Cowpunk musical groups

Cowpunk (or country punk) is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom and Southern California in the late 1970s - early 1980s. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in its sound, lyrical subject matter, attitude, and style.
Examples include Social Distortion, The Gun Club, The Long Ryders, Dash Rip Rock, Violent Femmes, The Blasters, Mojo Nixon, Meat Puppets, The Beat Farmers, Rubber Rodeo, Rank and File, and Jason and the Scorchers. Many of the musicians in this scene subsequently became associated with alternative country, roots rock or Americana.

Etymology and terminology

The term "cowpunk" is first attested in 1979, as a blend of "cowboy" and "punk". The term "country punk" has been proposed as an equivalent term. Both terms are sometimes hyphenated, especially in late 1970s or early 1980s sources (e.g., cow-punk or country-punk).

In 1984, Robert Palmer wrote in the ''New York Times'' on the emerging aesthetic acknowledged "cowpunk" as one of several catch-all terms critics were using to categorize the country-influenced music of otherwise unrelated punk and new wave bands. The article briefly summarized the music's history, at least in the United States, saying that in the early 1980s, several punk and new wave bands had begun collecting classic country records, and soon thereafter began performing high-tempo cover versions of their favorite songs, and that new bands had also formed around the idea. By 1984, there were dozens of bands in both the U.S. and England "personalizing country music and making it palatable for the MTV Generation."

A ''New York Times'' writer stated that one issue with the "cowpunk" term was that "...no single term really describes the music of all these bands." Another author called the term "cowpunk" a critic-coined "misnomer" in 1985. A 2018 article looking back at the 1980s trends states that the "...diversity of styles beyond punk proper" in cowpunk, "...for some, made the category...suspect, rat least misleading."

Style

The cowpunk clothing style is a stereotypical U.S. rural, working class, western wear form of dress. Cowpunks may wear anything from a vintage western wear look, including checked shirts, bib overalls, worn jeans, and cowboy boots, to a more industrial look with wifebeater shirts, trucker hats, and work boots. Women's hair follows no single style, but men can have anything from a crew cut to long hair, or the exaggerated quiff pompadour hairstyle. Facial hair is also common.

History

Precursors

The first cowpunk bands in the late 1970s "...were inspired not by mainstream country but classic country, a more authentic-sounding music but also historically distant enough to be non-mainstream by default..." There were precedents for blending country and related genres with rock or other styles. For example, all through the 1970s, country rock and southern rock were popular. However, by the early 1980s, the outlaw country trend had "worn out its welcome". Another factor that made country music unappealing to many youth in the early 1980s was that it was perceived as being on the "wrong side" in the "culture war", as country music was associated with conservative political values and highly-produced commercial music.McLeese, Don. ''Dwight Yoakam: A Thousand Miles from Nowhere''. University of Texas Press, 7 March 2012. p. 63-64

Don McLeese said the ways that youth associated country music
made them not realize that it had youthful, exuberant "Hillbilly music" roots in earlier eras. Joey Camp says he was turned off country as a teen in the early 1980s because he mistakenly thought that the "...countrypolitan fare" then popular on commercial radio, such as " Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton, and " Always On My Mind" by Willie Nelson" was the extent of country music.

Music writer Peter Doggett has stated that there has been a "difficult relationship between punk and country" since musicians from the two genres first encountered each other, but they did manage to meet and blend their styles.King, Ian. ''Appetite for Definition: An A-Z Guide to Rock Genres''. HarperCollins, 2018 As well, some new wave bands "displayed blatant country influences".

Early cowpunk bands were more appealing to alternative, non-mainstream youth from the 1980s, as some cowpunk bands explored "queer" themes in their lyrics, or identified or appeared in an androgynous manner. By the early 1980s, punk audiences did come to appreciate a blend of punk and rockabilly, when the new subgenre of psychobilly emerged, with bands such as The Cramps.

