AIM110.1 - 1032929 Bennett, Harry -Genealogy Tree by Harry Bennett

Show Me The Body

1032929_2 — 2024-06-07 01:43:50 UTC

Show Me The Body exploded onto the New York punk scene with an inherent purpose. To give a platform to those who had none whilst revitalising what it means to be proud of your origins. The lead vocalist, Julian Pratt, has a distinctly raw and 'improper' delivery that evokes a sense of authenticity within the lyrics that is hard to re-create with more a more traditional style. Additionally, the band has shown their willingness to experiment and evolve their own sound, incorporating an amped up banjo into the majority of their albums following 'Body War.' Furthermore, the group created Corpus, an artistic collective providing residency and a platform for anyone with something to say. It is this inherent sense of building everyone else up alongside you that has seeped itself into my way of being. If something happens or goes wrong, the upper classes can ignore the needs of the few, and it's by grouping together and turning them into the needs of the many that incites change within the world.

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New York City

1032929_2 — 2024-06-07 01:55:01 UTC

Perhaps their biggest influence, both creatively and artistically, New York City itself has remained a centrepiece within their music. Describing their brand of noise as a "a reflection of the culture of making music in the city," going on to liken it to "circadian patterns". (Mudrak, 2022) It is this reflection on themselves and their city that led to their second influence and core value, community.

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Community

1032929_2 — 2024-06-13 13:32:01 UTC

Although less a thematic point in their songs, building and giving back to their community has always been one of the bands key ideals, only pushing more and more to the forefront of their records. During an interview with 'Loud and Quiet's' Stuart Stubbs, the group stated "No one's trying to reinvigorate community...they're just trying to push something. New York's all being sold." This feeling of betrayal then slowly evolved into 'Corpus l', a collaborative album featuring everyone - from relative no names like Dreamcrusher to megastars like Denzel Curry - and anyone in an effort to give a platform to anyone that wanted it.

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Nightlife

1032929_2 — 2024-06-14 00:11:33 UTC

Furthermore, the sheer variety of nightlife within New York City has had an immense impact on the artistic style of the band. This idea has been illustrated best by the band themselves, stating “a big part of Show Me The Body is being exposed to different types of nightlife…park jams, cyphers, drag shows and trans raves…All of that stuff influenced us…other scenes don’t get that kind of exposure to nightlife”(Jones, 2019)

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Dead Kennedys

1032929_2 — 2024-06-14 01:58:19 UTC

Dead Kennedys are nothing if not authentic. The band both revolutionised American punk whilst also becoming trailblazers for the greater independent scene, with the band choosing to self publish the vast majority of their albums under their own record label 'Alternative Tentacles.' Additionally, no topic is too crass for the group, they play about what ever injustices they feel is going on the world no matter how sensitive a subject. Being entranced by this open critique of anything and everything during my formative years no doubt entrenched the need to both never betray your values and to always pave your own way rather than taking any shortcuts.

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1980's Politics

1032929_2 — 2024-07-05 16:38:45 UTC

Political satire has been a core part of the Dead Kennedys, dating all the way back to before its in inception. The first time this was observed from the Kennedys, was during the original lead singer, Jello Biafra's political campaign for mayor of San Francisco in 1979. Ranging from the downright humorous, such as Biafra's proposed law that required businessmen to wear clown suits to ideas with more significance like cracking down on landlords with stronger rent control, Biafra has always held societal issues close to his heart (Goldthorpe, 1988). Furthermore, this can be seen in nearly all of their music, from 'Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables' 'Holiday in Cambodia' to 'Plastic Surgery Disasters' 'We've Got a Bigger Problem Now', the need to represent the 'little man' was always essential to the identity of the band.

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The 'Me Generation'

1032929_2 — 2024-07-06 17:57:45 UTC

Perhaps one of the band's most well known values is to bring everyone else up with you, rather than only leaving room for yourself at the top. This can be gleamed from the name alone, 'Dead Kennedys' with the founding vocalist Jello Biafra stating in a 1982 interview with MTV's Jools Holland "It's not meant to be a slap on the Kennedy family, so much as to call attention to what happened after they were killed" going on to call the aftermath of the killings "the source of what's called the 'me generation.'"(MTV & Holland, 1982). It's this disdain for the self-centred attitude of a 1980's America that can be seen in songs such as 'Let's Lynch The Landlord.'

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Corporate America

1032929_2 — 2024-07-06 18:10:59 UTC

The 'Dead Kennedys' were rather well known for their rather negative view on 'corporate America' and the views it forces on its people. One example of this is in the aforementioned clown suits Biafra would of had businessmen don. However, this is not the only example of the band's utter contempt for corporate America and the social hierarchies it imposes. In the book 'Rebel Music: Resistance through Hip Hop and Punk', Kirby Pringle writes in his section that in the band's 'Plastic Surgery disasters' "Several of the thirteen songs attacked what was unquestionably deemed the best option for a white middle-school student...stay in school, do what I was told, fall in love, defer to specialists."(Parmar et al., 2015) It was this rather open dislike for the limited options having to 'fall in line' during a time where public opinion on corporate America as a whole viewed in an extremely positive light that led to them having what I call the 'Sex Pistols Effect.' That is, to lay the foundations for other bands in future to write about whatever they wanted, and succeed through sheer non-conformity to the status quo.

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References

1032929_2 — 2024-07-07 08:31:21 UTC

Goldthorpe, J. (1988). Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys - FoundSF. Www.foundsf.org. https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Jello_Biafra_and_the_Dead_Kennedys

Jones, C. (2019, March 29). Show Me The Body Make NYC Hardcore For The Freaks. Kerrang! https://www.kerrang.com/show-me-the-body-make-nyc-hardcore-for-the-freaks

MTV, & Holland, J. (1982, November 21). MTV: The I.R.S. Show with Jools Holland (November 21st, 1982). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/1982.11.21_MTV_The_I.R.S._Show_with_Jools_Holland_November_21st_1982

Mudrak, J. (2022, October 28). Interview: Show Me the Body on Staying Consistent and Doing the Work. New Noise Magazine. https://newnoisemagazine.com/interviews/interview-show-me-the-body-on-staying-consistent-and-doing-the-work/

Parmar, P., Nocella, A. J., Robertson, S., & Diaz, M. (2015). Rebel music : resistance through hip hop and punk. Information Age Publishing.

Stubbs, S. (2016, August 26). Battle For New York – a weekend spent with Show Me The Body. Loud and Quiet. https://www.loudandquiet.com/interview/battle-new-york-weekend-spent-show-body/

Harry Bennett

1032929_2 — 2024-07-07 08:32:02 UTC