They railed against consumerism, but the Sex Pistols will now be helping to oil the wheels of the capitalist machine as the band’s name and artwork are to feature on a range of credit cards. Virgin Money, the bank backed by Sir Richard Branson, has launched an series of Sex Pistols credit cards, including two featuring the artwork for the band’s 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, in its full uncensored glory. A third card features imagery relating to the single Anarchy in the UK.
For most folks of a certain age, the late 1970s was, among other things, the nadir of punk music. The soundtrack for anarchy and discontent, punk raged against the status quo- capitalism and virtually every other “ism.” When John Lydon sang “Your future dream is a shopping scheme” on Anarchy in the U.K. in 1976, it was the expression of a sentiment dripping with sarcasm and disdain for the established order. Lydon and the Sex Pistols aimed to tear it all down…though what they would have installed in its place was anyone’s guess. The system was evil and rotten and deserved to be destroyed; whatever was to rise in its place HAD to be an improvement…right??
Fast forward almost 40 years, and the world is a much different place. Anarchy and anarchists have come and gone, and punk is merely a quaint musical history footnote. Punk was never meant to last, of course; even if it had achieved widespread commercial acceptance, it would have spun apart and self-destructed over evolving into the product and captive of a system it loathed. Success was failure, and failure meant the established order must be destroyed and rebuilt. What replaced it was seemingly far less important than that the status quo be obliterated.
Turns out that if enough time passes, people grow up and discover that being able to pay the bills is generally a good thing. Lydon, the face of perhaps the seminal practitioners of the punk genre, recently starred in a television advertising campaign for Country Life butter. Who says capitalism isn’t always the ultimate victor? Especially when your pimping a credit card with an 18.9% APR…though the bearer would have the street cred available from using a credit card with “bollocks” on it.
Yes, Virginia; that was when we learned that capitalism always wins in the end…because poverty is a virtue only if you’re Mother Teresa. It’s difficult to argue that capitalism isn’t inherently evil, but when those whose sworn mission was to destroy the system are now profiting off it…well, it’s enough to make my head explode.
