No Machos or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk classic rock despite creeping middle-age obligations of

despite creeping middle-age obligations of parenthood and 9-to-5 jobs

Sonic Youth became a fixture in New York’s burgeoning No Wave scene—an avant-garde collision of art and sound

just as the digital future was announcing itself

personal tragedies

and Rainer Werner Fassbinder

No Machos or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk classic rock despite creeping middle-age obligations ofAfter punk's arrival in 1976, many art students in the northern English city of Leeds traded their paintbrushes for guitars and synthesizers. In bands ranging from Gang of Four, Soft Cell, and Delta 5 to the Mekons, Scritti Politti, and Fad Gadget, these artists turned musicians challenged the limits of what was deemed possible in rock and pop music. Taking avant garde ideas to the record buying public, they created Situationist antirock and art punk,