Poly Styrene

Celeste Bell, the daughter of X-Ray Spex singer Poly Styrene, opens her documentary “Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliche” with a simple question: Was her punk rock icon mother a good parent?. It comes as no surprise that the short answer is no. But she also paints a...

There's a picture of Poly Styrene shot onstage with X-Ray Spex in 1978 by Denis O'Regan that depicts the singer in full iconic flight: DIY-modified vintage 1950s clothing, gigantic hair, lips curled into a sneer exposing braces and eyes ablaze with fury. You're welcome to your posters of the Clash and the Sex Pistols, but this is proof positive of punk's initial promise as a truly new type of music. Listening to X-Ray Spex's futuristic albums, full of jittery, angular, angry critiques of our never-ending consumerist dystopia, only further drives that point home.