Biography
Although Patti Smith often receives acclaim as punk’s foundational figure, the template for feminist punk traces more directly to Poly Styrene, frontwoman of the pioneering London band X-Ray Spex. Few rock vocalists, male or female, matched her singular presence: an overweight, mixed-race teenager of white and Somalian heritage who still wore dental braces and favored vivid Day-Glo clothing. Her delivery was an untrained, piercing shout that trembled whenever she pushed for higher notes, a sound later taken up by riot grrrl singers such as Kathleen Hanna and Corin Tucker. Sharp-witted and articulate, she skewered corporate culture, consumerism, and synthetic values, all delivered with buoyant irony. Ambivalence toward fame prompted an early withdrawal from the industry, yet her stature within punk was already assured.
Born Marion Elliot in London, she assembled X-Ray Spex in 1976 after attending a Sex Pistols concert and concluding she could replicate the approach. The group’s first single, “Oh Bondage, Up Yours,” quickly became an anthem of the era and prefigured the riot grrrl wave of the following decade. Following the 1978 release of the widely praised album Germ Free Adolescents, X-Ray Spex dissolved a year later. Styrene then issued her solo debut, Translucence, on United Artists in 1980; the record’s smoother, jazz-inflected tone surprised some listeners but earned strong reviews regardless.
Still more unexpected was her decision, soon afterward, to abandon music and enter the Hare Krishna movement—an apparent extension of the anti-materialist themes she had long explored. She returned only briefly, releasing the 1986 EP God’s & Goddesses on the Awesome label and adding Krishna chants to a 1990 Dream Academy recording. In 1995 she reconvened X-Ray Spex to record the album Conscious Consumer. Working with her daughter Celeste Bell, she issued the holiday single “Black Christmas” in 2010. The following year saw the arrival of her electro-pop album Generation Indigo and its single “Virtual Boyfriend.” Just weeks after the UK release of Generation Indigo, she died in her sleep on 25 April 2011 while fighting breast cancer; Poly Styrene was 53.
Born Marion Elliot in London, she assembled X-Ray Spex in 1976 after attending a Sex Pistols concert and concluding she could replicate the approach. The group’s first single, “Oh Bondage, Up Yours,” quickly became an anthem of the era and prefigured the riot grrrl wave of the following decade. Following the 1978 release of the widely praised album Germ Free Adolescents, X-Ray Spex dissolved a year later. Styrene then issued her solo debut, Translucence, on United Artists in 1980; the record’s smoother, jazz-inflected tone surprised some listeners but earned strong reviews regardless.
Still more unexpected was her decision, soon afterward, to abandon music and enter the Hare Krishna movement—an apparent extension of the anti-materialist themes she had long explored. She returned only briefly, releasing the 1986 EP God’s & Goddesses on the Awesome label and adding Krishna chants to a 1990 Dream Academy recording. In 1995 she reconvened X-Ray Spex to record the album Conscious Consumer. Working with her daughter Celeste Bell, she issued the holiday single “Black Christmas” in 2010. The following year saw the arrival of her electro-pop album Generation Indigo and its single “Virtual Boyfriend.” Just weeks after the UK release of Generation Indigo, she died in her sleep on 25 April 2011 while fighting breast cancer; Poly Styrene was 53.
Albums
