entertainment_westwood_070917 Lyrics

Amber: Hello, I'm Amber and this is bbclearningenglish.com.
In Entertainment today, we go back to the mid-1970s when punk rock and the British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood ruled the day! 'Punk' was a popular style among young people and it involved shocking the establishment with rebellious music, shocking behaviour and outrageous clothes!
We hear a description of the 'punk look', the punk style of clothes and hair. And we hear how those clothes made the designer Vivienne Westwood famous.
But the story doesn't end there - 'these days' (that's a handy expression for talking about the present time, in comparison with the past) - these days - Vivienne Westwood is a 'Dame' - she's been honoured by the Queen and given the t__le 'Dame', and her fashion designs are museum pieces!
Here's BBC presenter Mark Coles describing punk culture and Vivienne Westwood's part in that trend. As you listen, try to catch the verb (it's US slang) that Mark uses to explain that punk rockers were disrespectful and
critical of the Queen.Mark Coles 'Spiky-haired youngsters running around in tartan bondage trousers, safety pins and spiked dog collars, dissing the Queen and calling for revolution on the streets! Well, that punk look, its anarchy symbols and torn clothes, was all Vivienne Westwood. It helped turn her into a
household name - one of the world's most influential, not to mention, notorious, fashion designers. These days, more than 30 years on, you're more likely to find her designs hanging in prestigious museums like the National Gallery of Australia. She's also Dame Vivienne
Westwood - honoured by the very Queen that the s__ Pistols savaged back in punk's heyday.'
Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007
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Amber: Did you catch it? Mark says punk rockers were 'dissing' the Queen. But that was in 'punk's heyday' (in the 1970s) - the heyday of something is the time of its greatest popularity.
Listen again and try to catch what the punk rockers looked like!
Mark Coles
'Spiky-haired youngsters running around in tartan bondage trousers, safety pins and spiked dog collars, dissing the Queen and calling for revolution on the streets! Well, that punk look, its anarchy symbols and torn clothes, was all Vivienne Westwood. It helped turn her into a household name - one of the world's most influential, not to mention, notorious, fashion
designers. These days, more than 30 years on, you're more likely to find her designs hanging in prestigious museums like the National Gallery of Australia. She's also Dame Vivienne Westwood - honoured by the very Queen that the s__ Pistols savaged back in punk's heyday.'
Amber: So punk rockers wore their hair in 'spiky' styles - stuck into sharp points, sticking upwards! They often wore safety pins and even 'spiked dog collars' - just to shock! Oh, and rather colourful trousers - 'tartan bondage trousers'. Tartan is kind of wool fabric with straight patterns, often with a lot of red and black lines in it. Bondage trousers have lots of zips and rips (they're often'torn')!
But now, Vivienne Westwood is speaking out again - this time she's criticising some forms of popular culture, like the cinema and magazines, and saying people should go to the theatre and read books instead. She's launched a cultural manifesto called 'Active Resistance To Propaganda', in which she asks people to forget commerce, celebrity and conceptual art and immerse
themselves instead in great culture. Here she is. Try to catch why she's encouraging people to rebel.
Vivienne Westwood 'Every time you go to the theatre instead of the cinema, you are active in the theatre, you are thinking, you are using your imagination. I'm not saying that cinema sometimes maybe can not be artistic, but usually it's not. Magazines are mostly for the - not only the illiterate - but
Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007
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the visually illiterate. A magazine is something you just wet your finger, and just go through the pages - flick, flick, flick - there's not even anything particularly to see in there!'
Amber: So Vivienne Westwood says we should experience forms of art which make us think and use our imaginations. She says we should be 'active' in the arts!Vivienne Westwood
'Every time you go to the theatre instead of the cinema, you are active in the theatre, you are
thinking, you are using your imagination. I'm not saying that cinema sometimes maybe can not be artistic, but usually it's not. Magazines are mostly for the - not only the illiterate - but the visually illiterate. A magazine is something you just wet your finger, and just go through the pages - flick, flick, flick - there's not even anything particularly to see in there!'
Amber: Now let's recap the language we focussed on.
'that punk look' - the rebellious style of clothes and hair fashionable in the 1970s to dis - that's US slang, meaning to be disrespectful, to criticise 'punk's heyday' - the heyday of something is the time of its greatest popularity.
More entertainment news stories and language explanations next time at
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