Angry, hard-edged punk music really was born in the United Kingdom - but unlike the British invasion bands of the 60's, the Sex Pistols and their contemporaries initially struggled to gain popularity on this side of the pond. What happened?
In talking about The Psychedelic Furs concert at the House of Blues in New Orleans, I ventured into the role that band played in ushering in the genre of "new wave" music in the late 70s.
The effort to push hard punk rock on the youth of America failed because the youth that were responding to the hard punk rock scene in the UK were dealing with intense unemployment and economic issues. Those issues were not as severe in the U.S. so the music didn't relate to the American youth the way it did to the youth in the UK.
Hear more in the audio player above.
