- Band Members: Johnny Rotten, Paul Cook, Ronnie Biggs, Sid Vicious, Glen Matlock, Steve Jones
- Genre: Rock & Alternative
- Influenced by: New York Dolls, Mott the Hoople, T. Rex, The Kinks, Chuck Berry, The Ramones, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, The Stooges, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Deviants, MC5, Faces, The Velvet Underground
- Followed By: The Pretenders, Joan Jett, The Offspring, Hoggboy, Chagall Guevara, Kleenex, Dead & Gone, Stiff Little Fingers, Scott Campbell, Testament, R.E.M., Impotent Sea Snakes, Surf Punks, Gavin Rossdale, Leusemia, Minutemen, Manic Hispanic, The Circle Jerks, Nigo, Farin Urlaub, Huns, Ging Nang Boyz, Penetration, The Weasels, The Bollock Brothers, Broken Bones, The Damned, U.K. Subs, Skid Row, The Mentally Ill, Adam Ant, Mötley Crüe, F Word, Anthrax, Stormtroopers of Death, Bad Religion, Billy Idol, Sex Gang Children, Blind Idiot God, Wehrmacht, The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, The Psychedelic Furs, Metal Urbain, Riot Squad, The Smiths, Wire, The Jam, Orange, Rancid, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Tenpole Tudor, Generation X, MDC, John Flywheel, The Replacements, Armitage Shanks, Sham 69, All, Cockney Rejects, Faith No More, X, Lawnmower Deth, The Prodigy, Down by Law, Alice in Chains, Ima Robot, Megadeth, Mick Farren, Love Kill, Super Furry Animals, The Germs, The Stranglers, Plasmatics, PHB, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Kim Gordon, Böhse Onkelz, The Mekons, Pinhead Gunpowder, Dark Angel, Big Black, Ash, Demob, Ebba Grön, Subhumans, Strike Under, Michael Monroe, Showcase Showdown, Nirvana, The Business, 2 Minutos, The Heart Attacks, Hüsker Dü, Chaotic Dischord, Guns N' Roses, The Anti-Nowhere League, Rosemary's Billycoat, Sex Slaves, Courtney Love, The Adverts, Ian Dury, X-Ray Spex, The God Awfuls, Backyard Babies, Venom, The Vandals, The Vibrators, Gallows, Towers of London, P.A.I.N., Gang of Four, The Breeders, The Adolescents, Y Trwynau Coch, La Polla Records, Enemigos de la Klase, Maanam, The Necros, The Rezillos, Lowdowns, Vice Squad, Minor Threat, Dragons, Joe Strummer, The Rank Deluxe, Meat Puppets, The Cure, The Weirdos, La Vie en Rose, Valeze, Melvins, Menswear, B.A.L.L., Forgotten Rebels, G.G. Allin, The Vice Principals, Effigies, The Lords of the New Church, Brain Failure, Kraut, Flipper, Hard-Ons, The Beale, The Clash, Compulsion, Die Ärzte, Die Goldenen Zitronen, Talk Taxis, Cosmosonic, Redd Kross, U2, Boys Next Door, Selby Tigers, New Model Army, The Boomtown Rats, River City Rebels, Slayer, Velvet Revolver, I.D.K., Lurkers, Ruts D.C., Stiv Bators, Green Day, The Undertones, 70veces7, Hanoi Rocks, The Keep Aways, Suburban Reptiles, The Soft Boys, Lars Frederiksen, The Soviettes, XTC, Thurston Moore, Black Flag, The Only Ones, John Doe, G.B.H., Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, Brian Nash, Sick on the Bus, The Cars, Fat, Mississippi Mudsharks, 60 Ft. Dolls, Joy Division, Gotohells, The Police, Faster Pussycat, 999, Eppu Normaali, Buzzcocks, Swingin' Utters, Angelic Upstarts, Placebo
- Similar Artists: AC/DC, Adam Ant, Bad Brains, Black Flag, The Boomtown Rats, Buzzcocks, Cheap Trick, The Circle Jerks, The Clash, Elvis Costello, The Cure, The Damned, The Dictators, The Fall, Flipper, Generation X, The Germs, Guns N' Roses, Hüsker Dü, The Jam, Joan Jett, David Johansen, Magazine, Megadeth, Minutemen, Mötley Crüe, Motörhead, Nirvana, The Only Ones, The Police, Iggy Pop, The Runaways, Sham 69, Social Distortion, Stiff Little Fingers, The Stranglers, The Undertones, The Vibrators, Wire, X, X-Ray Spex, Minor Threat, The Slits, The Adverts, The Offspring, The Prodigy, G.G. Allin, Green Day, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Johnny Thunders, U.K. Subs, The Rotters
The Sex Pistols may have only been together for two years in the late '70s, but they changed the face of popular music. Through their raw, nihilistic singles and violent performances, the band revolutionized the idea of what rock & roll could be. In England, the group was considered dangerous to the very fabric of society and was banned across the country; in America, they didn't have the same impact, but countless bands in both countries were inspired by the sheer sonic force of their music, while countless others were inspired by their independent, do-it-yourself ethics. Even if they didn't release any singles by themselves, there was an implicit independence in the way they played their music and handled their career. The band gave birth to the massive independent music underground in England and America that would soon include bands that didn't have a direct musical connection to the Sex Pistols' initial three-minute blasts of rage, but couldn't have existed without those singles.
Guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook were regulars at a boutique owned by their manager, Malcolm McLaren; bassist Glen Matlock worked at the store. Vocalist John Lydon, who would later perform under the name Johnny Rotten, met the rest of the group at the shop and was asked to join the band. While the band played simple rock & roll loudly and abrasively, Rotten arrogantly sang of anarchy, abortion, violence, fascism, and apathy; without Rotten, the band wouldn't have been threatening to England's government -- he provided the band's conceptual direction, calculated to be as confrontational and threatening as possible. The publicity caused by their caustic first single "Anarchy in the U.K." caused the band to be dropped by their record label, EMI. Matlock was fired before their next single "God Save the Queen," which was released on Virgin; it was banned by the BBC. Matlock's replacement was Sid Vicious, a tough street kid who, unlike the rest of the band, couldn't play his instrument.
After releasing one album in 1977, the band headed over to the U.S. for a tour in January of 1978; it lasted 14 days. Rotten left the band after their show at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on January 14, heading back to New York; he would form Public Image Limited later that year. McLaren tried to continue the band but Cook and Jones soon turned against him. In the two decades following the Sex Pistols' implosion, an endless stream of outtakes, demos, repackagings, and live shows were released on a variety of labels, which only helped their cult grow.
In 1996, to celebrate their impending twentieth anniversary, the Sex Pistols reunited, with original bassist Glen Matlock taking the place of the deceased Sid Vicious. The band embarked on an international tour in June of 1996, releasing the Filthy Lucre Live album the following month. Four years later, Julien Temple (who helmed the band's first movie, The Great Rock & Roll Swindle) directed the documentary film The Filth & the Fury. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide