The key facts
- The exhibition «Up Yours! God Save The Queens» runs at the Museum of Youth Culture in London from 23 October to 22 November
- Curators: Lauren Estelle Jones, Celeste Bell and Vivien Goldman
- Euronews Culture has compiled a list of five key women's punk albums of the 1970s
Exhibition on women of punk opens in London
On Friday, 23 October, the Museum of Youth Culture in London will open the multimedia exhibition «Up Yours! God Save The Queens», dedicated to «50 years of She Punk» — women's contribution to punk culture. The exhibition runs until 22 November. The curators are Lauren Estelle Jones, Celeste Bell and Vivien Goldman. The display brings together rare archival materials, previously unpublished photographs and contemporary artworks. According to the organisers' vision, the exhibition prioritises and pays tribute to the women who shaped punk culture, and shows that the genre cannot be reduced to just a few bands or safety pins on a jacket.
Context: 50 years of Ramones' debut and the female roots of punk
Part of the reason for the attention to punk history is the 50th anniversary of Ramones' debut album, released in 1976 in New York and containing, according to Euronews, the first punk song, «Blitzkrieg Bop». The outlet notes that the band did not emerge out of nowhere: the genre's forerunners are considered to be The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and New York Dolls — artists who rejected over-produced music and mainstream stadium rock even before the term «punk» itself appeared. At the same time, as Euronews emphasises, punk as music, an anarchic mindset and a countercultural ideology has female roots: Patti Smith, Siouxsie Sioux, Nina Hagen, Poly Styrene, Viv Albertine, Debbie Harry, Linder Sterling (Linda Lunch) and Poison Ivy shaped the movement in the 1970s and became the driving force of the genre-revolution.
Five key women's punk albums of the 1970s according to Euronews Culture
To mark the exhibition's opening, the Euronews Culture editorial team compiled — by its own admission, not exhaustive — a list of five essential women's punk albums of the 1970s that influenced subsequent generations of female artists: from Bikini Kill, Hole, L7 and PJ Harvey to Le Tigre, Sleater-Kinney, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Amyl and the Sniffers.
Patti Smith — «Horses» (1975)
Patti Smith's debut album, according to the outlet, redefined the New York punk scene even before it had a name. A regular at the legendary CBGB club, Smith came to music through poetry and Manhattan's underground literary and artistic milieu. «Horses» cemented her status as the «godmother of punk»: the record combines Beat-generation lyricism, defiant rock and the minimalist aesthetic of emerging punk. Among the classic tracks are «Free Money», «Break It Up», a radical reworking of Them's «Gloria» and the 9-minute composition «Land», which, in Euronews' view, showed that Smith was not merely participating in shaping the movement but creating a new space for female artists worldwide.
Blondie, X-Ray Spex, The Slits and The Raincoats
Blondie's debut album (1976), with Debbie Harry, also a CBGB regular, contains, according to the outlet, undeniable punk DIY energy, although the band leaned towards new wave and a pop sound. The album opens with the song «X Offender», originally titled «Sex Offender» and renamed due to radio stations refusing to play a track with a provocative title. X-Ray Spex's debut «Germfree Adolescents» (1978) addressed feminism, identity politics and consumer society. Poly Styrene is recognised as the first multiracial frontwoman of a punk band; her song «Oh Bondage Up Yours!» became, in the outlet's formulation, the prototype of the British punk battle cry and a feminist statement that influenced, among other things, the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s. The Slits' trio debut «Cut» (1979) combined punk rock, art pop, dub and reggae; among the tracks are the self-affirmation anthem «Instant Hit» (later sampled by Lauryn Hill) and «Typical Girls», a protest against female stereotypes. The Raincoats' self-titled debut (1979) on the Rough Trade label is known, in particular, for an out-of-tune version of The Kinks' hit «Lola»; former The Slits member Palmolive took part in the recording, and the band's lyrics raised themes of rape culture and misogyny. The outlet recommends the 1993 reissue with the single «Fairytale in the Supermarket» and the 1977 song «No One's Little Girl», released only in 1982.
