25 Up: Punk’s Silver Jubilee: So bored with the USA?: reflections on a transatlantic divide

On their first album, in 1977, the Clash included the track 'I'm So Bored with the USA'. It was a sweeping rant. But with which USA were the band so bored? Was it the Velvet Underground or Iggy Pop? Unlikely. Was it US television, was it US militarism? More probable. Was it more to do with the Clash resenting the idea of latterday American imperialism and, by extension, a suggestion that that very imperialism might be claiming this simmering sub-cultural volcano as its own? Quite possible. Or was it something else?

• Share
  • Email
  • Digg
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Buzz up!
  • Del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google
• Print
• Write to the editor
• Feeds
  • PopMatters
  • Listen
  • Think

 

 

Bibliography

Bowman, David. 2001. Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the 20th Century. London: Bloomsbury.

Coon, Caroline. 1977. 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion. London: Omnibus.

Gambaccini, Paul, Tim Rice and Jonathan Rice. 1993. Guinness British Hit Singles 9. Guinness Publishing.

Heylin, Clinton. 1993. From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World. London: Penguin.

McNeil, Legs and Gillian McCain. 2000. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. London: Abacus.

Salewicz, Chris and Adrian Boot. 1996. Punk: The Illustrated History of a Music Revolution. London: Penguin.

Savage, Jon. 1991. England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock. London: Faber.

Shuker, Roy. 1998. Key Concepts in Popular Music. London: Routledge.

Street, John. 1997. Politics and Popular Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Thompson, Ben. 1996. “Why this is Hell, and I’m out of it” in the Independent on Sunday, October 20th.

Warner, Simon. 1996. Rockspeak: The Language of Rock and Pop. London: Blandford.

Whitburn, Joel. 1983. The Billboard Book of US Top 40 Hits. Guinness Superlatives.

Discography

The Clash. 1977. “I’m So Bored with the USA” from the LP The Clash CBS 82000.

The Sex Pistols. 1976. “Anarchy in the UK”. 7” single EMI 2566.

Table of Statistics

Singles chart entries (Top 40) by key punk acts 1976-1980

Note: Number of entries to Top 40 (Years of entries to Top 40)

	UK	US
Talking Heads	0	1 (78)
The Ramones	6 (77/77/78/79/80/80)	0
Television	3 (77/77/78)	0
Blondie	11 (78/78/78/78/ 79/79/79/79/ 80/80/80)	6 (79/79/79/ 80/80/80)
The Clash	10 (77/77/ 78/78/78/ 79/79/79/ 80/80)	1 (80)
The Sex Pistols	10 (76/ 77/77/77/ 78/ 79/79/79/79/ 80)	0
The Damned	4 (79/79/79/80)	0
The Jam	17 (77/77/77/ 78/78/78/ 79/79/79/ 80/80/80/ 80/80/80/80/80)	0
TOTAL	61	8

Statistical sources:

Gambaccini, Paul, Tim Rice and Jonathan Rice. 1993. Guinness British Hit Singles 9. Guinness Publishing

Whitburn, Joel. 1983. The Billboard Book of US Top 40 Hits. Guinness Superlatives.