Chapter 6 - '(...Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear': The Influence of Deborah Harry and Blondiecompiled by Allan Metz 
 

This chapter seeks to show the transcendent and pervasive influence that Blondie has had on popular music and culture in the following sections: General Observations; Culture/Society; Rap/Hip-Hop; Videos/MTV; Bands/Singers: General Discussion; Non-Musical Cultural Icons: Marilyn Monroe; and Fashion. Chapter 7 is devoted to Specific Bands/Singers influenced by Blondie and Deborah Harry. After a fair reading of these chapters, it would be very difficult to deny Blondie's influence and importance in pop music.
 
 
 

General Observations

Blondie and Deborah Harry's musical and cultural influence is clear, a conclusion supported by a wide array of commentators in the following quotations.
 

Deborah Harry "was both The Voice and The Face of the '70s--a perfect cross of sound and sight, prescience and pop culture. Her witty hits paved the way for a whole generation of rock frontwomen, from Annie Lennox to Sade. She was the first female rock star to dabble in video; the first to help score a Miami-based vice saga (Scarface, for which she co-wrote and performed Rush-Rush); the first female to commission clothing from now-famous name Stephen Sprouse." (Rose, 1E)
 

"Unlike the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and Television, Blondie became the first crossover punk phenomenon--and one of the first groups to be labelled 'New Music.'" (Rose, 1E)
 

"Many of the things Debbie and Chris [Stein] brought to their band--the movie allusions, the underground pals, the fashion statements and the musical influences (reggae, rap, synthesized sound and art noises)--are now familiar components of today's highly visual, heavily promoted music scene....'It's true we never got credit for a lot of things,' says Debbie, 'because we did break a lot of things, even fashion changes. I think we particularly did a lot in that early punk period.'" (Rose, 1E)
 

"Before Madonna, there was Blondie...--the name of the band that emerged in the late '70s as a refreshing alternative to faceless, recycled corporate rock" and which "became the toast of pop....Eventually, she [Deborah Harry] reached beyond the music world to films and glamorous fashion layouts. She was one of the Faces of the '80s." (Hilburn, 1985, 63)
 

Blondie's "success opened lots of doors, demonstrating to skeptical execs that new wave music was commercial and that a woman's place wasn't just in the audience."--On Blondie's impact on the music industry (Hilburn, 1985, 63)
 

The band "'sort of revitalized the concept of songs and dancing in rock....We came along during this big guitar period when everyone sat around and just listened. Part of our goal was (to get them) dancing again. But I don't think anyone in the band really expected to (become as big) as we did.'"--Deborah Harry on Blondie's influence on music (Hilburn, 1985, 63)
 

Regarding Harry's "pioneering role as a woman rocker," she is proud of that distinction, but also recognizes the role of other women like Joan Jett and Patti Smith. Harry also recalls not being taken seriously by industry executives and club owners because of her gender. She is pleased that attitude has changed. However, being "taken seriously may still be an issue for Harry. Despite her success with Blondie, Harry is very much a question mark in many minds. She enjoyed considerably more respect as a singer than Madonna, but to many, she remains more a personality than an artist." However, Harry "seems to thrive on challenges."--On gender bias against women in rock and Deborah Harry as a pioneer for women in the music industry (Hilburn, 1985, 63)
 

"Debbie Harry, the gorgeous hood ornament that adorned the seminal punk band Blondie, reigned supreme in the late '70s and early '80s as she blueprinted an innovative pop formula that resulted in the group's string of superb hit singles." (McKenna, 59)
 

As a "classic tramp beauty of the Monroe variety," Harry: "Always in touch with the streets from which she rose,...[along with Blondie] scored a hit with a reggae song, had the first rap crossover hit and forged a successful blending of punk and disco." (McKenna, 59)
 

"The wild ride began in 1978. For the next three years there was probably no bigger band in the world."--On Blondie's fame (Wilker, 2 December 1999)
 

The members of Blondie "'were trailblazers at a real exciting time'" --Deborah Harry on Blondie, referring to the "new-wave era over which she reigned." (Wilker, 2 December 1999)
 

"...one of the first women to lead a big-time rock band...."--On Deborah Harry (Wilker, 2 December 1999)
 

The "mother of new wave"--On Deborah Harry (Hill)
 

"Blondie was so huge that back-to-back world tours couldn't satisfy the millions who wanted to see them." (Hill)
 

"'I don't really know that Blondie was all that big at the time anyway....I think Blondie has grown in perspective over the years because of the influence that it had. The reason that it had the influence that it did have is because of the music that Chris (Stein), Blondie's guitarist, wrote.'"-- Deborah Harry on the band's influence as a "'pop phenomenon'" (Hill)
 

"Andy Warhol's multiple-image silk screen" of Deborah Harry--On how Harry achieved pop culture immortality (Hill)
 

"Andy Warhol's favourite pop star and pop's favourite blonde," who "fronted a band of sulky, sharp-boned youths and made a fortune stamping her high heels to some irresistible tunes du jour."--On Deborah Harry and Blondie (Moir, Jan, 8)
 

