Punk's biggest bandwagon jumpers

[DickieBrakelight]

When the Pistols burst on the scene a whole flurry of punk bands sprouted up from nowhere (and I mean UK Pistols-type punk, not US Iggy/Ramones types). Who were the ones that used the punk explosion as a stepping stone to the mainstream? The Police? Boomtown Rats?? The Lurkers???

[Booldawg]

Altered Images, Teardrop Explodes, Adam and the ants spring to mind. Its hard not to fall into thinking of 'New Wave' bands such as OMD, Depeche mode as they werent strictly the same.

[zzxxee]

were the exploited around at that time??

[Booldawg]

They were formed in '79 so I guess they were formed off the back of punk. They were fairly hardcored though and didnt appear as 'manufactured' as some bands that were a blatant cash-in.

[zzxxee]

ahhh ok x your knowledge of music is really good booldawg

[Booldawg]

lol I wikipedia'ed when they were formed but do remember them being around in the early 80s. They even appeared on TOTP when 'dead cities' charted.

[spudqueen]

It's hard to think of Altered Images as a punk bank - I'd have called them new wave! Yes, there were a lot of punk bands, but I think you'll find that a lot of them had already been formed eg The Clash were formed in 1976. It would only have been after the punk era and the people in the band matured and mellowed that they could have gone to the mainstream. After the punk era there was new wave and the reggae/ska eg Two Tone era. This led directly on from punk, so maybe you could accuse these bands of using punk as a stepping stone to the mainstream, but really I think they just had their own sound that was suitable or not for mainstream. You can never quite tell how it's going to go - look at how many grannies loved Boy George in Culture Club!

[Booldawg]

The pistols themselves were nurtured, styled and promoted. At the end of the day they were simply a 'product' Their lack of media savvy was what made them big.

[andy-hughes]

I don't think you can really say that any band 'use' a genre as a stepping stone - no-one has that power.

Audiences take to bands, or they don't.

Yes, you can have copycat bands who take on the style and approach of a successful band like The Pistols, but no-one could seriously start out with the intention of 'stepping' anywhere - tastes go where they go, and no-one from then until now really knows what will grab the public next.

[ELVIS68]

Sigue Sigue Sputnik

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk30a0qsVIk

[MarkRae]

Definitely not The Boomtown Rats. Their biggest influence were blues and R&B bands (and I mean R&B when it mean rhythm and blues) like Dr Feelgood. They just happened to come to prominence around the time of the punk explosion. The Police were far more influenced by reggae than punk.

As for bandwagon jumpers: Peter and the Test Tube Babies, The Ruts, The Angelic Upstarts etc...