Richard Hell and the Voidoids - ‘Blank Generation’
“…what motivated the “blank generation” more than anything else was the desire to make something new, and the most significant difference between punk in America and punk in England was the starting point. The British impulse, epitomized by the Sex Pistols, was to destroy, and indeed punk became notorious in America largely because of the Sex Pistols’ antics. The American impulse, on the contrary, was to assume simply that the slate was clean: a tabula rasa. There was less fury - at least until hardcore - in part because America had already destroyed itself. Nixon had resigned, the war in Vietnam was over, major cities had pockets of ruin and were on the verge of bankruptcy. There was nothing to destroy because there was nothing to destroy.”
(Nicholas Rombes, A Cultural Dictionary of Punk)
