Punk Era- The style

The Style:

The style of the punk genre has changed throughout the years and varies throughout the different cultures.

America:
The typical american punk look consisted of a t shirt, motorcycle jacket and jeans, these were usually worn by american greasers in the 1950's although this is sometimes associated with american rockers. This look made its debut in Britain in 1960's

Britain:

Richard Hell is known as the an innovator of the British punk scene including music and fashion. He was one of the first wear his hair, wear torn and ripped tops with drawings on and they were sometimes held together with safety pins. Malcolm McLaren, the manager of the Sex Pistols credited Hell as the inspiration for the bands look.

Vivienne Westwood's clothing collections are heavily based around the punk genre and during the era she credited Johnny Rotten for being the first to wear the ripped T-shirt look and the sex pistols bassist, Sid Vicious as the first to use safety pins.

The early female punk style resembled Siouxsie Sioux's bondage clothing to Patti Smith scruffy style.

Siouxise Sioux

Patti Smith

Gradually the introduction of tattoos, piercings and metal studded/ spiked accessories became apparent and furthered the typical punk look.
The male hairstyle began as short and choppy but as styles changed the mohawk and even the skinhead  we worn by typically more hardcore scenes.  

When male bands and artist tend to perform they didn't stray from the typical "macho male" persona that was adopted by the rock genre.

However females tend to break away from the earlier conventions of the a punk woman and became a lot more tough and unladylike and borrowed some of the "macho swagger" of the 60's garage bands.

Gaye Advert (Gaye Black)- Bass guitar player for The Adverts.

The Runaways

Punk Era- Dance Style

Dance Style:

The dance styles of the Punk era was not set in stone and this cause many deviant forms of dance to be produced. One of the most famous is the "pogo" originally  initiated by Sid Vicious, the dance consisted of either keeping their torso rigid or thrashing it about, holding their arms stiffly or flailing them, keep the legs together or kick them about and jumping up and down or jumping about. 

Moshing developed from pogoing, it is much more aggressive and involves at lot pushing and shoving. There are two different types of moshing; Circle pits and wall of death. 

Circle Pits:

Circle pits happen usually when the band signals with a circular finger motion, the participants then run around around in a circle, pushing and shoving isn't necessary but tends to happen. Trampling also isn't an issue as their is an unspoken rule where if some falls down then you help them back up.

Wall of Death:

Wall of death occurs when the fans split up in to two separate groups and stand on opposite sides of the arena or concert space then when given a signal by either the band or themselves they then run at each other and collide in the middle. During the Wall of death trampling is much more common has the smaller space makes it harder to reach people.

Punk Era- The music

The Punk Era began as a way to distance its self from the sentimentality of the 70's rock. Critic Robert Christgau spoke about the Punk genre saying "It was also a subculture that scornfully rejected the political idealism and Californian flower-power silliness of hippie myth." Although Patti Smith, known as the "godmother of punk" suggested that "the hippies and the punk rockers were linked by a common anti-etsablishment mentality". 

The Music.
Punk music often consisted of the bare musical structures of 1960's garage rock. Typical a punk band consists of 1/2 electric guitars, bass guitar, drums as well as vocals. , majority of punk songs a quite short sometimes under 2 minutes long and followed the conventions of the traditional rock 'n' roll verse-chorus form and 4/4 time signature. The vocals of a punk song sometimes sound quite nasally and are usually shouted instead of the traditional singing. The vocals lack the conventional shift in pitch, volume or intonation style. Complex Guitar solos are deemed unnecessary but basic guitar breaks are very frequent, guitar parts include distorted versions of power chords or barre chords this creates the characteristic sound which is known to some critics as 'buzzsaw drone'. Bass guitar sequences are relatively uncomplicated and quite quintessentially a relentless, repetitive, "forced" rhythm. Drum sounds in the punk genre are usually heavy and dry and have a minimal set up. The production of the tracks themselves tend to be minimalistic and sometimes were laid down on home tape recorders, this reaches the goal of the track sounding un-manipulated and "real", also it reflects the authenticity of a live performance. The lyrics tend to be frank and confrontational and in the early punk the lyrics they frequently commented on social and political issues. In early British punk the goal was to shock and outrage the nation. 

Andrew Goodwin's 6 point conventions of a music video

Andrew Goodwin suggested that there are generic conventions of the music video this was taken from his book 'Dancing in the distraction factory'.

 1. Different sub-genres of music have their own conventions.

 2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.

             

3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots and lots of close ups of the artist to emphasis the image of the star.

5.There is frequent reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to film, Tv programmes, other music video and other popular culture)

Music Genre

Music genre is used to identify pieces of music that have similar conventions and to put them into categories. Music can be separated into these genre through a variety of ways as some genres do overlap. Some genres are categorised though the time era they were present; example 50's rock.

The most popular genres of music are:

Pop: this originated in the 50's deriving from rock and roll. Pop as a genre borrow different elements from other genres. The main conventions include repeated chorus', melodic tunes and catchy hooks. examples of this can be seen in the music of artist such as Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake etc.

Hip Hop: also known as rap music. The main elements of this genre is rhythmic music accompanied  rapping of a chanted like speech. The origin of this genre first became popular in the 70's. The genre is more predominately a male genre. Artists such as Grandmaster Flash and The Sugarhill Gang progressed the popularity of this genre. More modern artist of this genre include Jay Z, Kanye West and Missy Elliot.

R&B: stands for Rhythm and Blues and a very popular throughout the African-American culture and originated in the 1940's. It was a term used by record companies to describe artist and records that they wanted to market to urban African Americans. Artist such as Usher and Beyonce are the popular throughout this genre.

Rock: This genre originated from 'rock and roll' in 1950's from America. Throughout the years the rock genre has expanded into different sub genres, such as garage rock and pop rock. A rock band consists of vocalist, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, drummer and occasionally a keyboard player. Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones are popular throughout this genre.

Punk: The Punk genre developed in the 70's and was a major rebellion against establishments especially the government. The Punk era was about the fashion as much as thew music itself. Similar to the rock genre the bands usually consist of vocalist, lead guitar, bass guitar and a drummer. Popular artists are The Ramones and The Clash.

Indie: Also known as independent music, it developed in the UK in 50/60's. The Indie chart was established in the 1980's. The genre is sometimes associated with low budgets, the music videos are easily filmed and edited but are effective. Similarly to the Punk genre, the Indie genre is as much about the fashion and lifestyle as it is about the music. Popular modern Indie artist include Two Door Cinema Club and The Pigeon Detectives.

The Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a include a music promo video, together with:

• A digipak for the album's release 
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak