History Music / PublicImageLtd

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Some of the band's members gained this reputation, not helped by an UrbanLegend that alleged one of them tried to set Music/TheFall's drummer Karl Burns on fire during a recording session.

Public Image Ltd. ([=PiL=] for short) are a PostPunk band (and possibly an UrExample of the genre/aesthetic) formed by Music/JohnLydon in 1978 after his departure from the Music/SexPistols, a move that freed him to pursue his interest in [[AvantGardeMusic experimental music]], [[{{Reggae}} dub]], [[ProgressiveRock prog rock]], and various other types of music that were ''non grata'' in the world of late 70's PunkRock that the Pistols had helped cultivate. The group has gone through a bewildering range of changes of [[RevolvingDoorBand personnel]] and musical styles, and occasional hiatuses, and at this point effectively consists of [[FaceOfTheBand Lydon]] and whoever else is in the band at the moment.

* BrandX: ''Album'' parodies the trope in its title and cover art, the latter of which takes after the packaging for generic goods in Ralph's grocery stores.

** The cover art for ''Album'' parodies the packaging style for generic products at Ralph's grocery stores. Music/JohnLydon even appeared in print ads for Ralph's during the album's promotional campaign to highlight the reference.

* ShouOut:

* {{Shout Out}}s: Include ''Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner'' ("Albatross") and Keats' ''La Belle Dame sans merci'' ("No Birds")

* AlbumFiller: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] for "Fodderstompf":

** ''The Flowers of Romance'' dropped the metallic guitars and thick basslines in favour of a proto-PostRock sound consisting of percussion textures and aural chaos, inspired by Music/PeterGabriel[='s=] third SelfTitledAlbum. It asn't just that they'd *heard* the album, though. There was also an in-house connection: Nick Launay, who produced ''The Flowers of Romance'', knew and was friendly with both PG3's producer Steve Lillywhite and the album's engineer, Hugh Padgham as he had earlier worked with them as an assistant on various projects.

* {{Suburbia}}/StepfordSuburbia: "No Birds" (originally titled "And No Birds Do Sing" as the b-side to the 7" version of "Death Disco." This was actually a misquote as it was meant to refer to the refrain of John Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad" which repeats the line, "And no birds sing.")

* UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion: Something of a running theme, especially in the early work, rather unsurprisingly given Lydon's Irish Catholic London working class background. Expect digs at the Catholic Church (see also ReligionRantSong, above), and the British class system. On ''Metal Box'', "Careering" and "The Suit" come with a side of AmbitionIsEvil, while "No Birds", "Chant" and "Careering" (again) make digs at the middle classes. (From "Chant": "It's not important/it's not worth a mention in ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Guardian]]''... the likes of you and me are an embarrassment". From "Careering": "Both sides of the river/there is bacteria".)
** "Careering" is an odd example in that the lyrics have two levels of meaning, as indicated by the dual definition of the title word (working professionally in something vs. wandering aimlessly): One being the class critique, the other being about [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles the IRA's bombing campaign in Northern Ireland]].

The band split in 1992, and Lydon attempted a solo career (that only resulted in a single album, ''Psycho's Path'', which bombed) and then reunited The Music/SexPistols. In 2009, Lydon reunited [=PiL=] with a lineup consisting of Lydon, former members Lu Edmonds and Bruce Smith, and multi-instrumentalist Scott Firth. A new album, ''This Is [=PiL=]'', was issued in May 2012; a follow-up, ''What the World Needs Now...'', was released in September 2015.

* ''End of World'' (2023)

* PunnyName: The band name is not just [[DontExplainTheJoke a dig at Lydon's post-Pistols image]] (and [[ViewersAreGeniuses an oblique reference]] to Muriel Sparks' novel ''The Public Image''), but also plays up the "band as corporate entity" angle, also featured in a tendency to HeavyMeta ("Poptones", "Chant", "Death Disco" etc.) and naming records so as to [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] their status as product (''First Issue'', ''Second Edition'' aka ''Metal Box'', ''Album'') They also pronounced the acronym of Public Image Ltd.--[=PiL=]--as "pill" and, indeed, their circular logo with a diagonal line running through it was meant to imply a pill (with the line being the "scored" part of the tablet so it could be easily broken in half.

