You don’t have to like The Sex Pistols or punk rock to appreciate what they did for the music scene in the late 70s.
The 1976 Sex Pistols concerts at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall are legendary because attendees went on to form some of the most iconic bands in alternative rock history.
Bands that emerged directly from those in attendance include:
- Joy Division / New Order (Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook)
- The Smiths (Morrissey)
- The Fall (Mark E. Smith)
- Buzzcocks (Pete Shelley and Howard DeVoto)
- Simply Red (Mick Hucknall)
Why? Because The Sex Pistols showed their audience that *they* could do it!
They proved it was possible for the “average Joe” to be in a band.
“Up until that point, I thought you had to be a born musician, and music was about virtuosity… You would say I could never do anything like that. I thought if The Sex Pistols can do it, we can do it. And that was the essence of punk.”
Bernard Sumner (Joy Division / New Order)
Luke Brehony, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Why it matters to IDs
Our content, training, eLearning, etc., needs to show our audience that they can actually do what it is that we are asking them to do.
Not just show them how to do it.
Not just inform them why to do it.
But they must also show them that they can indeed do what we are asking them to do.
It needs to show them that not only is it possible… but it is possible for them to do.
Apply it
What can you add to or include in your next course that will help your audience gain the confidence to do what it is you are asking them to do?
A hands-on demo?
A step-by-step job aid take-away?
What else?
The Sex Pistols Photograph: Koen Suyk. In: Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Rijksfotoarchief: Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Fotopersbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989 – negatiefstroken zwart/wit, nummer toegang 2.24.01.05, bestanddeelnummer 928-9665, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Leave a Reply