"There needs to be sound solidarity between people of color in general"

May 14, 2015 9:36 AM

"If you look at the history of rock and roll and punk, they came from a black style of music, and that’s the history of popular music in general. It was created by blacks, then re-recorded to play for a white audience. Some of the first punk bands to ever create the 1977 sound were all-black bands."
- Monica Estrella Negra, in an interview about the Black & Brown Punk Collective

Shotgun Seamstress zine has been mentioned previously and has a TON of more content about, by, and for Black punks.

posted by Juliet Banana (20 comments total)

I'm torn between enjoying this as a much-needed push for inclusion and diversity in current rock n' roll and getting tripped up by the noisy bit about how rock was "created by blacks, then re-recorded to play for a white audience." I understand how that point-of-view fits into a narrative that feels like it shoves us all in a better direction. And I'm down with that direction, frankly. But it's a reductionist way to look at a complicated and largely inspiring era of artistic exchange between whites and blacks in popular music. And it bums me out a bit.

Moving past that, though: I ended up with some awesome stuff to build my next playlist. So rock on!
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:35 AM on May 14, 2015 [8 favorites]

Who were the all-black bands that created the 1977 Punk Rock sound then?
posted by mary8nne at 10:57 AM on May 14, 2015

How about 1971?
posted by Xavier Xavier at 11:10 AM on May 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Among others, Death, a trio of Detroit siblings who existed before the Ramones and were rejected by every major label for not "fitting in" with either of the racialized rock or R&B formats, which we can certainly understand as meaning they were too black for '70s rock 'n' roll, and too rock 'n' roll to be '70s R&B.

Here's their 1975 single, "Politicians In My Eyes" b/w "Keep on Knocking".
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:11 AM on May 14, 2015 [5 favorites]

Who were the all-black bands that created the 1977 Punk Rock sound then?

According to them, Death and Pure Hell, which is a bit of a stretch, I think. That said, they were definitely in the mix of protopunk bands. (Pure Hell in turn influenced the Bad Brains.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:14 AM on May 14, 2015

According to them, Death and Pure Hell, which is a bit of a stretch, I think. That said, they were definitely in the mix of protopunk bands. (Pure Hell in turn influenced the Bad Brains.)

How is it a stretch to say that two influential proto-punk bands were "some of the first punk bands to ever create the 1977 sound..."?
posted by desuetude at 11:50 AM on May 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

It was created by blacks, then re-recorded to play for a white audience. Some of the first punk bands...

That first part is the stretch.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:58 AM on May 14, 2015

Because the 1977 sound was created in the UK in 1976?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:58 AM on May 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Hey, I might have picked the wrong pull-quote for these two really fascinating articles about community building among queer, trans, and intersex punks of color. My bad!
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:01 PM on May 14, 2015 [5 favorites]

Personally I'd have chosen this from the second link:

It’s that constant work that starts with the folks around you. Pay attention to the way your friends are frustrated by the scene, or the way they get treated at shows. Begin to ask why your friend’s band never gets booked. Are you paying attention to the dynamics of the scene? Which people are getting ostracized and mistreated?

posted by MartinWisse at 12:07 PM on May 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

"Because the 1977 sound was created in the UK in 1976?"

Who were inspired by the Ramones' sound from 1974.

Who were probably inspired by the MC5 who kicked out the Justified Ancients of Mummu back in '68.

..but we're getting off-topic.
posted by I-baLL at 12:35 PM on May 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's a stretch in Death's case because Death were in turn emulating the same white rock bands (MC5, Alice Cooper etc) the NYC white guys were emulating, and they also were basically unknown/unreleased until long after their time, and thus not in any way influential. They were an interesting and unique and exciting band but it does them great disservice to either erroneously posit them as progenitors or look at them as though their sole value were in arriving first at some pre-determined valid punk ideal.

Not really worth nitpicking this in the context of the OP, though, just talkin' about Death.
posted by anazgnos at 3:05 PM on May 14, 2015

We're really not having a great time lately with anything that begins with less than "white dudes are at the top of the stack, duh" are we.
posted by emptythought at 4:00 PM on May 14, 2015 [6 favorites]

I particularly like this bit about the relationship between punk and gentrification:

"You move the punks in because the punks are okay with being crusty and being in a neighborhood with black and brown people, so they move in first and then create a certain scene that brings in hipsters. And then boom: you’ve got a Forever 21 and a Starbucks in five years."
posted by rossination at 5:58 PM on May 14, 2015

I don't think anyone is taking issue with the idea that there were some great black bands in the early days of punk. What's more, I think most of us are chuffed to be exposed to some more of them to check out.

Assigning credit to one band or town or what have you for creating one form of popular music or another is a mug's game. Pop music is an extension of folk music and folk never worked that way.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:20 PM on May 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

Who were the all-black bands that created the 1977 Punk Rock sound then?

Joe Strummer can tell you who they weren't.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:59 PM on May 14, 2015

There really is more to this article than some hyperbolic stuff about who started what.

There's some great stuff on community building and Monika Estrella Negra's Black and Brown Chicago Playlist, which is a good place to get started in checking some of this music out.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:09 PM on May 14, 2015 [3 favorites]

So I was kind of glib last night with my "Joe Strummer" comment (sleep deprivation is like that), but seriously, reggae and ska (as they were in the 70's as opposed to the 90's) were big influences on punk, particularly the stuff coming out of the UK, hence his deep disappointment with what was served up that night in Hammersmith.

Anyhow, given that reggae+influence+punk gets you 849000 hits on Google, I'd go so far as to say that if someone wants to take a stab at it, it would probably make a pretty good FPP.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 4:17 AM on May 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Let's make this easy:

1. La Armada – Negaciones
2. Bruised – Satisfying Texture
3. Boots – Amor de Lejos
4. Tensions – Snake Oil
5. Haki – Spliff
6. The Breathing Light – She Loved Everything
7. Ono – Albino
8. Crude Humor – Dancing Queen

posted by 3.2.3 at 7:27 AM on May 15, 2015 [4 favorites]

Haki just broke up because two of their members stopped dating, which sucked. They had a teenage girl as a member, which is the most punk thing EVER.

Ono are like, weirdo noise psych legends with like a million members all improvising and doing wild stuff on stage. They're great.
posted by Juliet Banana at 7:30 AM on May 15, 2015