UK 82
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UK 82 (also known as UK Hardcore or Second Generation UK Punk) is a harder-edged subgenre of punk rock that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s. The style took the existing 1977-era punk sound of the Sex Pistols and The Clash and added the incessant, heavy drumbeats and "wall of sound" distortion guitar sound of New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) bands such as Motörhead. The lyrics for UK 82 bands tended to be much darker and more violent than earlier punk bands. More rarely, the style is referred to as "No Future Punk", which may be a reference to the 1980s record label "No Future Records."
[edit] History
The term UK 82 began being used as reference point for the style of the British hardcore punk bands of the early 1980s, as opposed to the original 1977-era punk bands such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash ("77 Punk"). Other notable bands of the UK 82 genre include Discharge, Disorder, Chaos UK, Amebix, Charged GBH, Broken Bones and The Varukers.
Unlike the first wave of punk rock in 1977, which was rooted in pub rock and garage rock, UK 82 took the existing punk sound and added the incessant, heavy drumbeats and "wall of sound" distortion guitar sound of New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) bands such as Motörhead. The two genres developed alongside each other, and many stylistic elements crossed over between the two genres. UK 82 originated years before the development of crossover thrash, which is a subgenre and hybrid of American hardcore punk and thrash metal. The music tends to incorporate distorted guitar and bass, and a fast, simple drumming style that became known as Dbeat, with vocals often being shouted, but not screamed.
While it is not clear that UK 82 was directly influenced by the American hardcore punk scene (or vice versa), the two movements arose at the same time and had many similarities. Many of bands influenced the emergent thrash metal bands of the mid 1980s, some of them being UK 82 bands trying to cross over, notably English Dogs, The Exploited and Onslaught, who became very popular in the late 1980s before moving towards a more traditional Heavy Metal sound.
Many of the lyrics sung by UK 82 bands were notably darker and more violent than earlier punk bands, which mostly sang about, nihilistic ideals. Lyrics of UK82 tended to focus on the possibilities of a nuclear holocaust, and the apocalypse, partially due to the cold war atmosphere. The other mainstay of the lyrics of the time was unemployment, and the Conservative Party government of the time, demonizing the Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher in the same way the American hardcore punk bands did with the Ronald Reagan administration. Negative outlooks about the world's demise contrasted with the positive punk and satire that found its way into many American hardcore bands.
[edit] Etymology
While the term UK 82 is not used by music critics and music journalists to refer to early 1980s UK hardcore punk—they tend to prefer the term "UK hardcore"—it has used in blogs, websites, and record compilations since the mid-1990s. While the source of the term UK 82 cannot be documented, one account is that the term developed in the 1990s, when a collaboration between metal band Slayer and hip-hop rapper Ice T covered three songs by The Exploited on the Judgment Night film soundtrack, including a reworking of "UK82" as "LA92" with updated lyrics by Ice T. This film exposed the Exploited's songs to large numbers of Slayer fans. The name stuck, as a convenient reference point for the style of the British punk bands of the early 1980s.
More rarely, the term "No Future Punk" is used to refer to the bands from this period. This may be a reference to the early 1980s punk record label "No Future Records" (NFR). NFR was a small record company which operated from 1980 to 1984, which distributed recordings by hardcore punk bands and Oi! bands such as Blitz. By the early 1980s, the first wave of punk was several years old, and the musical scene had lost the creative energy that it initially had in 1977 and 1978. In response, small record companies such as NFR began forming, to sign the young, emerging bands that were being formed. There are very few printed references to the term "No Future Punk" as a reference to early 1980s UK hardcore. One example of the term being used in this fashion, though, is the website of the Tocado Records company from Holland. The Rotterdam-based company refers to a band that began by playing "good old No Future Punk". [1]
[edit] References
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