His snapshots of San Francisco and LA punks capture a lighthearted energy that stands in contrast to the hard-edged grit of the New York and U.K. After he dropped out, he spent his days working at a copy store and his nights hauling his camera to punk shows to photograph musicians and fans alike. Jocoy became involved in the budding California punk scene as a student at UC Santa Cruz in the 1970s. Prior to the publication of his 2002 photo book, Jim Jocoy had hardly picked up his camera in 20-plus years. It’s clear that Elterman was there through it all, documenting the Runaways from their humble beginnings in LA’s suburbs to their packed gigs at the Whiskey A Go Go. Yet Elterman’s photos of her and her bandmates aren’t just about their grit-there’s also an alluring softness captured in their expressions. With her black eye makeup and black leather jacket decked out in safety pins and badges, Jett stands in stark contrast to the glitz of Hollywood. This duality comes across most distinctly in his photos of Joan Jett and the Runaways. Like the protagonist in Almost Famous, Elterman started out as a teenager with a passion for music, straddling the line between professional and fan, never quite revealing to his subject which role he was inhabiting in any given moment. Though the photos often have the feeling of paparazzi snaps or publicity shoots, the real power lies in their intimacy. From Sunset Boulevard to the Santa Monica Pier, Elterman used the sunny backdrop of his native Southern California as the setting for his snapshots of some of the era’s most recognizable rock and pop stars. Here are a few who saw it all.īrad Elterman’s photos capture the utopian glamour of the West Coast’s scene in the 1970s and ’80s. Amid the sea of leather jackets and tight pants, the punk aesthetic was captured by daring photographers along for the ride. In the punk scene of the 1970s and ’80s, both onstage and off, style was just as important as which bands you went to see. Aside from the musicians, female fans also found that punk’s freedom of expression extended beyond the stage, providing them with a platform to let their own voices be heard.īut more than just a sound, punk rock had a look. Though the tough punk-rocker stereotype may bring to mind male artists like Johnny Rotten and Joey Ramone, women like Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, and Siouxsie Sioux stood at the helm of the movement, holding their own against their male counterparts. This band was quite popular among the punk scene of the eighties because of their audacious and unrelenting style that can be heard in such hits as “Bad Reputation,” and “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Jett was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 and is still playing to this day.With the coolly delivered words “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,” Patti Smith burst onto the music scene, shattering any pretense that she was just another “girl in a band.” This declaration, the opening line to her 1975 debut album, Horses, epitomized the subversive power that came to define punk rock. Realizing that she would need a band to back her up, she formed Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. After the recognition from this song, they were selected to open for such acts as Van Halen, Cheap Trick, and Ramones.Īfter the group disbanded in 1979 due to creative differences, Joan Jett went on a solo path to keep their rock/punk style alive. Capitalizing on this success, the band would go on to tour Japan multiple times, still making time to return and tour Europe and North America. The band amassed quite a bit of success with the song “Cherry Bomb,” which made it to number one and was especially popular in Japan. After a fantastic audition, she was hired on to play rhythm guitar, do vocals from time to time, and be the band’s cowriter with bandmate and front woman Cherie Currie. It was in 1975 when she was invited to join the newly forming all-female rock band that would be known as the Runaways. Jett was born in 1958 as Joan Larkin but utilized this stage name to sound cooler. The picture is of her in 1977 during her time with the Runaways. This young lady is one of rock and roll’s most legendary women, Joan Jett.
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