Lester Bangs got his start in southern California, where he grew up surrounded by religion and strict restrictions on the media he consumed. Despite being heavily sheltered, he was exposed to the beat generation, and was heavily influenced by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Like many of his generation, Bangs had a distrust of the government and a desire to break the mold of his parents, who were a devout Jehovah’s Witness and an absent alcoholic. Bangs was determined not to let his upbringing dictate his life, and spoke often about not using family as “not using that as an excuse.” Lester Bangs started his journalism career by writing for Rolling Stone, his first piece was a scathing review of MC5 and from then on he began to regularly …show more content…
He instead chose to focus in on artists that didn’t shy away from the dark parts of life and showed the same kind of unfiltered unhappiness that Bangs showed in his writing. He honed in on the gritty emotion of the songs and turned it into fodder for his work, which is part of the reason Bangs wrote about musical and humanity so interchangeably. Due to the fact that his music reviews were about much more than just music, Bangs began to be noted not just a great writer, but as a gonzo journalist. The gonzo movement had been growing at the time, headed by journalists like Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, but Lester Bangs wanted no part of it. Ultimately, Lester Bangs is often hailed as one of America’s greatest rock critics, and has left his mark on both journalism and music. Bangs and several other writers at Creem magazine were some of the first to employ the term “punk rock,” and they gave credence to a growing and unconventional movement. In 1982, Bangs passed away due to a drug overdose, yet at 33, he had already left his mark on journalism. He never wrote any books or award-winning pieces, but by the time of his death, his compelling writing style had left a lasting impression on music