When you can claim responsibility not for a few bands, but for an aesthetic of an entire movement, that’s an incredible thing. When you go beyond that and keep creating art, not because you need to, but because you want to, that’s even more incredible. You will be missed, Malcolm McLaren.
If you’ve ever listened to a punk record that came out of the late 70’s, you heard Malcolm McLaren’s influence. Perhaps not directly from music, but the clothes, the attitude, he rubbed off on all of it. And if you’re listening to a Sex Pistols or New York Dolls record – which you should, because they’re amazing – you’ve heard bands he’s created or managed.
And besides being a giant influence on the scene that influenced countless pop-punk records and crappy bands that followed, he kept releasing albums and was key in bringing hip-hop influences to British music in a time where there wasn’t much hip-hop influence here in America. McLaren ran a punk clothes boutique in London, appropriately titled Sex, and starred in The Great Rock N’ Roll Swindle, where he claimed everything that happened with the Sex Pistols, he orchestrated.
He passed away of cancer at his home.
Though he was rumored to be autocratic, his influence is undeniable. Rest in peace, Malcolm McLaren. Join the dead heroes that you’ve made.
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