"...punk's first sex symbol and a big star who would become the prototype for a generation of female singers"--On Deborah Harry and her musical influence (Moir, Jan, 8)
 

While its "marketability" was one of the main factors for Blondie's emergence to stardom, the "music is what mattered in the end. Harry and guitarist/partner Chris Stein brought together a sound that incorporated dance, punk, rap, reggae and '60s girl-group sensibilities and formed an audacious sound that would influence later bands." (Paul, P49)
 

"...a real icon of cool, an inspiring role model. Then the post-punk princess and her band receded from fashion...."--On Deborah Harry and Blondie (Wilson, T15)
 

"The forerunners of today's co-ed bands were such early new wave and indie-rock figures as Deborah Harry of Blondie, Exene Cervenka of X, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads." (Hilburn, 18 March 1995, 8)
 

"Although punk is remembered as the first time women like [Patti] Smith and [Deborah] Harry could remain on an equal footing with the guys, the scene was nevertheless ruled by men. Given the powerful influence of women in rock today, ...times sometime change for the better...reminding us that women had little opportunity to make an artistic contribution to the punk scene...."--On women in the early punk rock scene (Walters, B7)
 

"While Patti Smith, the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, Blondie's Debbie Harry and Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth have all enjoyed varying degrees of commercial and critical success over the years, they were also the most visible punk exports to make an early impact on the mainstream. But in the musical underground of the '70s and '80s, there were scads of influential women who traveled well below conventional radar."--On the ascendency of women in rock (Dickinson, 4C)
 

"In part due to punk's do-it-yourself philosophy, women in the '70s began to express their sexual identities and preferences without outside interference. Long before Madonna or Courtney Love, New Wave trash-glam diva Debbie Harry was pushing the irony button on the myth of the dumb blonde. With her torn fish-nets and black eye makeup juxtaposed against her classically beautiful features, the singer of Blondie warped familiar images with humor and subtlety. 'I wanted to express situations where at one time the person had been a victim,' Harry says, 'and put them in the third person so that they are removed from that situation.'"--On Deborah Harry as a precedent setter for other women rockers (Gaines, 94)
 

"'In a way, yeah. It was an idea whose time had come. I always felt that if it weren't me, it would be someone else. It was a tough world. A lot of times my ideas and insights about what we should do would only be heard if they came out of Chris's mouth.'"--Deborah Harry in response to a question on her musical influence, "Did you have anything to do with the current surfeit of woman-fronted bands such as Hole and No Doubt?" ("Blondie Ambition," 30)
 

"Deborah Harry and her boy band, Blondie, burst onto a bombastic progressive-rock scene with a bouncy pop sound and retro lyrics that hearkened back to a simpler time of girl groups, JD's and B movies. With a pretty soprano and attitude galore, Harry sings about tuff chicks and their male conquests, helping to introduce a trash-pop style that heavily influenced the '70s New Wave sound."--On Blondie's self-titled 1976 debut album Blondie as having had a significant influence on New Wave music (George-Warren, 180).
 

Blondie "'became the most important band in the world.'"--Peter Leeds, the group's former manager, on Blondie (Gardner, 1998, 3)
 

The "seminal new wave group" and "one of the most successful and trend-setting bands of its time--a group that between 1978 and 1982 generated four No. 1 hits [in the United States], each of which helped define a moment in pop history"--for example, "'Call Me,' which appealed to both rock and disco audiences, 'Rapture,' one of rock's first ventures into the emerging rap scene, and 'The Tide is High,' which is cited as an influence by dozens of '90s neo-ska outfits."--On Blondie's musical influence (Gardner, 1998, 3)
 

"'Blondie is unique, because they were on the cutting edge of punk and new wave and dance [music] and rap....'"--Allen Kovac, who heads Blondie's record company, Beyond Records, on the uniqueness of Blondie (Gardner, 1998, 3)
 

"In the pre-Madonna era, a sexy, videogenic woman [like Harry] who demanded artistic respect was something of an anomaly."--On Deborah Harry, who helped pave the way for Madonna in the sense that by the time Madonna came along, this notion was more acceptable. (Gardner, 1998, 3)
 

"The fact that the basic Blondie sound remains so compatible with today's radio playlists is a reminder of just how progressive and influential a band Blondie was the first time around." (Gardner, 1998, 3)
 

"'Blondie made timeless music at a time when we really needed it....'"--David Fricke, Senior Editor of Rolling Stone (Gardner, 1998, 3)
 

"'Some groups that have come along in the past few years seem to have some of the Blondie sound....'"--Tom Cafaro, a New York City adult Top 40 radio station music director (WPLJ-FM) (Gardner, 1998, 3)
 

The "role model to a generation of female recording artists from Madonna to Courtney Love, spawning bleach-happy members of the school of desperate imitation along the way." --On Deborah Harry ("Why Are They Famous...," 3)
 

"Between 1978 and 1982, Blondie made its mark with a series of hits that blurred the lines of pop, punk, reggae, rap and disco--including No. 1 singles 'Heart of Glass' and 'Call Me.' Years before Madonna and Courtney Love, Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry...was a pioneering frontwoman of rock." (Conniff, 3E)
 

Deborah Harry "preceded the bottle-blonde likes of Madonna and Courtney Love into the pop-icon realm," thereby setting the stage for them. (Helligar and Stapinski, 125)
 

"After all of these years, 1979's 'Call Me' and 1980's 'Heart of Glass' remain dance-floor darlings. And...1981's 'Rapture' is credited as one of the first pop songs to incorporate any type of rapping." No Exit also reflects Blondie's continued "pioneering efforts to defy all genres." (Ruggieri, 11 February 1999, D13)
 

A "group acknowledged as one of the most influential of the last 20 years" as well as having "previous trash-pop magnificence" and a "back catalogue that stands as a towering emblem of American New Wave."--On Blondie (Sullivan, Caroline, 12 February 1999, 12)
 

"If nothing else, it will prove the debt owed Debbie Harry by every female singer of consequence except Celine Dion" --On Blondie's reunion as a "good thing" (Sullivan, Caroline, 12 February 1999, 12)
 

Blondie has "been influencing feisty female-fronted pop acts for two decades."--On Blondie's musical influence despite its absence from the music scene until the reunion (Myers, 23)
 

Deborah Harry has "influenced everyone from Madonna to Shirley Manson of Garbage to Courtney Love to No Doubt's Gwen Stefani." (Vivinetto, 19 February 1999, 16)
 

"When it emerged in the late '70s, Blondie was the first--and perhaps only--band to artfully bridge the abyss that divided the two most vibrant musical currents of the period: disco and punk. Even though the group broke up in 1982, it continued to exert an enormous influence on a generation of artists through its catalog of hits and magnetic personality of lead singer Deborah Harry, who remained visible as a musician and actress." ("Blondie, No Exit," 6 March 1999, 25)
 

Blondie has had the "tradition of toying with various genres without compromising melody and lyrics." ("Blondie, No Exit," 6 March 1999, 25)
 

The "New York-based punk-new-wave band that led all others in the late '70s and early '80s."--On Blondie (Stevenson, 28 March 1999, S4)
 

"'I think when we [Blondie] first came out there weren't a lot of frontwomen....So everybody was real fascinated with this idea--female sexuality and women's lib was a real issue at the time.'"-- Deborah Harry on the precedent she set (Stevenson, 28 March 1999, S4)
 

Blondie is a "seminal band" and Deborah Harry is the "first real woman rock star" and a "diva for our times," who has "influenced performers from Annie Lennox to Liz Phair and, oh yeah, Madonna--bringing an ironic, witty glamour to punk rock." (O'Brien, Glen, 1999, Out, 79)
 

Deborah "Harry is one of the original powerpop queens who helped pave the way for the likes of Madonna, Courtney Love and No Doubt's Gwen Stefani...." (Johnston, Katie, "Life" section, p. 6)
 

"...the fabled new-wave rock band from New York was synonymous with Harry, whose smart, sexy image and sly, knowing vocal style influenced everyone from Madonna and Courtney Love to No Doubt's Gwen Stefani and Luscious Jackson's Kate Schellenbach."--On Blondie and Deborah Harry's musical influence (Varga, 27 May 1999, "Night and Day" section, p. 9)
 

Deborah "Harry's influence on other female singers is well-documented. At a time when females were definitely the exception in the music business, Debbie--with her sophisticated sexuality, her pout, her rock chick persona, the way she made it OK for girls to be smart blondes--was a revelation. She pioneered rap. She hung out with Andy Warhol and William S. Burroughs and all those seedy literary types back when it wasn't so acceptable to do so. She came from the NYC CBGB's art-punk scene--Ramones, Television, New York Dolls, et al. She was a punk in the pop context....While Debbie Harry reigned, there weren't any...supermodels (an Eighties invention), there were no film stars to gawp over. She was the only star in the world. She was the perfect positive Seventies female icon." (True, 22 May 1999, 24)
 

"...Blondie always stood apart, first as an underground band that entered the pop pantheon while many of its peers had to wait until they had influenced the next generation, and now by challenging its own classic status, reviving its music with what has turned out to be a timeless sense of style." (Nichols, 31 May 1999, "Calendar" section)
 

Blondie "bridged the gap between dancy disco and puckish punk." (Tarlach, 16 August 1999, 6)
 

Deborah Harry, "a pop rock Eva Peron,..." is "...the Mother of all Rock Blondes--with Madonna, Courtney Love and Gwen Stefani among her many surrogate daughters." (Tarlach, 16 August 1999, 6)
 

"...Harry's image, if not her music, would influence a whole new generation of musical chanteuses, one of whom goes by the name of Madonna." (Holdship, "Music" section)
 

Clem Burke observed that the band's "'music has endured.' Don't believe him? Look around. You can see Blondie's influence on groups like No Doubt and Hole." (Buttars, D3)
 

Culture/Society
 

Blondie and Deborah Harry have made a number of contributions to culture and society in terms of setting trends, rock history, and their music.
 

"Culture hero"--On Blondie (Barlowe, 85)
 

"...the dress code was shredded T-shirts, spiky hair and a snotty attitude. While the disco bunnies danced their troubles away, New York's punk set were pogo-ing to the beat of Blondie, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Suicide and Richard Hell & The Voidoids. During that hot, oppressive Summer of Sam, when serial killer David Berkowitz stalked the mean streets, venues such as CBGBs, Max's Kansas City and The Mudd Club were the flashpoints of punk passion and No Wave nihilism."-On the New York City punk scene in the late 1970s (Courtney, "Weekend section," p. 63)
 

"It created two female megastars in punk poet Patti Smith and punk-pop queen Debbie Harry."-On the New York City punk scene in the late 1970s (Courtney, "Weekend section," p. 63)
 

"'When I first saw Debbie Harry onstage at CBGBs, I thought she was a no-talent. But Hilly Krystal said to me, 'you'd better tape this girl cos she's gonna be big.'"-Emily Armstrong on "some lasting impressions" of "future stars" from the New York punk music scene. Armstrong, along with Pat Ivers, visually documented the American punk scene from 1975 to 1980 originally via a weekly Public Access TV program called "Nightclubbing" and then later in"...a series of five films...starting with Greatest Hits 1975-1980, covering the most popular New Wave bands of the era, and finishing with an outdoor showing of Live From CBGBs 1975-1977, featuring Blondie, Talking Heads and The Dead Boys." (Courtney, "Weekend section," p. 63)
 

"...this could be the disc that takes 'punk rock' into the nooks and crannies of the nation."--On Blondie, Blondie's debut album (Barlowe, 86). This observation was made around mid-1977.
 

"...could have popped out of any surf movie, mid-60's spaghetti Western, B-grade spy movie or camp comedy from that era."--On Blondie and some of the cultural influences on the band (Morris, 55)
 

"And besides carrying the tough girl pose to a comical conclusion, Debbie's blatant innuendos...are a very 70's comment on the sexual undercurrents which have fueled adolescent pop for years." (Morris, 56)
 

"'...I've put myself in a position to be fuel or food for the public for a while.'"--Deborah Harry, circa 1977 (Morris, 57)
 

"...the lady singer who's put sex back on the map!"--On Deborah Harry ("Everyone's Wild About Harry," 18)
 

"'It's a street term, like when you're walking down the street and guys always yell out of cars and trucks at the girls. Also it's a memorable name and pretty meaningless.'"--Deborah Harry on the choice of the name of the band (Blondie) ("Debbie Harry Sets the Record Straight," 44)
 

"The music fitted in perfectly [with the band name]--simple, street-wise and aimed at a car culture. Perfect for driving along the freeway to." ("Debbie Harry Sets the Record Straight," 44)
 

"Debbie's contemporaries in the lower-Manhattan rock/art crucible of 1972-73 recognised the incestuous nature of modern culture and easily used any influences in their eclectic approach to music, art, photography, and literature." (Cohen, Debra Rae, 1980, 42). This observation also could apply to Deborah Harry and Blondie.
 

"...Debbie, like David Bowie and Bob Dylan, sees herself as a canvas, chameleonlike, registering the rapid changes of modern culture shock...." (Cohen, Debra Rae, 1980, 42)
 

"Punk's female musicians had a strident insistence that was far removed from the appeal of most postwar glamour girls (the only sexual surprise of a self-conscious siren like Debbie Harry, for example, was that she became a teeny-bop idol for a generation of young girls)." (Frith, 1981, 244)
 

"From her sultry, pouty bombshell looks to her thrift-chic duds, Harry has forged a hard-edged persona, providing a wildly eclectic and even alienating vision of popular culture." (Bernstein, 88)

"She is a chameleon of charisma, picking up where such previous avatars as Dylan, Jagger and Bowie left off."--On Deborah Harry (Bernstein, 88)
 

"...no other musical performer has done so much in recent years to widen the mainstream and make room for rock's new undercurrent.--On Deborah Harry (Bernstein, 88). This was written in 1981.
 

"A Barbie Doll Gone Downtown, she alone seems capable of beaming simultaneous images of glamor, sensual funk, sassy punk, kittenish vulnerability, avant-garde hauteur and a voracious hunger for celebrity."--On Deborah Harry (Bernstein, 88)
 

"...the definitive female rock-and-role model for the '80s."--On Deborah Harry (Bernstein, 88)
 

"'Personally, I don't think it has anything to do with music....It's racial.'"--Deborah Harry in response to the question of whether "...white rock audiences would ever fully accept black music" (Trakin, 35)
 

"'When black people are accepted, their music will be more accepted....'"--Chris Stein in response to the question of whether "...white rock audiences would ever fully accept black music (Trakin, 35)
 

"'Debbie has universal identification....'"--Chris Stein on Deborah Harry (Trakin, 37)
 

"'I say that to entertain people is enough,' Debbie says. 'Chris thinks we should be doing something more.'"--Deborah Harry and Chris Stein on "the value of Blondie as culture" (Norman, 63)
 

"Stein thinks their fan-mail gives the finest indication of Debbie's effect. 'We get letters from parents saying: 'Our son never showed interest in girls before, but now he's hung a picture of Debbie over his bed.' It's not a complaint. 'We want to tell you,' they say, 'we're really glad it's only Debbie.'" (Norman, 63)
 

"...her memorable position in the public's psyche."--On Deborah Harry (Steranko, 22). This observation was made in early 1983.
 

"When the counterrevolution of punk appeared in the later years of the decade, even it could be reduced to a fashion statement. The ethos of punk, like that of the Beats and the hippies, would remain lodged in memory as an exemplary refusal, an inspiration to grunge and rap in later years. But its initial force was diverted quickly enough into the more market-friendly notion of new wave: here came the dance-beat torching of Blondie instead of the primal screeching of the Sex Pistols, red sneakers instead of the safety pin through the cheek."--On Blondie's contribution, beyond music, to popular culture (Lacayo and Bellafante, 53)
 

"Rock musical sounds were fashioned for a new social direction. But so too were styles. It was not coincidental that Deborah Harry of Blondie parodied the cheesecake look of Marilyn Monroe and sang with a Monroe-like fragility the 1978 hit 'Heart of Glass.'" (London, 156)
 

"Blondie were reported [by Richard Cromelin in the April 1977 issue of Sounds] as talking 'like a graduate seminar in contemporary culture' but they had the intelligence to see that this kind of discussion could not successfully be put on disc; rather, they had grasped the essentials of the pop single and applied them to their own contemporary songs instead of attempting, as so many other groups were doing, to force the medium to accommodate more serious, complex issues than pop ever set out to deal with, thereby creating nothing but banal slogans." (Greig, 184)
 

"...both were 'immediately recognizable and accessible'...with an emphasis on fun, but not lacking in social commentary."--Comparison between Blondie and Andy Warhol's Campbell soup can paintings (Peraino, 37 and Greig, 183)
 

"As with Warhol's soup cans, Blondie's image and sound blurred together progressive art and blatant commercialism." (Peraino, 37)
 

"Mick Jagger, Debbie Harry, Mikey Jackson, Dolly Parton, John Lennon and Aretha Franklin represent the music industry...."-On a show of Andy Warhol's art at the Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan (Hargreaves)
 

"...presented a living pop icon of the objectified blonde--the girl who had more fun, and whom 'gentlemen prefer.'"--On Deborah Harry (Peraino, 37)
 

"...she looks like Lana Turner in her prime, eyes blackened by shades, head shielded in a scarf, the perfect mystery blond. Her attempts at anonymity succeed only in making her seem more like an icon."--On Deborah Harry (Farber, 10 January 1999, "New York Now: Music" section, p. 19)
 

"With 'Heart of Glass' Blondie donned the fashionable clothes of disco, and so appeared to be operating from inside the ideology of the dominant culture. However, the emotion-less vocals and lyrics (which beg to be read as a comment on the disco craze itself) betray...a point of view or perception constructed from outside dominant culture." (Peraino, 42)
 

"...forms a repertory in which the female performer displays her freedom to use a 'multiplicity of roles and narratives'--both female and male--thus demonstrating a point of view constructed from outside divisive ideology of the dominant culture."--On Blondie's music (Peraino, 44)
 

"'That's funny, because to me it's grossly out of proportion. It's ridiculous and preposterous, yet it's totally accurate in relation to what is considered really vital and really valuable in the culture. But it just seems totally out of proportion that I should be considered anything other than another singer. The mythologizing of it is absurd. I was just being a driven, obsessed, star-crazed rock'n'roller, and doing my best to be part of all that, and wanting to say a few things that were relevant at the time, and now it's gone way out of proportion.

The concept of the youth culture has an awfully powerful effect, which is incredibly... misleading. It's so boring, so incredibly ridiculous, but it controls many people's lives. They think they better get it done now because when they get to be forty-five they're not going to have anything.'"--Deborah Harry in response to a question posed by Blondie biographer Victor Bockris, "'How do you reconcile carrying around the enormous shadow of the legend of Blondie?'", in an interview in 1996, around the time that the Blondie reunion was in the initial planning stages (Bockris, 55)
 

"Rock singer Deborah Harry doesn't mind that tax collectors in New Jersey are using one of her hits in a TV commercial to promote a[n IRS] tax amnesty plan."-On the song "One Way Or Another" (Velisek, 2A)
 

Blondie is the "quintessential punk/new wave outfit,....[which] even with just a handful of hits...has had an enduring effect on pop culture. The group's musical collision of punk and disco is still a staple at nightclubs, and Deborah Harry's voice remains immediately identifiable, as if Heart of Glass were still a top radio hit." Thus, Blondie has made a "lasting impact." (Mehle, 2 March 1997, 5D)
 

