the time, ‘agit-prop’ political press.[…] […]Because of the position Reid had worked out for himself, there is hardly one example of his Pistols work that doesn’t work, that isn’t rigorously resolved and pitch-perfect, even though many of them were a result of an ad hoc, extemporised working process. But, if there is one that stands out, it is, for the purposes here, the cover of the 7-inch single, ‘Pretty Vacant’, and it stands out because of the ways in which it references almost everything that made Reid and the Pistols’ work so potent. The B-side of the single is a cover of the Stooges’ ‘No Fun’ that is reframed and recontextualised so that it finally makes sense. This is augmented by Reid’s use of his SP period ‘Situationist buses’ design for the back cover—a collage of two tourist coaches the destinations of which are ‘nowhere’ and ‘boredom’. The front cover features the shattered glass of a picture frame, beneath which is emblazoned, in ransom note lettering, the name of the band and the song. Nothing, at the time, so vividly articulated what it was like to hear the Pistols 10
Prima sezione
Poster promozionale per i Sex Pistols del singolo “Pretty Vacant” Jamie Reid, 1977
shattering the edifice of rock ’n’ roll mythology: it was exactly like the sound of breaking glass—and you didn’t know where the shards were going to fall.[…] […]We can no longer, however, see art as being detached from the low. the popular. and the everyday; we can no longer subscribe to an Adornian purist view of Modernism. This work, like all the best art in the tradition of the Historical Avant- Garde, opens up a space between Art with a capital ‘A’, and the realm of ‘everyday life’. This space did not disappear in the 60s with the success of Pop art, as Frith and Home naively suggest, but it doesn’t simply exist either: it is a space that has to be made and remade. This is what constitutes the dynamics of art history in the modern (and ‘postmodern’) period. 11
Punk Graphic Design Icons
SAVILLE ROW: STYLE IS THE MAN HIMSELF The dressing-gown means art: Saville as artist
Amanda Gluibizzi, 2014 “Visual Culture in Britain” Taylor and Francis, Londra
That Saville is an artist is undisputed by others who drew inspiration from his work. The painter Robert Longo, whose oversized drawings in the ‘Men in the Cities’ series from the 1980s call to mind the stark, graphic qualities of Saville’s earliest records, suggests that in an era before downloads a consumer of music looking for offerings outside the radioendorsed norm had only the graphics on the albums to guide listening. The aesthetic of the album covers was an essential response to the visual priorities of the potential audience, and Longo found satisfaction in Saville’s designs: “The stark elegance of [Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures’s] cover and the graphic simplicity was eerie yet beautiful; but above all, radically different from all the endless punk crap covers. The striking, white, electronic waveform drawing centered on the black textured cover just hummed. The waveform image was a wave graph of a dying star. I mean come on! ‘How fucking great is that?’ I thought.Adying star for a dying culture on a dying planet! It was such a huge concept, yet so direct – it just blew me away. When I finally played the record in my studio I became hypnotized by the music. I will always associate that moment, music and album cover with the beginning ofmyprofessional life as a practicing artist. I would listen to it endlessly while I was working, usually late at night, and I would always keep the cover in view.” Saville’s portraitist, Wolfgang Tillmans, also recalls how vital a Saville album cover was to his artistic development. His preference, New Order’s Confusion, served as an exemplar for an art that left something for the viewer to do, that expected the viewer to complete the work by 12
Prima sezione
Cover design per l’album “Unknown Pleasures” dei Joy Division Peter Saville, Factory Records, 1979
viewing, listening or responding. Indeed, Tillmans treated the album as an artwork, ‘put[ting] the record on a little ledge in my room and display[ing] it as ‘‘a work of art’’. It was the obscurity of Peter’s design, the fact that it didn’t do what design was expected to do, that drew my attention. And sitting on display in my room it continued to hold my fascination. It took on a life of its own, in a co-existencewith New Order’s broken-up sound.’ The attraction to this conflation of commercial design and fine art seems particularly apt for a photographer such as Tillmans, who also works in both arenas and considers the ‘magazine as [his] primary art medium’. 13
