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About The Jam
Hometown
Woking, Surrey, England
Formed
2007
Genre
Rock
The Jam burst from the crucible of British punk with a style that simultaneously defied the movement’s scorched-earth attitude toward the past and pointed a way beyond the genre’s borders. The Woking-based trio of singer/guitarist Paul Weller, bassist Bruce Foxton, and drummer Rick Buckler were schoolmates who’d already been together for years when they released their 1977 debut LP. In the City bore a speedy, sharp-edged sound bringing punk’s anger and energy to the influences of ’60s mod (The Who, Small Faces) and soul, with a natty visual style to match. Weller was still a teen, but his songs were already fusing passion, poetry, and politics in a manner beyond his years. Over their next couple of albums, their sound became more nuanced without losing its power-trio immediacy. By decade’s end, The Jam were standard-bearers for a full-fledged mod-revival movement (The Chords, Secret Affair, et al). In the early ’80s they reached a musical and commercial peak in the UK—they never troubled the top of the charts elsewhere—with the masterfully eclectic Sound Affects (sporting singles like the Beatles-esque “Start!” and the acoustic-guitar-driven social plaint “That’s Entertainment”) and the No. 1 album The Gift, which expanded their sound further to include funk grooves and brass arrangements. In 1982, a restless Weller broke the band up, quickly starting the successful soul-pop group The Style Council and later becoming a respected solo artist. Just after the breakup, The Jam ensured they’d be missed all the more by releasing the non-LP single “The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow),” a string-laden, soul-inflected ballad that proved a perfect elegy for them.
Members of The Jam include, or have included, Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton, Rick Buckler, and Steve Brookes.
Musical InfluencesThe Jam's musical influences include The Kinks, The Beatles, Small Faces and more.
Influenced by The JamThe Jam has influenced the music of James, The Stone Roses, Pulp and more.
Similar to: The Jam
Discover more music and artists similar to The Jam, like Paul Weller, The Style Council, The Clash
