Various
Revolt Into Style: 1979 CHERRY RED
Excellent and varied collection of tracks from an exciting and pivotal year in music.
GETTY
There are those – pretty much everyone included – who would say that 1979 is one the great watershed years in music. Like 1956, like 1977 or 1988, 1979 was a year when a lot of bands and artists appeared as if from nowhere and exploded all over the place. Unlike those years, most of which were characterised by adherence to one or two musical styles, 1979 was also a year of extreme variety. The reasons were simple: on one hand there was the air-clearing explosion of punk rock, itself much more than just a musical style. Punk – as you may have heard mentioned from time to time – diverted the sludgey stream of music from its chosen path into the claggy reservoir of heritage rock, and enabled people with little talent or knowledge of things like time changes to make new and often thrilling music. On the other hand, independent labels like Stiff and Rough Trade were able to bypass both the corporate process and the need for releasing albums.This was an age of 45s, a time when the singles page and Radio 1’s The John Peel Show were deranged compilations of new and diverse records every week.