"'It was pretty damn exciting. I don't know that grunge has had the same cultural impact--a real stop-stand-and-turn change of direction. Punk had a wide arc of people--photographers, artists, journalists--that had established work in the style of punk.'"--Deborah Harry on the cultural impact of punk relative to grunge and the new wave-punk period ("Blondie Ambition," 30)
 

Blondie is the "quintessential Noo Yawk group," whose influence has transcended music. (Farber, 10 January 1999, "New York Now: Music" section, p. 19)
 

"'Films started using our music as defining moments of a time...[which] showed that we had an impact on the culture of more than just rock 'n' roll.'"--Chris Stein explaining, after the band split in 1982, that its reputation grew as time passed with the incorporation of Blondie's music into motion pictures (Farber,10 January 1999, "New York Now: Music" section, p. 19)
 

"'Our music is identified with certain periods, it's used in all these films to symbolize or identify with certain periods'"....--Chris Stein (Flynn)
 

Blondie sold in excess of forty million albums and "had four culturally [emphasis added] defining No. 1 hits." "Though lauded for its punk roots, Blondie has never considered popularity a dirty word." (Levitan, 26 February- 4 March 1999) 
 

"'Our influences are not all musical. We're influenced by art, culture, camp values and irony. That's what puts us away from the rest of the pack.'"-Clem Burke on what distinguishes Blondie from other bands (Freydkin)
 

"At its best, Blondie was always a pop-culture filter, taking in everything that neared its New York...aura (rap, reggae, world beat, kitsch, Andy Warhol) and boiling it all down to a clever, commercial sound, with lead singer Debbie Harry its witty, drop-dead-beautiful center. It got lumped in first with punk and then new wave, when the truth was that after a while Harry's pin-up put-on was closer to the mainstream than she'd like to admit."--On Blondie being attuned to its cultural surroundings (Wener, 5 March 1999, F46) 
 

"....Blondie of old routinely assimilated pop's past and immediate future--'60s girl groups, disco, rap, reggae, punk--into its own material."--On Blondie past (Rayner, 9 March 1999) 
 

The "duo's [Deborah Harry and Chris Stein] enduring New York hipness" and having "at least a credible '90s updating of the genre-gobbling Blondie sound" and the "cool sheen of irony that's hung over most of its best work."--On Blondie present (Rayner, 9 March 1999) 
 

"'When I went into this [Blondie reunion], I questioned whether an individual can have any influence in our...society....But now, being in the position that I'm in--having a lot of kids come up to me--I'm thinking maybe I could have some kind of message. I'm finding kids in their teens and 20s are presenting to me a really hopeful picture, whereas people in their 30s have all sold out to security and comfort.'"--Chris Stein on rock/pop music and society and the band's potential impact on society (Rayner, 9 March 1999) 
 

"In the early '80s Blondie managed to exploit new wave, punk, disco, reggae and even a little 'trend' called hip-hop to rocket into rock-and-roll legend. Lead singer Debbie Harry's voice reeled in fans with its hypnotic quality: ethereal and wispy one moment, a husky growl in the next. Her face and bottle-blond hair completed the package, and thus, the New York band gained its place in pop culture's constellation....Blondie's return also proves that what you're doing now doesn't matter; you only had to have made a significant impression back then. The band has ingrained itself so deeply into pop culture that, though its songs have been used to hawk phone service ('Call Me') and back TV commercials about tax evasion ('One Way or Another') [as well as a then-upcoming ABC television program], it's still as tough as ever."--On Blondie's impact on popular culture (McFarland, E1) 
 

Two remixes of the single "Atomic" were used in Coca-Cola's World Cup 98 commercial (Music Week, 10 and Stevenson, 7 August 1998) and Harry has appeared in commercials for Murjani designer jeans, Sara Lee products, Revlon make-up (Che, 1999, 111), and Hush Puppy shoes--On television commercials, a part of popular culture 
 

"'The music was just so lame in advertising....I think that's what I've affected the most in my career; using original artists like Kate Bush, Debbie Harry, David Byrne, and Todd Rundgren...."

-Andrew Chinich, a broadcast production director, on the use of popular music in commercials (Jones, Scott, 32)
 

"Although the band is associated with the decadence and gaudiness of early to mid-80s pop,...[and their] success was actually concentrated in the 70s rather than the 80s, [they] were always more than just an ordinary pop band, bringing an aura of Warhol knowingness and irony to their work, acting as a mirror by which pop culture's shiny baubles could be refracted and distorted into something altogether more interesting." (Evans, Simon, 18) 
 

"...we...live in a short-attention-span world, which,...Blondie helped create with its two-to-three-minute blasts of pure punk-pop during the mid-to-late 1970s" (Sullivan, Jim, 12 August 1999, E4) 
 

"...it's interesting the way that rock and roll music has become ingrained in society. Who would have ever thought we'd be on a television network morning show playing some deranged punk rock?"--Clem Burke on Blondie's performance on the "Today Show," June 4, 1999 (Ruggiero, "Music" section) 
 

"'The concept of that first album was based on the personality Blondie brought to the subject matter. When you listen to the whole thing you notice a predominant theme of violence and gunfire. I don't think there's a song without a reference to someone getting shot, stabbed, degraded, or insulted. It's prime-time television on record.'"--Deborah Harry on the album, Blondie, which was a reflection/commentary of society and television at that time (Heylin, 259)
 

"Blondie's roots also lay in a camp reconstruction of 50s and 60s teen culture. Blondie began life as a reconstituted version of an earlier band, the Stilettos, whose act had been based around an exaggerated imitation of 50s and 60s girl groups. Aspects of this 'True Confessions'-style trash survived into Blondie's early material [the song 'In The Sun' is given as an example], though these elements were soon buried under the band's commercial success and the stardom of Debbie Harry, their photogenic lead singer." (Osbergy, 164-165)
 

Blondie mixed "'60s girl group pop with various American trash-culture aesthetics. The latter would, of course, become the group's artistic calling card." (Holdship, "Music" section) 
 

"'Call Me' and 'Hanging on the Telephone' by Blondie"--Includes these songs as further "proof of the telephone's far-reaching effects on popular culture" ("What's It All About?", 10)
 

"Hanging On The Telephone - Blondie (1978), Telephone Line - E.L.O. (1977), I Just Called To Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder (1984), Call Me - Blondie (1980), Ring Ring ABBA (1974), Telephone Man - Meri Wilson (1977), Hello This Is Joanie (The Telephone Answering Machine Song) - Paul Evans (1978), Hold The Line - Toto (1979), Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell (1969), Name And Number (De La Soul)-"A Top Ten of Telephone Hits," which includes two by Blondie (Warburton, "News" section, p. 5)
 

"An equal number of songs work off the phenomenon of the show's 'life lines.' For instance: ELO's 'Telephone Line,' Blondie's 'Call Me' and Manhattan Transfer's 'Operator.'"-On the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire soundtrack (Farber, 21 June 2000, "Arts and Lifestyle: Music" section, p. 38)
 

"What they get in the Lotus is the realisation of a teenage dream and, oddly enough, their ideal woman looks like a cross between Debbie Harry first time around and Bonnie Tyler. It's not that they haven't grown up, it's just that the things which excited them 20 years ago still do."-On the appeal of the Lotus Esprit V8 SE sports car (King, Conrad, "Saturday Magazine," p. 17)
 

"Looking a bit like a tinny Deborah Harry, Ursula is actually quite sexy, for a machine."-On Ursula, "a robo-gogo girl robot...that 'walks, talks, dances, plays music, and more,'" produced by Florida Robotics (Wright)
 

"Just after the fall of Saigon-the dawn of oil embargoes, gas crises and recessions-America began to rethink its obsession with (and dependence on) the automobile. Two waves of neoclassicist car songs caught the essence of that tainted love. Punk and new wave cravings for American cheese led punk demolitionist Wendy O. Williams to her chain-saw-the-car stage act and inspired the Ramones' 'Go Lil' Camaro Go,' the B-52's 'Devil in My Car' and Blondie's cover of Ronny and the Daytonas' 'Little GTO.' These car songs were slicked with a fresh nihilism the Beach Boys never knew."-A punk/new wave take on automobiles (Hirshey, 96, 98)
 

"...culture is full of metaphors about the importance of touch and someone 'being there'....Blondie said: 'I'm always touched by your presence, dear'...."--Blondie as part of popular culture ("Losing Personal Contact....," 13)
 

"The great string of hit songs they put together in the early '80s can still be heard everywhere, in many different contexts--from the jukeboxes of Johnny Rockets hamburger chain to classic rock radio stations. Teen TV star Melissa Joan Hart sang "One Way Or Another" on Sabrina, The Teen Witch and that punkiest of the Rugrats cartoon characters, Angelica, adapted the song to suit her own naughty, pre-school persona in The Rugrats Movie. The perennial dance floor favorite, "Heart of Glass," has been endlessly remixed, especially in England, for each new generation of raving culture vultures."--Blondie as a continuing part of popular culture ("Blondie: The Life Story") 
 

"There's no superfluous voiceover; the music--A Flock of Seagulls, Blondie, Gang of Four--and the other Reagan-era flourishes (including the use of a David Lee Roth poster as an archery target) are wry rather than overwrought."--On the movie, "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" (Potter)
 

"How could moviegoers not love a scene in which, while suffering stage fright, Violet [played by Piper Perabo] quells a near riot by singing a Blondie tune [One Way Or Another]?"--On the movie "Coyote Ugly" (Gowans, 8F)
 

"Besides helping to re-invent pop culture as we know it, Blondie also set up a label to work with artists they admired."--On Blondie, pop culture, and the Animal record imprint ("Blondie: The Life Story")
 

"...the B-52's, along with Blondie and Talking Heads, borrowed elements from pop culture, repackaged them and presented them in a new, more danceable context." (Holguin) 
 