Punk Graphic Design Icons
MALCOLM GARRETT ON HIS FIRST EVER BUZZCOCKS ARTWORK
Jenny Brewer, 2018 It’s Nice That
Something of a legend in British graphic design, Malcolm Garrett cut his teeth designing artwork for bands such as Buzzcocks, Simple Minds and Duran Duran but has since become a key figure in the evolution of the sector. While his name will always be synonymous with those iconic music industry collaborations, the past 20 years have seen him develop pioneering work in the digital space, and in 2000 was the first Royal Designer for Industry in the field of interactive media. “I was still a second year at Manchester Poly,” Malcolm tells It’s Nice That of the poster, “it was my first piece of professional work, and my first thing for Buzzcocks, which led to a relationship that continues to this day. People don’t really know the story of that original poster. I screen printed it by hand, in college. I was listening to Buzzcocks lyrics and this song Love Battery, from the first album, stood out. It uses a found image from a newspaper, printed really small on newsprint and enlarged by 1000%, hence why the quality of the line is so broken up. It was from a small ad in the back of the paper for someone’s get-rich-quick scheme to sell one-legged tights, which is simultaneously such a brilliant and stupid idea. “The idea was to mix images of the human form with electrical circuitry, so after this was printed I hand-painted two motifs in the middle, diagrammatic representations of the plus and minus connections of a battery – so it’s literally a love battery! There are plugs in both righthand corners so the band could use it portrait or landscape, and it’s intended to be painted over with gig dates so they could put it up in local venues. It’s also the first time the Buzzcocks logo was ever used. For me, this poster was the beginning of a not-unsuccessful career!” Malcolm says his approach at the time was to make work with longevity and continuity across other work for the band. He says he wanted the rhetoric not to be throwaway, and have “life beyond that poster, though nobody could’ve told me it would last 40 years. You just do it 14
Prima sezione
Poster promozionale per “Love Battery” dei Buzzcocks Malcolm Garrett, 1977
and hope it works”. It kickstarted his career and earned him many more commissions from other bands, and while it was exciting to have most of his subsequent work published, Malcolm comments that as a young designer it meant he did all his growing up in public. And while there are many projects that, with hindsight, he feels could be better, each was a step forwards and “thankfully the unsuccessful things disappeared, and the successful things survived – and the bands did too. 15
Punk Graphic Design Icons Album cover per l’album “Never Mind The Bollocks” dei Sex Pistols’ Jamie Reid, Virgin Records, 1977
Poster design per il singolo “Anarchy in the UK” dei Sex Pistols Jamie Reid, EMI Records, 1977
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Prima sezione Sticker per il singolo “God Save the Queen” dei Sex Pistols Jamie Reid, Virgin Records, 1977
Front e retro della cover per “Warm Leatherette-T.V.O.D.” di The Normal Mute Records, 1978
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Punk Graphic Design Icons Cover design per “Cracking up” di Nick Lowe Barney Bubble (Colin Fulcher), Stiff Records, 1979
Cover design per il singolo “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” di Ian Dury and the Blockheads Barney Bubble (Colin Fulcher), Stiff Records, 1978
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Prima sezione Poster per The Factory Peter Saville, Factory Records, 1978
Cover design per le prime 10.000 copie di “in the Dark� degli Orchestral Manoeuvres Peter Saville, The Factory Records, 1980
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Punk Graphic Design Icons
Copertina di i-D n°5, 1981
Copertina del singolo “Orgasm Addict” dei Buzzcocks Malcolm Garrett, United Artists, 1978 20
Punk kid in King’s Road Derek Ridgers, 1977
SECONDA SEZIONE: PUNK AND POSTMODERNISM
POSTMODERNISM AND PUNK SUBCULTURE Cultures of Authenticity and Deconstruction
Ryan Moore, 2004 The Communication Review, n°7
