10 Most Important Acts That Shaped Punk Rock Music
7. Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols have come to embody the very idea of punk rock. Their legacy is marked by anti-establishment sentiment, a distaste of authority and a mischievous, and at times, sinister aptitude for trouble.
Along with their contemporaries, The Clash, they formed the London punk scene. Emulating the sounds of American punk groups, but being inspired by the dreary state of the UK, they came to represent the contempt much of the population had for their government.
The bleak world of '70s England was a sordid place of economic upheaval, racial and social unrest and political division. The Winter of Discontent was the pinnacle of this period, with unemployment and wage inequality at an all time high. London's streets were a mess of piled rubbish, which had accumulated due to the constant workers strikers. For anyone young and not born to privilege, there wasn't all much that to celebrate.
The Sex Pistols became the heroes of the disenfranchised British youth. They garnered a following performing Stooges covers, but soon began channeling the frustration of the country into an energised and unapologetically furious new brand of rock.