Punk Rock in the New Era with Poly Styrene

In the 1960’s all genres of music began to change or combine with each other. Punk rock was an up and coming genre. Many artists were changing their music to fit under this genre. Poly Styrene was one of the few women to be involved in this transition. She was starting to be her “own” person. In the 1960’s the Civil Rights Movement was in full force. There were many protests going on, and unfortunately two assassinations happened, which led to why she had song that gave off a sad mood. Poly Styrene was affected in different ways and started to express her feelings in music. She did not appreciate the way she was being treated as a women. The social and contextual factors that impacted Poly Styrene’s music were sexism towards women, her race and harassment of how she was dressed. She expressed her feelings about these using slow tempos, minor harmony and loud melodies.

Poly Styrene was an African American female artist who was on the verge of popularity. She was born in England and grew up in London. At the age of 15 she ran away from home and attended many different music festivals. Poly Styrene was not her real name. She was a punk icon known as Marianne Joan Elliott-Said (Bell). She was the first women of color to lead a punk brand, the X-Ray Spex (Bell).

Poly Styrenes song has a lot of loud and short melodies. This musical element relates to the contextual factors of Poly being a women in that era. Punk rock was a great way artists expressed their emotions and beliefs. To continue that Poly started to do the same thing. She and other women artists wanted to be able to have the respect and freedom the other male artists were getting. In the song SkyDiving, there were a lot of short melodies.To express her feeling she started to write and sing punk rock songs as well. She was struggling with her identity in society, so she wanted to change that (Sheffield). Like other punk rockers she expressed her thoughts and emotions through song. The loud and short melodies is perfect example. Using the loud melodies shows how she wants to grab the listener’s attention (Sheffield). That can also represent how she is feeling. Her angry and annoyed feelings can be released in the loud melodies. Using the melodies is a creative way to express feelings. This is why she became very popular as well. The short time between melodies is also a way she is expressing how she is sad and mad. The linear succession of the melodies shows the anger she is feeling. In music linear melodies are used to express anger. She is angry because of the way she has been treated. Adding the melodies throughout the whole song shows her feelings stay the same throughout the whole song. When a melody changes that represent her feelings changing as well. Listeners and fans would be able to tell when her emotion changes and what her emotion is. If the song had soft melodies and rhythms they would be able to tell she is happy but since the rhythms and melodies are loud, they know she is angry or mad.

A musical element that I can connect to contextual information is the tempo of the song. The tempo of this song is at a medium speed. It is not very fast or very slow. There are many different instruments that keep the tempo on track. What connects the tempo of the song is the social issues Poly Styrene was going through. These issues led her to start writing songs like this one. Social issues included, slavery, sexism, and many others. The musical trait of the tempo was impacted because there were problems so the song was off to a slow start. The slow start gave the listeners the feeling of sadness and fear. Females were known to express their feelings through song (Brown). That is just what Poly did. Many of her songs have background information just like this one. The tempo of the song was made to a medium by the instruments, the lyrics and the singers voice. This is because it helped keep the song on a balance rhythm and tempo. This was impacted because Poly had her opinions of the social problems. She wanted to show her emotions and thoughts through song (Brown). The lyrics actually how her thoughts. But with out the lyrics in the song, we would still be able to tell her feelings and emotions from the tempo. In Punk rock anger is the most easily recognized emotion in a song. Emotions are recognized through out the song by the musical traits (Brown). She added the tempo so people knew how she was feeling. Poly was very angry and sad along with many other females. If you look at their songs, they all add their feelings in the same way. Between the tempo and melodies, it is easy to show their feelings.

In Poly Styrenes song, Sky Divers, there is a little bit of harmony between the instruments and the singer. The reason for this harmony is because of the background and theme of the song. Poly Styrene was trying to make a statement. She was an African American female trying to fit into the 70’s punk rock scene. She was successful by giving off the look of her clothes (Binkowski).The reasoning for this harmony is it adds to the mood of the song. Her mood at the time was upset and a little sad. The music genres were just going through a transition. The Punk Rock group was just getting put together with many different types of music coming together. “In her music, Poly displayed an emotional vulnerability rare to punk music, writing deftly about obsession, vanity, environmentalism, genetic engineering, consumerism and mental distress.” (Sheffield).The harmony slowed the song down. It also added exaggeration on the words that were being harmonized together. When there were instrumental harmonization that added to the songs tempo and kept it slow for the sad mood she was trying to create. Since she was creating a sad mood, that then led the listeners to be sad as well. There would be some listeners that wouldn’t like the sad mood or disagree with the song. That would also cause problems in society. The exaggeration on certain words stood out to the listeners, there for they would remember them after the listened to the song. Once they remembered these words it would make them think of the song and the mood they get in when they hear the song. The listeners would probably get into a sad or quiet mood, which was the goal of Poly Styrene. She was not the only one in this era with sad songs. All the artists were going through the same situation she was (Sheffield).

In conclusion, Poly Styrene expressed her feelings through her music. She was involved in many tough situations as an artist. She used music to escape from the negativity. The musical elements expressed her feelings, while creating great sounds people enjoyed. She was in the midst of many hard times and went though them with a positive music mind.

Bell, Celeste. “Getting to Know My Mother, Punk Icon Poly Styrene: Gal-Dem.” Gal, 21 May 2019, gal-dem.com/my-mother-poly-styrene-retrospective-punk-icon/.

Binkowski, Carol J. 2019. “Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot.” Library Journal 144 (2): 123. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=134860490&site=eds-live.

Brown, Jayna. “‘Brown Girl in the Ring’: Poly Styrene, Annabella Lwin, and the Politics of Anger.” Journal of Popular Music Studies (Wiley-Blackwell) 23, no. 4 (December 2011): 455–78. doi:10.1111/j.1533–1598.2011.01306.x.

SHEFFIELD, ROB. “The Eternal Revolution of Feminist Punk.” Rolling Stone, no. 1329 (July 2019): 94. https://search-ebscohost-com.hoover2.mcdaniel.edu:2443/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=137147795&site=eds-live.