The crisis of representation and sense of fragmentation characteristic of postmodern theory, culture, and politics are theorized as symptomatic of, though not reducible to, a broader shift in social structure catalyzed by processes of economic restructuring and political realignment. I argue that the subculture and musical genre known as punk responds to “the condition of postmodernity” in two seemingly contradictory ways. The first identifies a homology between postmodernism and punk performance, attitude, and style. Suffused with self-reflexive irony, these punks have recycled cultural images and fragments for purposes of parody and shocking juxtaposition, thereby deconstructing the dominant meanings and simulations which saturate social space. More often, it can simply be understood as the response of young people raised within a mass-mediated, consumer-driven environment who have turned signs and spectacles against themselves, as a means of waging war on society. Furthermore, many of these punk rock bands have personified the boredom and purposelessness of suburban youth socialized to be spectators and consumers, and the spastic flow of their music and musical careers dramatizes that fragmentation of experience. The second way in which punk subcultures have responded to postmodern society has involved a quest for authenticity and independence from the culture industry, thus altogether renouncing the prevailing culture of media, image, and hypercommercialism. Whereas the first response to postmodernity appropriates signs, symbols, and style for the purposes of shock and semiotic disruption, the second attempts to go “underground” and insulate punk subculture from the superficiality of postmodern culture. Punk musicians and fans in search of authenticity have established local institutions of alternative media outside the culture industry (such as independently owned record labels and self-produced magazines, or “fanzines”) while elevating musical 22
Seconda sezione
A two day punk-rock festival held in an ancient bullfighting arena, featuring more than 15 different bands from alt over Europe. The festival is attended by a crowd of 2000 participants. 2nd Rock Festival "Punk". Mont de Marsan, Landes, France. August 5-6, 1977. © Jean Gaumy I Magnum Photos
production above fashion and appearance as the only sincere basis of creative expression. Within punk subcultures, the process of creating independent media and interpersonal networks in opposition to the corporate media is referred to as the “do-it-yourself,” or DIY, ethic. What I have called the “culture of deconstruction” initially emerged as Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols attempted to redirect media and spectacles against themselves. In doing so, they exposed the constructed and arbitrary nature of popular culture, reappropriated past images with a sense of irony and self-reflexivity, mimicked the fragmentation and distortion of mediated perception, and embraced hybridity and simulation as a means of semiotic disruption. The “culture of authenticity,” on the other hand, developed as young people attempted to insulate themselves from the culture industry and consumer lifestyles in their search for expressive sincerity and anticommercial purity. Those who embraced the do-it-yourself approach transformed media and consumer identities into independent networks of cultural production, which enabled a sense of local community, allowed spectators to become participants, and created a space for public debate and dissent. 23
Punk and Postmodernism
IMMIGRANT PUNK: THE STRUGGLE FOR POST-MODERN AUTHENTICITY
Ivan Golobolov, 2014 “Fight Back! Punk, Politics and Resistance” Manchester University Press
Punk is often regarded as a subculture essentially based on the principles of authenticity. In most general terms, following Taylor, authenticity is understood as an ability to break external impositions and to express one’s own Self. Regular subversion of meanings, elements of self-destruction, self-abasement, nihilism, the clear anti foundationalist stance and revolutionizing potential of punk, all make it difficult to locate something uncontroversially authentic. This creates a tension that is further amplified by regular associations of punk with postmodernism, 6 where, according to Jameson, the rules of ‘new superficiality’ and ‘depthlessness’ make the very distinction between authenticity and inauthenticity obsolete. This chapter argues that punk is not wrongly seen as a postmodern phenomenon, and that it is deeply rooted in this movement, aesthetically and ideologically. However, at the same time, it clearly also drifts away from the ‘superficiality’ and ‘depthlessness’ of postmodernism, and actively