Innes publishes book about the Sex Pistols, punk rock

Adjunct Professor Christopher Innes from the Department of Philosophy has published his edited volume "Sex Pistols and the Trajectory of Punk Rock: Philosophical and Cultural Perspectives" with McFarland Publishing. The book is a collection of 14 essays, with an introduction and conclusion by Innes.

The book analyzes the Sex Pistols, an iconic punk rock band operating from 1975-78, as a phenomenon firmly rooted in the world of rock and roll, having shaped the trajectory of the punk rock subgenre, which has since evolved into its own distinct genre.

The Sex Pistols performed punk rock within a context of widespread social and political unrest, riots, unemployment and societal degradation, all of which profoundly influenced the band's confrontational attitude. Punk rock, as exemplified by the Sex Pistols, represents a musical and cultural movement that rejects the pretensions of other rock and roll genres, such as the complex structures of progressive rock and the emotionally overwrought love songs that dominated the 1970s.

The essays in "Sex Pistols and the Trajectory of Punk Rock" analyze topics such as the Sex Pistols' attitude to nihilism, aestheticism and authenticity. A more critical essay points out the Sex Pistols' commercialism, though the band claimed to reject it.

Innes will present a paper at the Punk Scholars Network in Las Vegas, Nevada from March 6 to 7. His paper, "We Weren't There During the Filth and the Fury: Epistemic Distance in Sex Pistols Scholarship," analyzes the problem of reliable scholarship on a punk rock group that played 50 years ago. The paper is loosely based on Innes's book, and discusses the difficulty with doing authentic research if you do not have contact with the group you are researching.

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