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A
visual survey of early Punk Rock Album Covers
Essay by artist,
Mark Vallen
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...click
the thumbnails for the full picture
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The
punk rock movement of the late 1970's and early 1980's
was an extremely volatile mix of youth rebellion and political
dissent. Punk values and aesthetics demanded a total rejection
of apathy and society's straightjacket rules, with the core ethic
of punk being to do it yourself and be more than a witness.
Punk
had a unique and complex aesthetic. It was steeped in shock value
and revered what was considered ugly. The whole look of punk was
designed to disturb and disrupt the happy complacency of the wider
society. Outside of punk's torn and safety pinned anti-fashion
statements, this impulse to outrage was never more apparent than
on punk album covers.
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In
the late 70's and early 80's, there were no compact disks. punk
bands pressed and distributed their own record albums and 45 Singles,
and the large cardboard or paper sleeves the disks were packaged
in gave punk artists a new medium to experiment with. Punk's angry
aesthetics found a perfect canvas on the front and back covers
of record releases.
Sometimes album covers could be folded open like a book... affording
even more space with which to inform or outrage. Albums also had
liner notes that became platforms for punk visual rants... and
of course, many a punk artist could not resist creating a pull
out poster to include in the ample space provided by an album
cover.
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With
the demise of records came the strangulation of album cover art
and design, but punk left us with an amazing legacy of uncompromising
rebellion both visual and lyrical. The artworks that comprise
this exhibit are record covers taken from my own personal collection.
Together these works form a perfect historical picture of a little
known or understood cultural resistance that thrived during the
chaos of the late 20th Century.
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www.art-for-a-change.com
is owned and operated by Mark Vallen © All text by Mark Vallen
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The
Clash helped set the pace for socially conscious rockers. This
double CD contains many of their best songs, from their first
album straight on through to their last. These recordings can
still blast all the wanna be's off the stage!
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Discharge
helped start a whole new sub genre called "Peace Punk."
Their sound is hard-core & aggressive, stripped down &
minimalist, with highly charged political lyrics. Who can go wrong
with song tiitles like, "State violence state control",
"The nightmare continues", "Free Speech for the
Dumb", and "Protest & Survive".
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