seeks ways of being authentic, honest, sincere and true, not only to itself, but also to the audiences with whom it speaks. Postmodernism, within the frame of this research, is understood as a set of discursive attitudes inherent to a particular historical moment. Such a moment is characterized by the devaluation of grand- or meta-narratives of modernity such as religion, philosophy and elaborate political programs based on abstract truths. It defies such narratives in contextual, direct, action-based or performative practices of validating identities and social relations. According to Baudrillard the state of postmodernity is also defined by the loss of connection with the real world, which comes to be substituted by the hyperreality of its representations, or simulacra. The growing value of image has a profound effect on all spheres of our life, including economics, politics, social relations, and art. 24
Seconda sezione
Sex Pistols in Hyde Park Janette Beckam, Londra, 1977
In addition, punk can be considered ideologically postmodern. It openly declares its anti-foundationalism; it not only frequently attacks meta-narratives but also raises its fists against the very possibility of such narratives by assaulting institutions of authority, religion and corporate business. Nihilism, self-abasement and self-destruction show complete disregard to the future and indifference to one’s own life. Yet, as Moore writes: ‘whereas the first [punk] response to postmodernity appropriates signs, symbols, and style for the purposes of shock and semiotic disruption, the second attempts to go “underground” and insulate punk subculture from the superficiality of postmodern culture’. The culture of DIY, independent labels and self ‘punk productions’, and the organization of autonomous space and alternative economies all developed within punk communities, each propose to construct a real alternative to postmodernist popular culture. 25
Punk and Postmodernism The Clash Janette Beckam, Milano, 1980
Punks, Sid Vicious memorial Janette Beckam, Londra, 1979
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Seconda sezione 2nd Rock Festival "Punk". Mont de Marsan, Landes, France. August 5-6, 1977. Š Jean Gaumy I Magnum Photos
Black Flag concert Edward Colver, 1981
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Punk and Postmodernism
2nd Rock Festival "Punk". Mont de Marsan, Landes, France. August 5-6, 1977. Š Jean Gaumy I Magnum Photos 28
Seconda sezione The Police, Outlandos cover Janette Beckam, 1978
Adam [Ant] from the Ants at the Vortex Derek Ridgers, London, 1977
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Punk and Postmodernism
Peter Price, Teenager Punk. Yearbook pg. 53. 1981., Š Peter Price
Vortex Club Derek Ridgers, London, 1977 30
Copertina della fanzine Chainsaw n°11 Charlie Chainsaw, 1981
TERZA SEZIONE: PUNK ZINE
SCISSORS AND GLUE: PUNK FANZINES AND THE CREATION OF A DIY AESTHETIC Sniffin’ Glue
Teal Triggs, 2006 Journal of Design History, vol. 19, n° 1
The first punk fanzine to reflect the punk movement visually in Britain was Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue (1976–1977). Mark P.’s Sniffin’ Glue is credited as the first British punk fanzine amongst punk historians such as Jon Savage, who writes: ‘Perry’s achievement was to unite for a brief time all the tensions—between art and commerce, between avant-garde aesthetics and social realist politics—that eventually tore punk apart, and write them out in a sharp mix of emotion and intention that still makes his words fresh’. Others writing at the time, including Charlie Chainsaw, producer of the punk fanzine Chainsaw, who altered the form of his production just to differentiate his fanzine from the multitude of Sniffin’ Glue ‘look-a-likes’ that had appeared so soon after its first issue. These attributes were the way in which the typewritten text was used with mistakes in spelling as well as cross-outs, all caps, handwritten graffiti text, photographs of bands used on two-thirds of the cover, and so forth. The title, Sniffin’ Glue: And Other Rock’n’roll Habits was inspired by the Ramones’ London gig and song ‘Now I wanna sniff some glue’—a verse that is reprinted in Issue 1 (1976). Produced initially in Mark P.’s back bedroom, Sniffin’ Glue found a gap in the ‘market’ with an audience of like-minded punk music enthusiasts. His initial photocopier run was 50 but by the end of Sniffin’ Glue in 1977 up to 10,000 were in circulation. Perry stopped producing Sniffin’ Glue with number 12 (August/ September 1977) about the same time that he suggests punk had been assimilated into the music industry. Like punk itself, fanzines moved from positions of independence to rapid co-option into the mainstream. Sniffin’ Glue was a true DIY production. Mark P. first put together the fanzine using a ‘back to basics’ approach with the main text typed out on an ‘old children’s typewriter’—a Christmas present from his parents when he was ten. Texts were used as they were written with grammatical and punctuation corrections made visible in crossing outs. 32
