Ensayo-The Clash

Valeria Villa Celi
THE CLASH
During the 1960’s and 1970’s, the music industry was positively impacted by the introduction of new genres and transformed by revolutionary singers and emerging bands portraying in their singing and lyrics the everyday issues. The Clash, a British punk rock band, formed part of this movement. They helped to define a new genre, punk, and captured the distress intheir lyrics. They were dubbed as "The Only British Band That Matters" by Epic Records and later adapted by the fans into "The Only Band That Matters", a very well deserved slogan. The Clash was, is, and will be important because they made the genre relevant due to their different and strong political song writing, their closeness to their fans and their social activities.
In 1970, Britain, andspecially London, suffered major social changes: change of politics from Labour Party to Margaret Thatcher’s right-wing government, immigration from West Indians, racism, differences of classes, unemployment and the IRA bombing. The Clash, defined by the rebel attitude of the genre but against nihilism, protested against monarchy, aristocracy, racial prejudice and more in their lyrics. Some of theirstrong political lyrics were "White Riot”- “Black people gotta lot a problems But they don't mind throwing a brick White people go to school Where they teach you how to be thick” commenting on how ready are black people to be against injustice but white people just accepted things as they were; "Career Opportunities"- “They said I'd better take anything they'd got”, “I hate the civil service rulesAnd I won't open letter bombs for you” depicting the low-paid jobs the citizens were forced to take and the lasting effects of the letter bomb; ”I’m Not Down”- “Like skyscrapers rising up 
Floor by floor, I'm not giving up” and “Death Or Glory”-“ Grabs the mike to tell us he'll die before he's sold”, carried a message of strength and perseverance to face adversity;  “London Calling”, explored anapolitical future about past events in the world. These are some of the lyrics that demonstrate how aware the band was about their surroundings. Joe Strummer, the vocalist of the band even said ''I will always believe in punk-rock, because it's about creating something for yourself. Part of it was: 'Stop being a sap! Lift your head up and see what is really going on in the political, social andreligious situations, and try and see through all the smoke screens" clearly wanting the citizens to be also involved.
In contrast to rock stars who alienated themselves from their fans due to their ‘Hollywood status’, The Clash didn’t put any barrier and were into their fans because they cared. Because actions speak louder than words, the Clash showed their interest by naming a song “Clash CityRockers” after their fans.  Also the band demanded that the double album “London Calling” had to be sold for the price of a single record, uncommon for the time. With the triple-album “Sandinista!” they repeated again the price arrangement of a single record so that the triple album could be affordable. The ticket prices were also in the mind of the band. They kept the costs as low as possible notminding to lose money in the process and get minimum profits. In their concerts it was no surprise to the fans to know the hotel where the band was staying because they often announced the name of it in case they couldn’t go home that night so they would know a place to stay. But what was most import to them was to have an impact in their fans and Mick Jones acknowledged it by confessing "Peoplehave told me songs I’ve written have changed their life. That’s remarkable. That keeps your faith”. Knowing this, the band kept on the reciprocal relationship with their fans.
Even though their songs carried a message The Clash also wanted to be involved in social activism. They were involved with social movements groups as the Anti-Nazi League, the one that promoted Rock Against Racism concert...