Bad Artists Copy Great Artists Steal

I think Malcom Mclaren was an idiot for trying to use people in such a shallow way, however he was never boring. Before The Sex Pistols were formed he owned a clothing shop with girlfriend Vivienne Westwood. They sold many different kinds of clothes which would eventually lead to the wardrobe of the Pistols and the image that became packaged as "punk". After the Pistols came crashing down, he tried to search for the next big thing. He then decided to form a new band, which became Bow Wow Wow. With the help of Viviene' pirate fashion and world music, he gave Bow Wow Wow an identity. Their first single was C30, C60, C90 go!, which was urging kids to tape the radio and take away sales from the record industry. The single ironically was released on EMI, a major label losing money in this way at the time. EMI dropped them after their second single.


"Every day I get a brand new show
off TV record and radio
I breeze with the sleaze on my cassette
'cause I got the affirmative

C30 C60 C90 Go
C30 C60 C90 Go
C30 C60
C30 C60 C90 Go
30 60 90 Go"

The cover for the single caused controversy because the singer was underage, another ploy by McLaren to get attention. But interesting enough he got the idea from Edouard Manet's famous painting "Lunch on the grass", which also caused commotion in his day. McLaren's genius was not in using people (for that he was an idiot), but combining all these rich concepts like the avant-garde fashion of Westwood, the african tribal beat, the rebellious lyrics and the sampling of art history. Together these ideas created quite an intriguing piece of work. If you look back on art history, all the great paintings have layers of ideas. Perhaps too, McLaren was attempting the same feat, but with pop culture.