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Copertina del n°10 della fanzine Sniffin’ Glue Mark Perry, 1977
This stressed the immediacy of its production and of the information, but also the transparency of the design and journalistic process itself. Mark P. and other producers obtained free copies by using copiers found in their workplace or through friends’ jobs. Sniffin’ Glue, for example, was produced on Mark P.’s girlfriend’s office copier. Unlike publishers of some of the later fanzines, Mark P. kept production simple, using only single-sided copies, with an occasional inclusion of a pin-up page of punk band members (e.g. Chelsea or Brian Chevette of Eater), double-sided and backed by an advertisement for a Sex Pistols gig or an independent record shop. 33
Punk Zine
SCISSORS AND GLUE: PUNK FANZINES AND THE CREATION OF A DIY AESTHETIC Ripped & Torn and Chainsaw
Teal Triggs, 2006 Journal of Design History, vol. 19, n° 1
Despite an emerging set of punk ‘conventions’ , which included the A4 stapled format, page layout, the production values of the photocopier and mixture of typographic elements such as cut-npaste, ransom notes and handwritten and typewritten letterforms, each fanzine maintained its own individualized approach. The techniques of DIY encouraged this to occur. The manner in which the graphic marks, visual elements and their layout were presented not only reflected the message but also by default the individual hand of the fanzine producer. Charlie Chainsaw, for example, in his first issue of Chainsaw used stencil letters for the title and a series of cutout newspaper texts collaged with photography of the Sex Pistols and reference to its namesake, an image from the poster of the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Alternatively, Tony Drayton’s Ripped & Torn took a more formal approach combining one photographic image of The Damned with handwritten caps and lowercase letterforms in a hierarchical sequence from the title, the stories promised inside to the smaller, self-effacing tag lines ‘ This is too fantastic … buy it now ’ . Despite its exclusion from most academic histories of punk, Ripped & Torn was considered one of the key publications of the period by both the underground and mainstream press. Ripped & Torn also provided an alternative model to that of Sniffin’ Glue and one that influenced the types of production decision made by other producers. Despite Savage’s criticism, however, Chainsaw is important to include in any discussion of punk London fanzines. In the first instance this is because of its relative longevity and consistency of production. Chainsaw ran irregularly for 14 issues covering a seven-year period. In the second instance, its later issues demonstrated an innovative use of color not found in other fanzines of the time. It was also through the efforts of Chainsaw that lesser-known punk bands were recognized. 34
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Copertina del n°10 della fanzine Ripped & Torn Tony Draiton, 1978
The typewriter text is also unique to the machine from which it was produced. In the case of Chainsaw the punctuation marks appear darker (as if double strikes) from the main body of text, which is uneven in weight but also in line, thereby reflecting the type of pressure that was used to hit individual keys. In addition, the typewriter he used from Issue 5 had dropped the letter ‘ n ’throughout. He writes ‘ the missing “ N ”was filled in by hand — a laborious process! ’ , but also that he did not have the funds required at the time to repair the missing key. The typographic treatment mixing a handwritten ‘ N ’with the typewritten forms, establishes Chainsaw’s trademark or ‘ signature. Chainsaw developed a house style for his fanzine which refl ected his individual approach but also an awareness of standard ‘ professional ’typewriter and printing conventions outs. 35
Punk Zine
MEANINGS OF FANZINES IN THE BEGINNING OF PUNK IN THE G.D.R. AND F.R.G.
