Punk Rock Popularity Grows With Grossness ..BY. MIKE Pop-Music KALINA Critic They revel in revulsion and have created a name for themselves by taking bad taste to new depths. And in the process, Britain's Punk Rockers have been given so much publicity that they may well end up retching all the way to the bank. Since there has been no real trend on the pop-music scene in many years, the media have been quick to document the bizarre activities of the Punk Rockers, who spit and vomit on the stageand sometimes on their fans -destroy their instruments and promote sadism and Since the Beatles started in England and changed the face of pop music, many journalists look upon music movements in that country as having worldwide implications. And perhaps that is one of the reasons for the media blitz of the fad. But other bizarre musical activities Beatle originated in England in the post- era did not receive such coverage. And that it is because they supposedly didn't have sociological overtones. The Punk Rock movement, however, is being trumpeted by the press as a sort of rattle crumbling British empire -an outgrowth of the disillusionment of the unemployed young y who have no where to go but down. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the scene SECOND SECTION MONDAY, JULY 18. 1977 But the movement is not necessarily a sociological one but of a trend toward outrageousness has extension. been growing like a malignant tumor for years. Shock sells. The Punk Rockers realize that their gross behavior 43% of Teens' Ties With Parents Drag By DR. GEORGE GALLUP PRINCETON, N.J. With much attention in recent years focusing on the breakdown of the family unit - a development which some social observers blame for many of society's illsthe latest Gallup Youth Survey brings to light these key findings regarding parent child relations: • Although 56 per cent of teen-agers say they get on "very well" with their parents, as many as four in 10 (43 per cent) say only "fairly well" or "not at all well." Both boys and girls are more likely to say they get on better with their mother than with their father. Girls are somewhat more inclined than are boys to say they have a better relationship with their mom than their dad, again contrary to a popular notion. The age of teen-agers, male or female, does not appear to be a factor in how well they get on with their parents or whether they get on better with their mother or their father. An indication of the tension existing in certain households in additional survey findings which show that among the teen-agers who say they get along only fairly well with their parents, one in seven has run away from home. Among those who say they don't. get along at all well with their parents,, the proportion who have run is; nearly three times as high. The perceived authoritarian charac-. ter of one's father was a factor in the: responses of those who said they get oni better with their mother. Further indication of the rocky relations that exist between some parents and children is found in the responses will garner more publicity than their music. And they have s succeeded in getting press and television coverage- -and their activities have thus gained a sort of left-handed "respectability" as a rock idiom. Had the media ignored such "artists" as Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols no doubt the movement would have grossed itself out of business. The Punk Rockers' popularity in England has spurred some offshoots in the United States and a Punk Rock movement is beginning to take hold over here. One such U.S. group is the Ramones, whose new single "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" has been heralded by one U.S. rock magazine as A.M. anthem.' Will the Punk Rockers play Pittsburgh? Local promoters say they have no plans as yet to book the groups here but indicated if the movement gathers force we may well see Johnny Rotten and his Sex Pistols playing a date here. Rock promoters are not in the business of judging taste but in the business of making money. As one put it a while back: "I'd book Hitler, if he were still around." Rather than being something completely new, Punk Rock in one form or another has been around for years. When Elvis Presley burst on the music scene e with the face of a hubcap thief and swiveled his way into the hearts of millions, he was considered a "punk" by adults -but a superstar by his fans. Presley received bad press and more than one minister added to Presley's box-office draw by calling him "the devil himself."" When Presley's star began to rise, other singers -such as Gene Vincentmanaged to capture a segment of his audience by trying to out-grease, out- from moan and out-swivel rock's first king. Time eroded Presley's shock value of and he became almost establishment by the early 1960s. Then the Beatles came there along with a wholesome blend of faces who and harmonies. Rather than compete Punk with the group's sound, acts like the Rolling Stones and the Animals made the names for themselves by being the antithesis of the Beatles' image. stage The Stones and the Animals came on looked scruffy and surly and were the Punk Rockers of their day. Another group, the Who, followed the Stones' lead with Pop), an anti-establishment image coupled stage with something more- cut stage manners. Many of the reports on over the Punk Rock scene deal with the musicians' destroying their instruments on stage. But in a small club London and some 13 years ago, the Who's Peter