Art punk
Encyclopedia
Art punk or avant punk refers to punk rock of an experimental bent, or with connections to art school
, the art world
, or the avant garde.
The earliest bands to be described as "art-punk" were bands from the New York scene of the mid 1970s such as the New York Dolls
, Television
, Ramones
, and Patti Smith
. Bands such as Wire
(most of whom had been art students), and The Ex, who have incorporated jazz, noise and ethnic music into their punk rock sound, took elements from the avant garde and were described as "avant-punk". Later band such as Dog Faced Hermans
followed a similar path. The No Wave
scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s is seen as a branch of art punk, and was described by Martin Rev
of Suicide
as "a valid avant-garde extension of rock". Other bands described as "art punk" include Fugazi, and Goes Cube
. Crass
have also been described as art-punk due to their incorporation of other art forms into their performances.
In their book Art into Pop, Simon Frith and Howard Horne described the band managers of the 1970s punk bands as "the most articulate theorists of the art punk movement", with Bob Last of Fast Product
identified as one of the first to apply art theory to marketing, and Tony Wilson
's Factory Records
described as "applying the Bauhaus
principle of the same 'look' for all the company's goods". Anna Szemere traces the beginnings of the Hungarian
art-punk subculture to 1978, when punk band The Spions performed three concerts which drew on conceptualist performance art
and Antonin Artaud
's "theatre of cruelty", with neo-avant garde/anarchist
manifestos handed out to the audience. Wire's Colin Newman
described art punk in 2006 as "the drug of choice of a whole generation."
Art school
Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
, the art world
Art world
The art world is composed of all the people involved in the production, commission, preservation, promotion, criticism, and sale of art. Howard S. Becker describes it as "the network of people whose cooperative activity, organized via their joint knowledge of conventional means of doing things,...
, or the avant garde.
The earliest bands to be described as "art-punk" were bands from the New York scene of the mid 1970s such as the New York Dolls
New York Dolls
The New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...
, Television
Television (band)
Television was an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1973. They are best known for the album Marquee Moon and widely regarded as one of the founders of "punk" and New Wave music. Television was part of the early 1970s New York underground rock scene, along with bands like the Patti...
, Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
, and Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
. Bands such as Wire
Wire (band)
Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman , Graham Lewis , Bruce Gilbert , and Robert Gotobed...
(most of whom had been art students), and The Ex, who have incorporated jazz, noise and ethnic music into their punk rock sound, took elements from the avant garde and were described as "avant-punk". Later band such as Dog Faced Hermans
Dog Faced Hermans
The Dog Faced Hermans were a four-piece band whose style could be described as anarcho-punk incorporating folk and noise influences as well as unorthodox instrumentation.-History:...
followed a similar path. The No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s is seen as a branch of art punk, and was described by Martin Rev
Martin Rev
Martin Rev is an American musician and the instrumentalist in the electronic proto-punk band, Suicide. He also has a solo career and has released several solo albums for a number of labels, including ROIR and Puu...
of Suicide
Suicide (band)
Suicide is an American electronic protopunk musical duo, intermittently active since 1970 and composed of vocalist Alan Vega and Martin Rev on synthesizers and drum machines. They are an early synthesizer/vocal musical duo....
as "a valid avant-garde extension of rock". Other bands described as "art punk" include Fugazi, and Goes Cube
Goes Cube
Goes Cube is an American rock band formed in late 2003 in Brooklyn, New York by guitarist–vocalist David Obuchowski and bassist Matthew Frey. In 2005, drummer Kenny Appell joined the band. The group has released several EPs and two full-length albums...
. Crass
Crass
Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
have also been described as art-punk due to their incorporation of other art forms into their performances.
In their book Art into Pop, Simon Frith and Howard Horne described the band managers of the 1970s punk bands as "the most articulate theorists of the art punk movement", with Bob Last of Fast Product
Fast Product
Fast Product was an independent record label, established in Edinburgh by Bob Last in December 1977. Its first release was also the first single by the Mekons, released on 20 January 1978....
identified as one of the first to apply art theory to marketing, and Tony Wilson
Tony Wilson
Anthony Howard Wilson, commonly known as Tony Wilson , was an English record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC....
's Factory Records
Factory Records
Factory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside and James and...
described as "applying the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
principle of the same 'look' for all the company's goods". Anna Szemere traces the beginnings of the Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
art-punk subculture to 1978, when punk band The Spions performed three concerts which drew on conceptualist performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and Antonin Artaud
Antonin Artaud
Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...