Christian Schmidt, 2006 Volume!, 5 - 1
The rising popularity of fanzines coincided with a boom of a technology that played a special role for the publications of the early punks: xerography. Already over two decades ago the first duplicating machines had been pushed onto the market, but it was not until the end of the 70’s that it had become widely affordable, accessible and a real competitor to all existing printing techniques. Now the whole run of a journal could be produced in a short time and with low costs in copyshops or on xerox machines at people’s working places. Without the availability of xerographic technology the flood of fanzines in the early days of West-German punk would certainly not have been possible. But why got xerography that special meaning for the early punks? And why did occur such a need to produce their own fanzines, to duplicate and to distribute them? In 1976 and 1977 one could almost solely read about punk in English music journals. Rarely there appeared some lines in German special interest magazines about the scene in England, but largely the new subculture was not an issue for the established media. So there had been a news’ deficit amongst punks in the FRG. Inspired by English fanzines of that time—especially Sniffin’ Glue—they started to collect information from American and British journals, to translate them, to add their own texts and to distribute this new product in their local scenes. That was their way to act against the ignorance of the mass media. The Ostrich from Düsseldorf can be considered as the first punk fanzine in the FRG. Some rock enthusiastic boys who then were basically interested in American artists like The Stooges, Patti Smith and Lou Reed, had heard about English punks around 1976-77 for the first time. They were excited by the shocking image and the brute and simple sound of bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash. Franz Bielmeier was one of these boys. With the help of his friends, he published the first issue of The Ostrich in March 1977, where he reported about his favourite bands, reviewed their records and above 36
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Copertina del n°1 della fanzine The Ostrich Franz Bielmeier, 1977
all featured his own group Charley’s Girls. The media scientist Rainer Winter described fanzines as the potential to stabilize shared attitudes of fans by producing and circulating the meanings within their own world. This description also applies to The Ostrich. Franz Bielmeier’s and Peter Hein’s fanzine soon became an organ which was significantly involved in shaping a collective style and taste within the local punk community. Succeeding local editors compared their zines on and of with The Ostrich. So in 1978 the publisher of Der Arsch appointed it as the leading fanzine in the FRG. 37
Punk Zine
‘ZINE SCENE
Anna Richardson, Teal Triggs, 2010 Design Week, 17
‘The designs of the publications, and the way contributors weren’t just writers, but also illustrators, set the stage [for the future development of fanzines],’ says Triggs. ‘[Fanzines say] a lot about an individual producer, but also about a moment in time - they have great value as a social document.’ The fanzine presents ‘a human voice outside of mass manipulation’, writes Triggs in Fanzines. But just as important as that voice are the form of the fanzine and the way it is made, both elements that feed the understanding of what is being communicated. The form includes the layout (often visually chaotic), the choice of typography (either handwritten or, as with early fanzines, typewritten or using rub-down lettering), and production techniques (whether mimeographed, photocopied or computer-generated). ‘But the fanzine is also a graphic object, with its form and the DIY process by which it is produced providing some understanding of a history of design and popular culture,’ adds Triggs. As fanzines have evolved and appeared indifferent guises, their core aim has remained. ‘It is fascinating that the notion of individual producers making their mark on a publication for like-minded individuals has been consistent throughout,’ says Triggs. Unsurprisingly, many graphic designers have a passion for fanzines - the tactility of the object providing an irresistible lure. Many designers are fanzine producers themselves, but the fanzines Triggs gets really excited about are at the other end of the scale. ‘I really like a certain unknowingness in a fanzine producer,’ she explains. ‘To impose a particular aesthetic is very difficult. I’m quite fascinated by some of the lesser-known fanzines, because they really come from the heart - there’s a naivety that’s beautiful in these productions.’ The Riot Grrrl fanzine, for example, deals with feminism, but has a certain femininity at the same time. The visual language used contains hearts, flowers and stars ‘a prettification’ of the hard-edged content, suggests Triggs. There is now a trend towards using production methods such as letterpress, and playing with different kinds of bindings or with the form itself ‘It’s almost as if the integrity of the lo-f production techniques is inherent to what a fanzine is,’ says Triggs. Many are also pushing the 38
