The birth of any musical style is inextricably linked to the characteristics of the times, said the British director Alex. Cox saw the relationship between music and the times and made the film "Sid and Nancy". The film is based on The Sex Pistols bassist Sid. Adaptation of Vysches' deeds.
At the beginning of the film, the members of the band live an absurd and chaotic life, and they are always hovering on the edge of mainstream life. I couldn't find my goal, I didn't have a serious job, and I was living in a foggy nightmare. Sid had known Nancy at his friend's house earlier, and the two of them had been hanging out all day, hurting each other but relying on each other.
Despite the chaos of the day, Nancy was convinced of Sid's talent. To Sid, Nancy was like a light in his life. Nancy helped Sid prepare for the concert, which was eventually recognized by the acting company. Subsequently, the band began to get on track. At this point, the relationship between the two people changed, and because of the tour, the two people were temporarily separated.
Unfortunately, the brilliant acting career did not allow the two to have a better life. Instead, the quarrels between Sid and Nancy grew, and the two men changed greatly spiritually. By chance, Sid ends Nancy's life, and although Sid escaped justice, he does not get the favor of fate.
As a biographical film, director Alex. Cox keenly captures Sid's changes, thus revealing the fate of a band to the audience. The decline of the band also represents the decline of a musical genre, which may also be a sign of the times.
The Sex Pistols is one of Britain's most influential punk bands, formed in 1972 and disbanded in 1978. Although they have only been established for a short period of six years, their musical achievements have attracted worldwide attention. They defined the punk music style and identified the core idea of punk music —a complete break with the world and complete self-destruction.
In the more than two decades since, there have been more and more punk bands, and many bands have covered their works. Sadly, no band has brought punk music to the pinnacle. The reason for this is that we should go back to the time when punk was born, see what happened in that era, and see how punk music became popular.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >what is punk music? </h1>
Punk-style music is only a kind of punk culture, and the decline of punk music also indicates the decline of punk culture. The 1960s and 1970s were the golden age of punk culture, with fancy costumes and alternative music as the main forms of expression, especially The Sex Pistols and The Ramones Choir, which were representatives of punk culture at the time.
Punk culture is reflected in music mainly against some existing popular music models, pursuing subversion, rebellion and anarchism. Moreover, punk music was particularly powerful, reflecting the decadence, rebellion and anger of the young people of the time.
From the beginning, punk music inherited the spirit of the countercultural movement of the sixties, and was born with the cultural genes of rebellion and subversion of the mainstream. As a result, punk music has been doomed to its own marginal attributes from the day of its birth and has been resisted by mainstream cultural groups.
Whether in the UK or the US, there is a large number of young people who are passionate about punk music, and these young people are mainly from the working class. They were born in the post-war "baby boomer" generation and were generally well educated. However, reality cannot accommodate the ideals and hopes of these young people. In the 1970s, the global economic downturn led to a kind of change of heart and nothing to do, and punk music allowed them to find a spiritual belonging.
Punk music is part of punk culture, representing non-mainstream and subcultures, and is a cultural model that is incompatible with mainstream social ideology. For the young people of the time, punk culture represented their own attitude towards life and was a weapon against reality.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" >Why punk music is the culture of the working class? </h1>
World War II led to a global recession, and although Britain experienced the Industrial Revolution, it was not one of the lucky ones in the war. After the Second World War, Britain's unemployment rate reached a new high day, and the whole country was dead. In the midst of this decay, punk culture emerged.
Early punk was society's name for hooligans, and it was these "hooligans" that set off a punk renaissance and made it a cultural trend. In the final analysis, it was caused by the general environment at that time. In an environment of depression and high unemployment, young people who have just entered society cannot hope for their current environment. They express their inner grievances in a naked and direct way.
As a result, anti-human, anti-mainstream, anti-cultural, and various extreme factors constitute the original "punk". Since working-class families do not have land as a condition for survival, the entire family faces disintegration under the impact of the economic crisis. So the young people of the working class formed their own cultural alliances to fight against the dreary life.
We can't ignore the gentlemanly culture of Britain, if these "hooligans" coined the term "punk". The gentlemanly tradition in their bones, then, gives punk a specific connotation. They found unique playing patterns in a variety of different musical styles, quoting a lot of musical features from a variety of different instruments, allowing punk to change from noise to a powerful musical genre.
In this sense, punk music is the voice of the working class, and they use music to express their views on society, vent their bitterness and depression, and represent the real voice of that era.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > the reason for the rise and fall of punk culture? </h1>
Every culture has a big background of the times, the wheels of the times roll forward, there will be new cultures on the stage, there will be old cultures withdrawn from the stage. As a subculture representative, punk culture itself has contradictions with mainstream culture, which has led to the exclusion and suppression of punk culture by mainstream culture. In addition, the wave of commodification in modern society has allowed a large number of subcultural elements to enter the commercial market, and after improvement, mass production has been realized, which has also led to the gradual entry of subculture into the circle of mainstream culture.
In such an environment, punk culture is not immune. Punk music, born in the late sixties and early seventies, died out in the late seventies after a brief period of glory. Since then, various countries have begun to develop their economies, and after more than a decade of development, unemployment has gradually declined and the global economic crisis has gradually subsided.
In the late 1980s, punk music became active in the Northwest Territories of the United States. Although the punk music of this period inherits the punk spirit of the seventies, it differs in specific musical expressions. The punk music that made its comeback in the eighties boasted simple melodies and touching lyrics. Although it rejects the feeling of the recording industry, it cannot withstand the impact of the commercial wave.
During this period, films related to punk music also became popular, such as Sid and Nancy, Guess the Train, Born Killer, Fight Club, and so on. Niche punk music enters the mainstream cultural circle in new forms, and in the process, the rebelliousness of punk culture is inevitably weakened.
Any musical style will go through such a stage, because no musical style will exist out of the times. The times will create a musical style, because music is a part of culture, there is no culture that exists out of the times, and naturally there is no music that exists out of the times.
In Sid and Nancy we can see all sorts of punk elements, exaggerated costumes, chaotic states, and hopeless lives. Although the band The Sex Pistols in the film represents punk music at its peak, the arrival of death also heralds the gradual decline of this carnival of the working class.
It is undeniable that to this day, punk music is still a very important genre in popular music, and punk elements are used not only in music, but also in literature, film, painting and other artistic fields. It can be seen that punk subculture has long since entered the field of mainstream culture from the edge of countercultural society, and this music culture that once represented rebellion and subversion has also been embraced by more young people.
From the movie "Sid and Nancy", we may not be able to explore the transformation of punk culture more concretely, but through such a film, we can learn about a band that was once at the top of the subculture, and through the understanding of this band, we can pull back the time to the 60s and 70s of the last century to explore the various manifestations of punk culture. Moreover, through the band The Sex Pistols in the film, we can also explore the youth culture of different eras, thus making the contemporary youth culture more rich and interesting.