DEATH ROCK / CENA AMERICANA
A cena gótica e pós-punk nos Estados Unidos.
- Resumo [ a traduzir ] do Capítulo 2 do livro Carnet Noirs, de autoria coletiva
The land of Uncle Sam deserved a chapter all to itself. The main reason for this is that the evolution of punk, new wave and gothic music followed a radically different path there than in Europe. Contrary to popular belief, punk was not born in London but in the damp basements of New York, played by bands of misfits trying to rediscover the sound of rock “n” roll in 1974-1975. The first band to release an album was The Ramones, in 1976. It was the very first record of its kind, and it already contained a hit: Blitzkrieg Bop. The sound was dirty, the spirit very 60s, but all the basics were there.
Quite logically, punk made its way along Route 66… Yes, but here’s the thing: we’re in the United States. No band had the power to claim enough of a musical genre to cause a scandal on television screens or in the mainstream press. And it must be said that in a country that, in less than twenty years, had seen the rise and fall of bikers, beatniks, hippies and Hell’s Angels, it goes without saying that punks did little more than raise the eyebrows of the average American. That said, America being the land of rock “n” roll, it’s not as if rock springboards or FM radio stations are going to ignore these new rockers, who are certainly a little louder than their predecessors, but still effective at trendy teenage parties.
This mentality has its advantages: America is the land of ‘freaks’ by definition. A cultural or musical movement, as long as it is original and goes against the grain, will always find a space to express itself. But there are also disadvantages. What remains of the ‘underground’ if the most marginalised and rebellious artists are so prominent? Some very promising bands, such as Martha and the Muffins, The Cars and Blondie, succumbed to the siren call and quickly found themselves playing FM rock for an audience of rednecks who turned them into millionaires, yes, but also into very bad musicians… One can only compare this to the sad career of Kurt Cobain, leader of Nirvana, in the early 1990s. He, too, failed to understand how the people he hated and whose faults he denounced had suddenly become his most loyal and grateful audience. We know what happened next. Such open-mindedness among Uncle Sam’s supporters is enough to defuse any revolution by making it seem like just another fashionable fad. Too bad for Kurt. Too bad for everyone else…
The years 1978-79 would therefore see a gradual split among these new punk/new wave artists. Some of them would move from obscure basements to the top of the charts, losing their soul but shaping a whole strand of American rock in the 1980s, while others would persevere in an obscure, anti-commercial and often rather crazy avant-gardism. This dual extremism, both in the commercial and underground genres, is a paradox that is far from unique to American culture.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)