1970s

In 1978, Rosie Flores led Rosie and the Screamers, a band that one author calls a "cow-punk" group. T. Tex Edwards , the singer for Dallas area punk band The Nervebreakers, which opened for The Ramones in 1977 and the Sex Pistols on their 1978 US Tour, went on to cowpunk and other country-influenced groups. After The Nervebreakers, influenced by The Cramps and Gun Club he started Tex & The Saddletramps.

1980s

In the early 1980s, punk groups such as L.A. band X, "...began to lean toward the twangy side, providing a subgenre that became known as cowpunk". The L.A. cowpunk bands like X tended to be as intentionally sloppy, against "slick" production values, and anti-commercial as the punk genre they had "morphed" from, often from "blitzkrieg bands" (for example, The Dils became cowpunk band Rank and File). In the 1980s, Rosie Flores left the Screamers and joined a cowpunk all-female band called Screamin' Sirens.

UK groups include the country-tinged pop band Boothill Foot Tappers and the tongue-in-cheek new wave outfit Yip Yip Coyote.

There are a number of U.S. bands: X, the Blasters, Meat Puppets, The Beat Farmers, Rubber Rodeo (which "juxtaposed countrypolitan elements and more conventional rock postures" in homage to "a pop-culture west rather than a geographic or historic one"), Rank and File (playing "an updated version of 1960s country-rock"), Jason and the Scorchers (with "authentically deep country roots"), Tex & the Horseheads, Blood on the Saddle 1984), Dash Rip Rock, Drivin' n Cryin', Fetchin Bones (from North Carolina), The Rave-Ups, Concrete Blonde, Great Plains (from Ohio), and Violent Femmes (at that time incorporating "mountain banjo, wheezing saxophones, scraping fiddle, twanging jew's harp, and ragged vocal choruses").

The Del-Lords formed in New York City in 1982,Cocks, Jay; L., Elizabeth
Music: Where the Lifeline Is
''Time''. 4 August 1986. Retrieved 9 November 2010 founded by The Dictators' guitarist Scott Kempner. The band's cowpunk sound combined elements of 1960s garage rock with country, blues and folk influences. They were one of the early originators of urban roots-rock. The band members were Scott Kempner, Manny Caiati, Eric Ambel and Frank Funaro.

Nine Pound Hammer is an American hardcore-cowpunk band formed in 1985 by vocalist Scott Luallen and guitarist Blaine Cartwright in their hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky. They were one of the first rural hardcore punk bands to incorporate rural blue collar motifs into the hardcore sound. Their lyrics (suggestive of outlaw country) featured themes such as alcoholism, rural poverty, and violence. In contrast, most of the urban, experimental cowpunk bands of 1970s/80s Los Angeles and the UK were roots rock, folk rock or New Wave bands, and they incorporated country music instruments and influences as a secondary (sometimes temporary) aspect of their sound.

In Social Distortion's album '' Prison Bound'' (1986–1988), the band makes a notable style change, exploring a country/western flavor . This record marks the start of the band's entrance into a cowpunk style. Country legend Johnny Cash and a honky tonk style became more prominent influences and there are references to Cash.

Lone Justice is a Los Angeles cowpunk band. ''SPIN'' magazine also named Long Ryders, Danny & Dusty, and Mekons as from the genre.Eddy, Chuck. After thrashy nihilism flamed out, cowpunk giddy-upped from the ashes. ''SPIN''. August 2010.

In Canada, prairies singer K.D. Lang was called a "Canadian Cowpunk" in the 20 June 1985 issue of ''Rolling Stone''. In the late 1980s, Edmonton-based Jr. Gone Wild has been called a " isp, cheerfully honest" example of ,"...that "cowpunk" thing, sure — but really it's just the sugary-yet-direct indie rock of its time, poppy and looking back more than a little at the Gram Parsons side of the Byrds."

In 1987, the independent film ''Border Radio'' was associated with the cowpunk scene. The film, which is directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, is about two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid who rob money from a club and one of whom flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind. It features music from the Flesh Eaters, Green on Red, John Doe, the Divine Horsemen

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