* PostRock: One of many arguable [[UrExample Ur-Examples]], especially on ''The Flowers of Romance'' (to the point where Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} outright classifies that album as post-rock).

* TakeThat: It's a band led by Music/JohnLydon. A ''lot'' of things and people get on his nerves. The other Sex Pistols (see IAmSong), the music industry ("This Is Not a Love Song"), religion (see ReligionRantSong), UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} and its hotels ("Seattle"), Music/LouReed ("Where Are You," which appeared on "Commercial Zone" under the title "Lou Reed," parts 1 and 2. The acoustic Part 1 has a mid-to-late period Velvets sound, but Lydon and Levene both later stated that the lyrics were about Jeannette Lee, who had left the PiL organization. In it's re-recorded form the song was dubbed "Where Are You?" a phrase which almost serves as a chorus to it.), broadsheet newspapers ("Chant"), UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush ([[FunWithAcronyms "U.S.L.S.1"]]), intrusive fans ("Banging the Door"). Every so often, for variety, he has [[SelfDeprecation a go at himself]], too. And quite a few songs are {{Take That}}s taken to a level of abstraction where you're definitely sure he's having a go at ''something'' or ''someone'', even if you're not sure exactly what or whom.

* PunnyName: The band name is not just [[DontExplainTheJoke a dig at Lydon's post-Pistols image]] (and [[ViewersAreGeniuses an oblique reference]] to Muriel Sparks' novel ''The Public Image''), but also plays up the "band as corporate entity" angle, also featured in a tendency to HeavyMeta ("Poptones", "Chant", "Death Disco" etc.) and naming records so as to [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] their status as product (''First Issue'', ''Second Edition'' aka ''Metal Box'', ''Album'') They also pronounced the acronym of Public Image Ltd.--PiL--as "pill" and, indeed, their circular logo with a diagonal line running through it was meant to imply a pill (with the line being the "scored" part of the tablet so it could be easily broken in half.

Public Image Ltd. ([=PiL=] for short) are a PostPunk band (and possibly an UrExample of the genre/aesthetic) formed by Music/JohnLydon in 1978 after his departure from the Music/SexPistols, a move that freed him to pursue his interest in [[AvantGardeMusic experimental music]], [[{{Reggae}} dub]], [[ProgressiveRock prog rock]], and various other types of music that were ''non grata'' in the world of late 70's PunkRock that the Pistols had helped cultivate. The group has gone through a bewildering range of changes of [[RevolvingDoorBand personnel]] and [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly musical styles]], and occasional hiatuses, and at this point effectively consists of [[FaceOfTheBand Lydon]] and whoever else is in the band at the moment.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: ''First Issue'' is fairly straight(ish) punk/new wave, except for two longer, strung-out experimental pieces, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPSGJPg-tCU "Theme"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzn3_NEek4M "Fodderstompf"]]. These turned out to be better indicators for the next few albums, especially ''Metal Box'', than any of the more "accessible" tracks. Around ''This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get'', the sound took a turn for the more "commercial", to variable fan-reaction, and has changed again a few times since. Lydon has cited Music/YokoOno, Music/{{Can}}, and Music/VanDerGraafGenerator among his influences.

!!Tropes:

* HiddenDepths: People were surprised to find that Johnny Rotten is a fan of ProgressiveRock. Keith Levene also had a background in prog as a former roadie for Music/{{Yes}}.

* LeadDrummer: On ''The Flowers of Romance'', Martyn Atkins' drums are as prominent in the mix as Lydon's vocals, sometimes overshadowing Levene's guitar and synthesizer.

** "Love, war, fear, hate" (or is it "Mob, war, kill, hate"? It's hard to tell) from "Chant".

** ''The Flowers of Romance'' dropped the metallic guitars and thick basslines in favour of a proto-PostRock sound consisting of percussion textures and aural chaos, inspired by Music/PeterGabriel[='s=] third SelfTitledAlbum.

* PunnyName: The band name is not just [[DontExplainTheJoke a dig at Lydon's post-Pistols image]] (and [[ViewersAreGeniuses an oblique reference]] to Muriel Sparks' novel ''The Public Image''), but also plays up the "band as corporate entity" angle, also featured in a tendency to HeavyMeta ("Poptones", "Chant", "Death Disco" etc.) and naming records so as to [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] their status as product (''First Issue'', ''Second Edition'' aka ''Metal Box'', ''Album'')

* RidiculousProcrastinator: The first lineup of the band had this reputation, much to the exasperation of their record company. Walker once mentioned that Wobble used to call Lydon's flat so often he assumed that Wobble lived far away, until one day Wobble walked into the flat and Walker found out he was actually living a few floors below but was too lazy to actually show up in person.

* {{Suburbia}}/StepfordSuburbia: "No Birds"

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Lydon is joined by Jah Wobble and Jim Walker on "Fodderstompf".
* TakeThat: It's a band led by Music/JohnLydon. A ''lot'' of things and people get on his nerves. The other Sex Pistols (see IAmSong), the music industry ("This Is Not a Love Song"), religion (see ReligionRantSong), UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} and its hotels ("Seattle"), Music/LouReed ("Where Are You"), broadsheet newspapers ("Chant"), UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush ([[FunWithAcronyms "U.S.L.S.1"]]), intrusive fans ("Banging the Door"). Every so often, for variety, he has [[SelfDeprecation a go at himself]], too. And quite a few songs are {{Take That}}s taken to a level of abstraction where you're definitely sure he's having a go at ''something'' or ''someone'', even if you're not sure exactly what or whom.

* InsistentTerminology: Public Image Ltd. isn't a band, it's a communications company.

-->"We only wanted to finish the album with the minimum amount of effort
--> Which we are now doing very successfully"

* ReligionRantSong: Heavily featured in ''Fist Issue'' ("Religion I", "Religion II", "Annalisa").

* PackagedAsOtherMedium: The cover images on ''First Issue'' are a series of magazine cover parodies.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The title ''Second Edition'' fits this trope on several levels. It's the group's second album, it's the second edition of the album (as noted, it was originally released as a set of 12" singles in a metal film canister as ''Metal Box''), and it's the second edition of the band itself (with original drummer Jim Walker replaced by a variety of session players).

* GreenAesop: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHKn_gk8WV8 "Don't Ask Me"]]

* IAmSong: "Public Image"

* PunkInTheTrunk: "Poptones" is based on an incident where a girl was kidnapped, stipped naked, stuffed in a car trunk and left for dead in the woods. She was apparently ably to get back to civilization and was able to describe the tape the kidnappers were playing in the car, and they happened to be playing it when they were arrested

* TakeThat: It's a band led by Music/JohnLydon. A ''lot'' of things and people get on his nerves. The music industry ("This Is Not a Love Song"), religion (see ReligionRantSong), UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} and its hotels ("Seattle"), Music/LouReed ("Where Are You"), broadsheet newspapers ("Chant"), UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush ([[FunWithAcronyms "U.S.L.S.1"]]), intrusive fans ("Banging the Door"). Every so often, for variety, he has [[SelfDeprecation a go at himself]], too. And quite a few songs are {{Take That}}s taken to a level of abstraction where you're definitely sure he's having a go at ''something'' or ''someone'', even if you're not sure exactly what or whom.

** "Love, war, fear, hate" from "Chant".

* HiddenDepths: People were surprised to find that Johnny Rotten is a fan of ProgressiveRock. Keith Levine also had a background in prog as a former roadie for Music/{{Yes}}.

* HiddenDepths: People were surprised to find that Johnny Rotten is a fan of ProgressiveRock.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Album_(Public_Image_Ltd_album) Album]]'', aka ''Compact Disc'' or ''Cassette'', depending on the format. Might also count as ShapedLikeItself, since, well, it's what the cover says it is.

* ReligionRantSong: Heavily featured in the early work ("Religion I", "Religion II", "Annalisa").

* SpokenWordInMusic: Lydon recites the words to "The Room I Am In".