Never Trust a Hippie: the Representation of 'Extreme' Politics in Punk Music Graphics and the Influences of Protest and P
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NEVER TRUST A HIPPIE: THE REPRESENTATION OF ‘EXTREME’ POLITICS IN PUNK MUSIC GRAPHICS AND THE INFLUENCES OF PROTEST AND PROPAGANDA TRADITIONS ANA RAPOSO UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS LONDON [email protected] ABSTRACT ‘authenticity’ was constructed, and why certain aesthetic looks took hold while others did not. This paper explores the representation of political and ideological issues in music graphics in the United Kingdom from 1978 onwards. The analysis INTRODUCTION focuses on the music packaging of punk and post- punk bands engaged in the political ‘extreme’ – This paper addresses how previous cultural and particularly the anarcho-punk movement and the artistic movements influenced the graphic neo-fascist scene. language of punk bands involved in 'extreme' politics. In relation to the anarcho-punk Although for some historians punk represented a movement, it first establishes how the sixties and cultural rupture, it nonetheless (consciously or seventies subcultural and counter-culture not) appropriated and reinterpreted graphic permeated into the movement. It then techniques, strategies and conventions from demonstrates how it claimed its position as part of previous counter-cultural and protest movements the lineage of protest by evoking dissent (particularly, though not exclusively, from the movements as far back as 1381. Additionally, it sixties) – as well as political movements. This addresses how references from art movements paper aims to explore how such graphics were integrated in the dissemination of the influenced the visual language of politically messages and creation of its graphic language. It engaged punk and post-punk bands. It also argues that the use of art references reveals a addresses connections to art/political movements, critical knowledge of this milieu and is by itself such as Dadaism, Constructivism and the part of the construction of the argument. Situationist International. Although scarce, it also addresses how state The punk designers were sometimes trained but propaganda is incorporated in the graphics. were more often practitioners of a do-it-yourself The paper also focuses on the neo-Nazi rock approach. By identifying which images they chose scene, and contextualises its emergence within to ‘cut and paste’, it is hoped to demonstrate how the thriving punk movement. It addresses how influences were drawn from the original skinheads When they [punks] were slagging off hippies, I suddenly and other subcultural groups. Additionally, it understood that they had grown up reading about demonstrates how the music graphics, particularly hippies in the tabloid press, and what they were doing record sleeves, used predominantly vernacular was spouting the shock and filth of the hippies, the sources, such as commercial art, and official Nazi disgusting drop-outs. So I said, ‘The gutter press did to propaganda. It also catalogues the few references the hippies exactly what they’re going to do to you'. to the art milieu. (Savage 2009: 472) 'NEVER TRUST A HIPPIE' Nevertheless, despite its apparent refusal of the previous generations, punk incorporated ‘Never trust a hippie’ was a phrase popularised in strategies and themes of previous dissent The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle – the Sex Pistols movements, setting itself as an integral part of the movie directed by Julien Temple.1 Devised by lineage of protest. Jamie Reid, who had himself fleetingly passed through the hippie generation (Reid 1987: 18), it was aimed particularly at Richard Branson from 'ANARCHY AND PEACE' Virgin Records (Reid 1987: 95). Nonetheless it summed up a widespread feeling amongst the Within the anarcho-punk movement, Crass were subculture. seminal in forging an alliance with the previous It became a motto for the punk subculture, which generation. Spearheads of the anarcho-punk aggressively refused all previous subcultures and scene, and with members belonging to an older counter-cultural movements. In fact, punk generation who were politically active in the emerged as a direct confrontation to the sixties, its discourse was restructured to the new remnants of the hippie movement. According to subculture. Crass’ own logo, a fusion between an Gee Vaucher from Crass: amphisbaena – a mythical snake with heads at both ends – and an ouroboros – an ancient symbol The background of punk coming in, the seventies, was representing a snake eating its own tail – is really dire; corrupt pop music, facile words, facile reminiscent of the interest surrounding pagan sentiments, facile blokes thrusting their shit on the myths and rites characteristic of the hippie stage. And everyone was sick and tired of it quite subculture capital. honestly, because it was so manufactured. There was nothing real there, except the reality of the unrealness of what they were trying