Stars/Auteurs: The Sex Pistols

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The term ‘auteur’ has traditionally applied to a filmmaker whose personal approach and control over production have given their work a distinctive style. Shuker more eloquently applies this concept to popular music as, “the pinnacle of the pantheon of performers and their work, a hierarchical approach used by fans, critics, and musicians to organise their view of the historical development of popular music and the contemporary status of its performers.” The auteur displays a high degree of musical competency and a respected body of work that, “transcend[s] the traditional aesthetic forms of the genres they work within.” The key question for this essay, then, is can the Sex Pistols be defined as ‘auteurs’? Obviously there are elements of Shuker’s definition of auteur that do not sit comfortably in relation to this group. However, in terms of distinctive style and impact, the incendiary explosion of this band on the world music scene cannot be denied. The importance of The Pistols’ brief but music-changing impact has been mirrored throughout popular music history by other auteurs who had a limited musical canon of work; such as the influence of Gram Parsons on the fusion of country and rock in the early 1970’s or Robert Johnson’s sole recording in 1936 that “was to have an impact out of all proportion to its size” on a number of musical genres. For The Sex Pistols, their claim to auteurship hinges on the impact of their single recording, Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, released in 1977. The context of their brief but incendiary existence fits one of the key essences of rock: rebellion. There has always been an anti-authoritarian challenging of the status quo, a pushing of the boundaries of taste and morality: from Elvis’ pelvis, to John being bigger than Jesus, to Public Enemy, to Marilyn Manson. The Sex Pistols’ anti-establishment stance was

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