Ray Stevenson/Rex USA Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) of the Sex Pistols in a 1976 photo, part of an exhibition on punk fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.The Metropolitan Museum of Art's current show, “Punk: Chaos to Couture,†tells a fractured story of mid-'70s origins - Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren's “Seditionaries†shop in London, Richard Hell taking scissors to his hair and T-shirts in New York - and influences, leading to designers like Martin Margiela, Junya Watanabe and Gareth Pugh. But it doesn't tell much about the concurrent development of punk's music, nor about its basic impulses and ideals, whether utopian, social-realist, or primal.
Ben Ratliff, the host, is joined by the Times culture reporter Melena Ryzik and the music critic Jon Caramanica, as well as Simon Critchley - philosopher, New School professor, moderator of The Times's online philosophy blog The Stone, and former punk (born in Hertfordshire, England, 1960). Topics discussed: How long did punk really last? Was it sexy? Was it inclusive or narrow? How much were the bondage trousers at Seditionaries? And what did hippies ever do to punks to be so hated?
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Melena Ryzik and Jon Caramanica on “Punk: Chaos to Couture.â€
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
Tracks by artists discussed this week. (Spotify users can also find it.)