to say or not say. It was all puppetry. So when you get a situation like that which becomes so extreme you are bound to get a break out and it happened to be punk this time. 2 However, the outbreak of punk against hippies was not directed at what it had been – or at what it was meant to be – but at what it had become. From a counter-cultural and anti-establishment Figure 1. Crass. Live show. 1980s. Photograph by William White. movement, the hippie scene had lost its political pertinence being reduced by its commoditisation Additionally, from the very beginning Crass to the hollow and naive sentiment of a yellow adopted a cause that had been fulcral to the smiley. Caroline Coon exposed this duality: sixties counter-culture, with a logo that became synonymous with the hippie subculture. Crass used the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) symbol, placing it alongside their 1 Although the movie was only completed in 1980 the project had banners. According to Crass, “at the same time, been developed since the early years of the Sex Pistols and the slogan having discovered that CND did actually still exist, had been widespread in punk since its emergence. albeit in a downtrodden, self-effacing manner, we 2 Vaucher, G. (2011) Interview with the author on 20 May 2011. decided to promote its cause, something that at the time CND seemed to be incapable of doing for Crass Records. However, if the device in itself was itself. From then on, despite screams of derision in not innovative, its use was – either through the the music press, we also displayed the peace strikingly politicised visual contents or through the symbol at gigs”. (Crass 1986) However dubious use of the sleeve as a narrative process. that this resurgence could be attributed to Crass alone, numerous accounts of CND history (Minnion & Bolsover 1983, Byrne 1988, Mattausch 1989, Byrne 1997, Hudson 2005) fail to mention any influence of either the band or the wider punk subculture, either in the organisation or in the heavily attended demonstrations in the early 1980s, many of which included a large punk contingent. Figure 2. Crass. Stations of the Crass . 1979. Crass 521984. Double Through Crass, the anarcho-punk bands became LP. involved in the withering free festivals. 3 Direct The use of graffiti was also reclaimed from quotations and support to the hippie subculture counter-cultural movements of the sixties. were not only engaged by Crass but by other According to Crass, “since early ‘77 we had been members of the anarcho-punk movement as in involved in maintaining a graffiti war throughout the two compilation EPs released by Bluurg Central London. Our stencilled messages, anything Records – Wessex ‘82 , the first release on the from ‘Fight War Not Wars’ to ‘Stuff Your Sexist label in 1982, and particularly Stonehenge , Shit’, were the first of their kind to appear in the released in 1987. The sleeve of Wessex ‘82 UK and inspired a whole movement that, sadly, displayed a photograph of the Westbury White has now been eclipsed by hip-hop artists who Horse, associated to the Dark Ages and pagan have done little but confirm the insidious nature rituals. And the Stonehenge EP reinforced this of American culture.” (Crass 1986) A visual record connection being released as a benefit to "getting of the graffiti campaign was displayed in the front more people to the stones for Solstice/Equinox and back sleeve of the album Stations of the Crass , celebrations". released in 1979. In fact, The Deviants had A design device that would become a leitmotif of launched a graffiti campaign in London in the late Crass Records and the anarcho-punk movement sixties, but the geographical extent was limited – was the foldout sleeve. The use of the foldout focusing solely on the Ladbroke Grove area in poster was not an original device per se , as London – and the political content was dubious according to Penny Rimbaud from Crass, “the big and could be considered simply as self-promotion, foldout poster – you could look back to the sixties, being based upon the slogan – ‘Pink Fairies Fly’. where people used a lot of that sort of tactic. No- (Deakin 2007: 155) Also, even though the protests one had done it on a record before, but the whole of May 1968 in France are renowned for their idea of broadsheets was very much a sixties posters from Atelier Populaire, stencilled slogans thing.” (Berger 2008: 140) In fact, in 1967, the such as “Your happiness is being bought: Steal it!” Deviants 4 had released the album Ptooff! , which or “Society is a carnivorous flower” could also be folded out into a poster with similar found across the city of Paris. (Kugelberg & measurements to the poster sleeves released by Vermès 2011) A direct quotation of the posters appears in the album Never Mind the Ballots... Here’s the Rest of Your Life released by 3 The free festivals were nomadic music festivals, inspired by the Chumbawamba in 1987. It references the poster American hippies, which were largely popular in Britain during the seventies.