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Fanzine Riot Girrrl, 1991
boundaries of that definition: programme-cum-fanzine, for example, and the use of social networking and new media is also being explored. Despite the advent of increasingly ‘sophisticated publishing software that democratizes magazine production, the DIY authenticity fostered by early fanzine producers has not been lost. According to Triggs, ’zinesters continue to operate on the margins of the mainstream, with a healthy disregard for the traditions of professional design studios and the conventions of literary publishing houses. 39
Punk Zine
Copertina di “Sniffin’ Glue” n°1, Mark Perry, Londra, 1977
Copertina di “Sniffin’ Glue” n°7, Mark Perry, Londra, 1977 40
Terza sezione Copertina del n°2 della fanzine “Chainsaw”, Charlie Chainsaw, Londra, 1977
Testo tratto da una pagina di “Chainsaw” n°3 in cui si possono notare le tipiche N corrette a mano, Charlie Chainsaw, Londra, 1977 41
Punk Zine Copertina di “Ripped & Torn” n°6, Tony Draiton, Londra, 1977
Doppia pagina da “Ripped & Torn” n°6, Tony Draiton, Londra, 1977
42
Terza sezione Copertina di “Murder by Fanzine” n°2, Ross-Shire, Scotland, 1983
Copertina di “Riot Grrrl” n° 1, Molly Neuman and Allison Wolfe, 1991 43
Punk Zine Copertina di “Panache” n°10, Londra, 1978
Doppia pagina di “Panache” n°13, Londra, 1978
44
Poster promozionale per il film di Penelope Spheeris “Suburbia”, 1983, USA
CINEMA PUNK
BREVE RASSEGNA SUL CINEMA PUNK
Rossana Morriello, 2016 Rockerilla.com
“I did it my way. Essere punk” è il titolo che il Torino Film Festival (TFF), da poco conclusosi, ha dato alla retrospettiva dedicata al cinema punk, ideata per celebrare la ricorrenza dei quarant’anni dalla pubblicazione del primo singolo dei Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the UK, avvenuta il 26 novembre 1976. Una selezione, quella presentata al TFF, che ha accostato film molto diversi per intenti e modi di rappresentare questo fenomeno musicale e culturale e che ha permesso quindi di avere una visione ampia su come il cinema si sia rapportato al punk. Innanzitutto, evidenziando le due anime del punk, quella americana e quella inglese, molto diverse nella loro stessa essenza. Nato, com’è noto, negli Stati Uniti a metà anni ‘70, e con band che in qualche modo ereditavano il lascito dei grandi precursori del decennio precedente, dagli Stooges ai Velvet Underground, il punk è stato un movimento che esprimeva il disagio e la disperazione della nuova generazione di giovani e, dal punto di vista musicale, un ritorno a forme sonore più radicali e di base, lontane dai virtuosismi del progressive, che consentivano anche ai ragazzini con pochi mezzi e poche conoscenze tecniche di mettere su una band.[...] [...]Hanno un taglio diverso invece i due film di Penelope Spheeris, regista, produttrice e scrittrice, di certo più vicina lei stessa personalmente al punk, tanto da poterne cogliere gli elementi essenziali non solo nel suo capolavoro, il documentario The Decline of Western Civilization, ma anche in un film in senso stretto, con una trama inventata, come Suburbia. The Decline of Western Civilization (Usa, 1981) è un documentario imprescindibile per la storia del punk. Girato tra il 1979 e il 1980 a Los Angeles, offre un ritratto a tinte forti (ma realistiche) della scena punk di LA, tanto forti che la polizia tentò di impedirne la diffusione. Senza nessun velo, la Spheeries racconta le band tramite interviste, spezzoni di concerti e frammenti di vita privata dei loro componenti con tutto quello che ne consegue, eccessi, droghe, violenza sopra e fuori dal palco, pogo, risse, linguaggio provocatorio e ovviamente musica dura. I nomi sono quelli che hanno fatto la storia 46
Poster promozionale per “The Decline of the Western Civilization”, 1981
del punk: Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Catholic Discipline, Fear, Germs, The X. Ma nel documentario c’è anche tutto ciò che stava attorno alle band, i locali in cui suonavano e le fanzine come Slash. Diretto, genuino, potente, una delle migliori realizzazioni cinematografiche sul punk, cui hanno fatto seguito la parte II dedicata all’heavy metal e la parte III, uscita nel 1998, sulla nuova scena punk. 47
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
nazione anno durata
USA 1981 100’
regia, soggetto fotografia montaggio suono interpreti
Penelope Spheeris Steve Conant Charlie Mullin Alan Cutner Alice Bag Band, Dinah Cancer, Catholic Discipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Black Flag, X, The Germs, Frank Gargani, Bill Gazzarri, Michelle Baer Ghaffari, Jenny Lens, Nicole Panter, Roger Rogerson, Rick Schmidlin Jeff Prettyman, Penelope Spheeris Spheeris Inc.