chism Townshend rammed his guitar into an and amplifier unit, splitting the instrument fact, in two. The group became a media star tune overnight as a result. (He did the same thing at the famed Woodstock concert). But in 1968, Punk Rock's real on (no pun intended) was Arthur was precursor Brown, a Yorkshire, England, native is a who was so far ahead of his time with his outrageousness that he dropped out of sight at the height of his obscurity. But he was able to influence a number ment of performers who were later to make years. their mark on the music scene with theatrics, including Alice Cooper. Brown used to appear in phosphorescent robes, his face painted with white and black stripes and while in the midst of a song, flames would shoot Youth Survey of teen-agers who say they got along poorly with their parents. Here is a sample: "They're too possessive and overbearing and put restrictions on me as though I were a child They're always comparing the "old days" to -that things were harder then, and that we should be satisfied with what we have today "My mother tends to treat me as I were younger than I really am. She also tends to make decisions for me . . They don't want to allow me to have private thoughts. They ask too many questions about my private affairs. If there is something they need to know, they should have enough faith in me that I will tell them . They underestimate me and have a basic lack of trust in me They are much too overprotective . They don't trust me enough They're too get excited too quickly Overprotective, narrowminded, overly critical . "My parents remember their years with respect to the times they lived in, and teen sometimes live in the past . . . They are always comparing today with when they were kids. They don't understand times are constantly changing, but I guess I will say the same to my kids. ." The Ramones -a U.S. Punk Rock group- have a single out that has made it to the nation's Top 100 chart, thanks in part to the national publicity given to the Punk Rock movement, which originated in England. The Ramones' single is a tender little ditty called "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker." the top of his head. They a still such act and the five-man group apremember him in England as "God hell peared at the Nixon Theater several fire." years ago in high heels, lipstick and feEver since Brown's flames died out, male attire and were cheered on by a have been hordes of performers packed house that was high on everyhave been nearly as weird as the thing from grass to cough syrup. In Rockers. People like: fact, the audience was more bizarre-Alice Cooper, who sent himself to looking than the Dolls and looked for guillotine at the end of his act, who all the world like the cast of Marat/ pretended to disembowel a chicken on Sade. and who wore stage makeup that But all of these acts never received as though it were applied by a the concentrated notoriety as the Punk makeup man on LSD. Rockers. Why? Because their activities -Iggy Stooge (now called Iggy were not linked with a sociological phewho first exploited the art of on- nomenon. Not so with the Punk Rockmasochism and who would roll in ers. Their antics are considered glass across the stage until he bled tomatic of hard times in England and sympeveryone in the front row. that is news. Even the promoters of the -Lou Reed, who made himself up Punk Rock acts and their are managers similar to the way Punk Rockers grabbing onto this tie-in because of its who delved not only into maso- publicity value. but also sadism, homosexuality the world of the heroin addict (in Bernard Rhodes, who manages a one of Reed's biggest hits was a group called Clash, put it this way: called "Heroin." Reed has played "There is no way Britain can take a Pittsburgh many times, as has Cooper. turn for the better and that's the infor-Frank Zappa, who mutilated dolls mation we are passing on, in everything stage and whose main claim to a fame we do -clothing, concert backdrops and his bizarre stage antics. Zappa also attitudes." Britain may be in financial perennial Pittsburgh favorite. trouble but Rhodes isn't anymore. In number the of early 1970s, that there donned were a So the value Punk the Rockers rock on and the groups gay more English pound loses, apparel in an out-of-the-closet move- popular the groups become, bethat was popular for at least two cause pop music echoes life. Or does it The New York Dolls was one echo greed? what's happening "What's Up Tiger Lily ?" featuring Woody Allen will be presented Friday and Saturday at 205 Oakland Ave. The 1966 movie, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Film-Makers, will be shown at 8 and 10 p.m. both days, with a midnight showing Friday. Admission is $1.50. Victor Erice's "The Spirit Of the Beehive" will be presented at the Carnegie Institute Lecture Hall, 4400 Forbes, Ave., 24. Oakland, Admission at is 7:30 $1. p.m. SunA musical benefit featuring the female vocalist "Honeytree" is scheduled for Saturday, July 30, from 3 to 8:30 p.m. The benefit will be held near Exit 5, Pennsylvania Turnpike in Rural Ridge, and is being sponsored by Teen Challenge of Western Pennsylvania, a Christian residential drug rehabilitation program. Tickets for the festival are $3 and are on sale at local religious book stores and can be purchased at the entrance. more information and a map, call 265-4100. Route 88, Finleyville. 7 Miles South of South Park Phone 563-3398 or 348-7123 Open Monday Thru Friday 10 to 9, Saturday 5:30