's "theatre of cruelty", with neo-avant garde/anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
manifestos handed out to the audience. Wire's Colin Newman
Colin Newman
Colin Newman is an English musician, record producer and record label owner.-Biography:Newman is a member of the rock band Wire. When the band temporarily split in 1980, Newman pursued a solo career. His first solo LP, A-Z, was released in 1980 on the Beggar's Banquet label...
described art punk in 2006 as "the drug of choice of a whole generation."
Art/Avant punk artists
- A FramesA Frames (band)A Frames is a postpunk, noise rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1999. The trio consists of Erin Sullivan, Min Yee and Thomas Northcut. The band was called Bend Sinister from 1996 to 1999. A Frames cites Cows, Scientists, Stick Men With Ray Guns, Scratch Acid, Joy Division, and 60's garage...
- Art Brut
- Glenn BrancaGlenn BrancaGlenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
- CrassCrassCrass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
- DaughtersDaughters (band)Daughters is an American grindcore/mathcore/noise rock band formed in 2001 in Providence, Rhode Island after the demise of Providence-based As the Sun Sets. Daughters have four releases including their self-titled EP, Canada Songs LP Hell Songs and last album Daughters . The band has re-released...
- DevoDevoDevo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
- DNADNA (band)DNA was a No Wave band formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds...
- Dog Faced HermansDog Faced HermansThe Dog Faced Hermans were a four-piece band whose style could be described as anarcho-punk incorporating folk and noise influences as well as unorthodox instrumentation.-History:...
- The Fall
- Gang of FourGang of Four (band)Gang of Four are an English post-punk group from Leeds. Original personnel were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill...
- Richard HellRichard HellRichard Hell is a singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.Richard Hell was an innovator of punk music and fashion. He was one of the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins...
- Ikara ColtIkara ColtIkara Colt were an English four-piece art rock band, formed by art students at London Guildhall University. They had a five-year career, beginning in 1999 and ending on 17 January 2005...
- The Monochrome SetThe Monochrome SetThe Monochrome Set are an English post-punk band originally formed in 1978 from the remnants of a college group called The B-Sides...
- No AgeNo AgeNo Age is a two-person American indie rock group consisting of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Allen Spunt. The band is based in Los Angeles and is currently signed to Sub Pop records...
- Pere UbuPere UbuPere Ubu is an experimental rock music group from Cleveland, Ohio.Père Ubu may also refer to:* Ubu, the enigmatic central figure of a series of French plays by Alfred Jarry, including Ubu Roi, and subsequent plays Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné...
- PylonPylon (band)Pylon is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The band's danceable jangle pop sound influenced the Athens music scene and the 1980s American pop underground. Allmusic wrote that Pylon's "role as elder statesmen of the alternative rock explosion is unassailable".-History:All four members of...
- The Death SetThe Death SetThe Death Set is an art punk music group formed in 2005 in Sydney, Australia. Six months after its inception the band moved to the East Coast of the United States, living in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Brooklyn respectively, where the band found an audience for its style of experimental, cross...
- The RaincoatsThe RaincoatsThe Raincoats are a British post-punk band. Ana da Silva and Gina Birch formed the group in 1977 while they were students at Hornsey College of Art, London, England.-Career:...
- The RakesThe RakesThe Rakes were an English indie rock band from London. They split up in October 2009.-History:The Rakes formed in 2004. Since coming to fame in 2005, they were associated with the British post-punk/art rock scene, a genre shared by bands such as Bloc Party, Maxïmo Park, and The Futureheads...
- The RaptureThe Rapture (band)The Rapture is an Indie rock band based in New York City. The band mixes influences from many genres including post-punk, acid house, disco, electronica and rock, pioneering the post-punk revival genre...
- Scratch AcidScratch AcidScratch Acid was an Austin, Texas noise rock group formed in 1982. When they first began, their lineup was Steve Anderson , David Wm. Sims , Brett Bradford , David Yow , and Rey Washam and Win Vitosky...
- Scritti PolittiScritti PolittiScritti Politti are a British band, originally formed in 1977 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Although there have been various changes to the line-up, Cardiff-born singer-songwriter Green Gartside was the founding member of the band and the only member to have remained throughout the group's...
- Talking HeadsTalking HeadsTalking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
- Гражданская оборона
- WireWire (band)Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman , Graham Lewis , Bruce Gilbert , and Robert Gotobed...