Punk/No Wave Lyricism

Branching out from the earlier topic of Experimental music, the focus of lyrics and writing during the 1970s and 1980s was very important to experimental music history.

Punk was a concept that began in the 70s and it's origin is very debatable, but most agree it was derived from the magazine title co-created by Legs McNeil. Much of punk's shock factor was the music, loud and fast. But another side that often goes unattended is the lyrics to the music. A lot of musicians and singers during the time were also poets and writers. Prime examples of this would be Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Tom Verlaine, etc. What these writing-focused artists were doing began the influence of a small sub-genre in NYC called "no wave."

No Wave was a New York scene considered to be a sub-genre of Experimental music. Much like punk, the music had a lot of shock factor being noisy and bizarre. The musicians were writers and poets as well who would do readings side-by-side with the punk musicians. Lydia Lunch, Thurston Moore, Glenn Branca are a few names that are well-known writers in the No Wave scene.

A movie that does a good job explaining the no wave scene: Kill Your Idols, (Review)
No Wave zine created by Glenn Branca and Barbara Ess: Just Another Asshole, (Wiki)


Richard Hell & The Voidoids performing "Blank Generation."

Here is Richard Hell's writing on punk lyrics as poetry: http://www.richardhell.com/punkpoetry.html