Crass | |
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Background information | |
Also known as | Stormtrooper (1977) |
Origin | Epping, Essex, England |
Genres | |
Years active | 1977–1984 |
Labels | |
Past members |
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Crass were an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex in 1977[1] who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a lifestyle and a resistance movement. Crass popularised the anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, advocating direct action, animal rights, feminism, anti-fascism and environmentalism. The band employed and advocated a DIY ethic in its albums, sound collages, leaflets and films.
Crass spray-painted stencilled graffiti messages in the London Underground system and on advertising billboards, coordinated squats and organised political action. The band expressed its ideals by dressing in black, military-surplus-style clothing and using a stage backdrop amalgamating icons of perceived authority such as the Christian cross, the swastika, the Union Jack and the ouroboros.
The band was critical of the punk subculture[2] and youth culture in general; nevertheless, the anarchist ideas that they promoted have maintained a presence in punk.[3] Because of their free experimentation and use of tape collages, graphics, spoken word releases, poetry and improvisation, Crass have been associated with avant-punk[4][5][6] and art punk.[7]
We believed that you could no more be a socialist [band] and signed to CBS (The Clash) than you could be an anarchist and signed to EMI