produttori produzione
«Ai tempi il punk era un fenomeno nuovo a L.A. Probabilmente avevano già realizzato dei film sull’argomento in Inghilterra o a New York, ma qui no. Non disponevo di un archivio a cui attingere, ma di una compagnia di produzione, sì, e potevo usarne le attrezzature. Quindi facevo il mio lavoro, riprendendo band come gli Staples Singers, i Fletwood Mac o i Doobie Brothers, e poi andavo la sera in un club punk e utilizzavo lo stesso materiale di ripresa». Penelope Spheeris Los Angeles, 1981. Un luogo di alienazione e miseria che diviene terreno fertile per la nascita e l’affermazione del punk rock, nato qualche anno prima sulla East Coast. Una manciata di band spericolate e folli che, nel pieno di una fioritura artistica con pochi precedenti, gettano le basi per generi e sottogeneri che faranno la storia. X, The Germs, Fear, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Alice Bag Band e Catholic Discipline sono la punta di un iceberg, un’avanguardia in rotta di collisione con il mondo, sempre in bilico tra tragedia e sarcastica noncuranza. 48
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BIBLIOGRAFIA
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Sabin R. (1999), “Punk rock: so what?”, Routledge, London. Schmidt C. (2006), “Meanings of fanzines in the beginning of Punk in the GDR and FRG”, Volume!, http://journals.openedition.org/volume/636, PDF. Triggs T. (1992), “Safety Pins and Letraset”, Eye Magazine, Spring 1992, http://www.eyemagazine.com/review/article/safety-pins-and-letraset. Triggs T. (2006), “Scissors and Glue: Punk Fanzines and the Creation of a DIY Aesthetic”, Journal of Design History, vol. 19, n° 1, Oxford University Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3838674, PDF. FONTI DELLE IMMAGINI Gaumy J. (1977), “When Punk Came to Rural France”, Magnum Photos, https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/music/jean-gaumywhen-punk-came-to-rural-france/ Beckam J., “UK YOUTH”, https://janettebeckman.com/uk-youth/#0 Beckam J., “UK PUNK”, https://janettebeckman.com/uk-punk/#0 Zawadski C. (2017), “BARNEY BUBBLES The graphic artist whose work defined a musical revolution”, http://hero-magazine.com/article/104092/barney-bubbles/# https://www.sexpistolsofficial.com/sex-pistols-artwork/ https://www.rockpaperfilm.com/all-posters/jamie-reid-the-sex-pistols-pretty-vacant-nowehere-boredom-buses-promo-1977/ Ridgers D. (2016), “Punk London, 1977: Thrilling Photos of a Subversive Era”, https://medium.com/cuepoint/punk-london-1977-thrilling-photos-of-a-subversive-era-2fa2728d9df6 Saville P., Sleeves, https://petersaville.info/ MoMA,The Collection, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/ Factory Records, https://factoryrecords.org/ Havlin L. (2016), “The Riot Grrrl Style Revolution”, AnOther, https://www. anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/8279/the-riot-grrrl-style-revolution Rigby P. (2019), “RIPPED & TORN: PUNK IN THE RAW”, https://theaudiophileman.com/ripped-torn-book-review-punk/ Kawalik T. (2016), “Let’s go sniffin some glue”, Wonderland Magazine, https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2016/06/06/lets-go-sniff-glue/