No fun - an introduction to the Sex Pistols

In this Introduction, the book’s editors present an overview of its content, centred around four themes that recur throughout the volume, which together highlight key areas in which punk band the Sex Pistols have had significant influence on public and cultural life. These themes are: myth and mythologies, media and subcultures, heritage and legacy, and punk scholarship. In discussing these themes, they address some of the points raised by the book’s authors, giving them context as well as drawing out some of the threads that connect the chapters, cross-cutting the book’s thematic approach. They conclude the chapter with a short outline of the book’s structure and some brief comments on why this collection is timely, highlighting in particular the coincidence of the band’s fiftieth anniversary and a new period of global insecurity, a time in which punk philosophies are likely to hold particular relevance.