Originally Posted by Skaligojurah

Slightly unrelated rant but I'm not so sure I'd agree with the man being talentless.

Talentless? Naw, I think the Sex Pistols deserve a bit more credit for coming up with some elements of sound which were generally unheard of before. Even if they were sloppy, and untechnical and such(and really, this is punk, and early punk so what do you expect?). The talent came though in their ability to distinguish themselves from anything around them when it comes to sound/image. I'd say in that regard, he's quite talented.

However, when you really think of it, Sex Pistols were one of the worst things to happen to punk. Before them, punk was simply a group of bands who played outside of the industry's rules.

Essentially, they were nothing more than indy bands. They were given the name 'punk' as reference to the prison concept of a 'punk bitch' as sort of a derogatory insult by an elitist media. The reason why punk was even cool was because they played completely outside the boundaries of the industry.

What the Sex Pistols, and a lot of the British punk movement, did at the time kind of took away the point when they spent so much time streamlining what punk was supposed to be. They made it a fashion statement, and a trend. They made it a cult, and a club. Not a club built of people who just appreciated free spirited "kids" trying to play their own rock n' roll, but a very scarily elitist folks who only believed you were "real" if you stuck a stickpin in your anus.

Essentially, where as "punk" before things like the Sex Pistols was simply a bunch of people playing their own rock outside of industry rules and standards, Sex Pistols protested the industry by sort of inventing their own little industry outside of it. One that eventually was simply assimilated into the bigger industry.

Thus the reason why punk has become such a trendy over marketed sound, and a band like Greenday(Like them or no, they are pretty much just a catchy pop band) can be considered a respectful nod to the point. Sex Pistols were MAJOR violators in shifting punk from what it originally meant to it's commercial incarnation of today.

Suppose, with that known, the industry itself makes tons of money off of their assimilated streamlined rendition of punk. With the fact that there are in fact even some ditzy teenie boppers who buy into the prepackaged mythos of Sex Pistols(I know this as fact) of course they're going to try to market Sid Viscious as a "great great man". For them, and for the selection stoner skaters who are are still sitting around and going "Man, Kurt Cobain was like Ghandi meets Jesus Christ" who somehow latch onto punk as their own.