Never Mind the Bollocks.

• Author: McKissack, Fred

As 'N Sync and Britney Spears have managed to make it to the covers of national news magazines, I couldn't help but feel maudlin while watching Julien Temple's excellent documentary on the Sex Pistols, The Filth and the Fury (Fine Line Features).

When American youth surround themselves in bubble gum music and hair gel, I pity them for not having had Johnny "Rotten" Lydon scream at them about the future. "Why so angry, Johnny?" the kids would ask. And you get it within the first ten minutes of the film, when members of the band talk about an undeclared caste system in England, where a child's future was foretold with rats and trash and broken glass.

The press claimed that the Sex Pistols, and the entire punk movement, was an underculture of safety pins, mohawk haircuts, rage, drugs, and sex. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Funny how politics was never really discussed. You don't write "God Save the Queen" and piss off fifty million people during her majesty's jubilee celebration if you're not attempting to make a political statement. Why go through the hassle? According to Lydon, he did it because he loved England. And I, for one, believe him.

If you think punk is the antithesis of humanity, watch The Filth and the Fury. You'll come to realize that punk was one of the great musical breakthroughs of the twentieth century. With three chords and some effort, you could get your point across.

If you want to see the antithesis, just check out the docudramacrapfest Making of the Band (ABC, Friday nights). From tryouts to final product, wannabe boy band members alternately grovel and bitch to get a shot at the big time. It's so phony, yet you're mesmerized by how these five youths care only about the money and the fame and the babes and more money.

By contrast, the thoroughly authentic Sex Pistols rattled away, all the while being mowed down by the press and the government.

Ironically, what killed the Sex Pistols (and, quite literally, Sid Vicious)...