Post #643514 by woofmutt on Tue, Jul 10, 2012 6:37 PM

The careful reader will note that I did not claim punk (and new wave) were inventions of the 80s, I merely cited their influence on me in the 80s.

I know that technically punk was a 70s thing (or a 60s thing depending on what you're willing to call punk). Hell, while in bed one night in the late 70s, on the front porch of the double wide trailer I grew up in*****, I can remember overhearing a news show my folks were watching that mentioned a band in England with the jaw droppingly shocking name of the Sex Pistols causing an outrage over their song God Save the Queen and some promotional artwork.******

That said I would argue that punk's greater impact on US pop culture didn't happen until the 80s. The Decline of Western Civilization was released in 81 (though apparently it began production in 79); The Minutemen's music came out in the 80s; FEAR's the Record came out in 82; the best album the Ramones ever put out, End of the Century, was released in 80*******; no good punk rockers showed up on CHIPs in 1982; the movie Valley Girl, featuring a young Nicolas Cage's awesome performance as a punker, came out in 83; Phil Donahue took a head shaking, eyebrow raising look at punks in 84; and the movie Repo Man came out in 84 which, in case you haven't seen it********, is really swell and features a punk lead character.

So even though the Sex Pistols were writing kids books and the Clash had their own line of tea time biscuits by the 80s********* I still say that the greater impact of punk on US pop culture wasn't until the 80s.

The End
of Part I

***** It's true. There were two bedrooms in the trailer. I had four sisters. So I got to sleep on the front porch. It was an entirely enclosed and insulated porch, but it was the front door to the house. And there was freezer out there. (So, bigtikidude, you weren't the only one in the 70s without a banana seat bike or a family vacation to Hawaii. I can still recall my horror in the 4th grade of having to wear 1950s pegged legged jeans from my grandma's church's clothing bank.)

******That story ain't my ante in a round of More Punk Than Thou cuz I've always refused to play that game and have listened to what I like and couldn't give a donkey's ass whether what I like is cool or that someone else was listening to it years ago. I like the Minutemen. I also like George Strait. Yeah, that's right, George Strait!

******* I love that album, but I know it's hardly considered their best by all the hardcore Ramones fans.

********Calm down, kitten. I know yuh got it on Beta, VHS, laser disc, DVD, Blue Ray, digital download and your favorite quote is tattooed right across the top of your butt.

*********According to Woofmuttipedia.