E X T E N S I O N PUNK AND NEW W AVE In the first years of their career U2 were influenced on the one hand by some of the big names of the rock tradition such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. On the other hand they felt the British musical atmosphere of the late 70s which was deeply affected by two main trends: Punk and New Wave .These musical styles became the basis from which many English and American bands developed their sound and also Bono and friends got their start following the New Wave stream. But what is Punk ? And what is New Wave ? Of course, it is always difficult to trace the boundaries of musical styles, but in this case we can identify some main features for each one. Punk-Rock emerged in the mid- 70s and it represented a return to the rock & roll basics: three chords and a simple melody. It just did it louder and faster and more abrasively than any other rock & roll in the past. The Punk sound was raw1 and aggressive based on loud and distorted electric guitars. The most famous punk-band were the Sex Pistols who came out in London in 1976. They had a great impact on the rock scene even though their career lasted for two years only. Punk-rockers had a direct and usually violent approach, they used explicit language and wore leather jackets, heavy boots and worn out2 jeans. They expressed the discontent and disillusionment of a young generation that had to do with unemployment and a deep economic crisis. So they couldn t believe anymore in the great ideals that characterized the end of the 60s: peace, love and happiness. In the U.S.A. Punk remained in the underground scene, but in Britain it became a social phenomenon because lots of young people living in the suburbs of big towns felt that the harsh3 Punk sound and attitude conveyed the ugliness of the life they were leading. New wave is essentially all the music of the post-punk era, starting from 1978-79 to the end of 1980s. While the term Punk refers to a more extreme and radical type of music, New Wave has a broader4 meaning including a wide range of styles, from melodic pop ballads to tougher5 rock-jazzy-electronic sounds. At the end of the 70s New Wave defined every new pop/rock artist, it was just a term by which it was easy to label the great number of bands and singers expressing the new youth culture. Here are some of the finest and more influential groups that came out of Punk and New Wave movement. They are contemporaries of U2 but at the time they were all more famous than the Irish band. 1. raw: not refined. 2. worn out: old and damaged. 3. harsh: rough. 4. broad: wide. 5. tough: hard. 18