"From The Velvet Underground and CBGB's bands like Blondie to present day figureheads like Public Enemy, Wu-Tang, Beck, Sonic Youth and the Beasties, NYC has been home to a radical, thriving musical community, attracting mavericks from all over the USA."--On New York City's musical/cultural influence, of which Blondie is a part (Chick, 25)
 

"'When I go into my fantasy, I always wish I could have the life experience of, I don't know, Deborah Harry or Kit from [the novel] The Sheltering Sky."--Actress Gwenyth Paltrow on whether she has "ever coveted someone else's life" (Marin, 220; Che, 2000, 227)
 

"Rather than an ordinary sign, the door to the ladies room is identified merely by a photo of Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry."--On Los Angeles nightclub, The Burgundy Room (Bream, 14 May 2000, 1G)
 

"A lot of women, especially young women, now look to you as an example of someone who lived life to the fullest on her own terms and never turned away from the feast, so to speak...."--On Deborah Harry as a role model for women(Che, 2000, 227)
 

"...if it's music that evokes the decade [of the 1970s] for you, catch the show's soundtrack: 'Superstition' by Stevie Wonder, 'What's Going On' by Marvin Gaye, 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone' by the Temptations, 'Can't Get Enough of Your Love Baby' by Barry White, 'Joy to the World' by Three Dog Night, 'Alright Now' by Free, 'Jessica' by the Allman Brothers Band, 'Miracles' by Jefferson Starship, 'Peace Train' by Cat Stevens, 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me' by Elton John, 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley and the Whalers [sic], 'Nothing from Nothing' by Billy Preston, 'The Hustle' by Van McCoy, 'Hot Stuff' by Donna Summer and 'Heart of Glass' by Blondie."--On the NBC two-part television series, "The '70s," and the accompanying soundtrack indicating the importance of music (including Blondie's) as a reflection of culture and society ("NBC, CBS Go Retro," Y3)
 

"It's the age-old principle of rebellion. My parents who grew up during Sinatra's heyday, still struggle with rock-and that is no doubt what partially attracted me to it. I remember watching Blondie perform on Saturday Night Live, enraptured by Deborah Harry's icy, punk-princess persona; my mother asked me to turn off the television."--Anecdote by music writer Charles Passy reflecting the musical divide among generations (Passy, 30 July 2000, 1J)
 

"For Deborah Harry, the timing of her meteoric rise [with Blondie] dovetailed perfectly with the end of the 70s and a culture 'ready for the 80s'. Looking for something new to separate their generation from the one before it, young people around the world said goodbye to disco and said hello to its electronically enhanced cousin, New Wave. New Wave also offered an equally glamorous fashion alternative to disco, and unequivocally, the first queen of the urban New Wave sound and look was Deborah Harry." (Che, 1999, 89)
 

"...a band whose songs form an integral part of the memory banks of a generation."--On Blondie (Elder, "The Guide" section, p. 12)
 

"...he changed American popular culture forever."--On Alan Betrock (Schwartz, 128)
 

"Through the pages of New York Rocker, Alan Betrock defined the new rock and roll." (Schwartz, 128)
 

"His covers made stars of Patti Smith, Blondie, Television, and Talking Heads before they even the Hudson."--On Alan Betrock and New York Rocker (Schwartz, 128)
 

"...New York Rocker...set Blondie on the road to 'Heart of Glass.'" (Schwartz, 128)

"Big names such as Debbie Harry and rapper Puff Daddy have spoken out against those offering free music on line, arguing that artists should always be paid for the work they do."--On MusicStore produced by Memory Corporation (Broomby, "Features" section, p. 4)
 

"When Blondie clicked, the results were dazzling....At their peak, they were unstoppable, whether 'Rapture' spun as backing music during an NBC-TV 'Facts of Life' episode, or an Alabama DJ used 'The Tide Is High' to psyche up the Crimson Tide football team, earning a call from Harry...in 1981. A year later, [Clem] Burke mentioned hearing 'One Way Or Another' at baseball games....It's hard to imagine a better example of mainstream acceptance...."--On Blondie's cultural impact, including sports (Heibutzki, 41) 
 

"News that Blondie re-formed recently was very exciting for many old fans, even cricketers. We understand that this song often was played in the dressing rooms after play during a Test series."--On the song "Hanging on the Telephone" (Zuel, 12 June 2000, "News and Features" section, p. 22)
 

"1990: Sinead O'Connor, Tom Waits, Annie Lennox, Debbie Harry and others appear on 'Red Hot + Blue' the first of a series of AIDS benefit albums."--One of many examples of the nexus between social issues and rock music ("Rock With a Conscience," 5E)
 

"At the May 26 concert, which benefitted the Red Hot AIDS Charitable Trust and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Taylor was introduced by Joan Collins and serenaded by Tony Bennett, opera star Andrea Bocelli, Reba McEntire, singer Jason Kay of Jamiroquai and Deborah Harry of Blondie. Taylor, [Michael] Jackson and Collins joined them all onstage for the finale, 'There Is Nothing Like a Dame.'"--On an event, "Elizabeth Taylor: A Musical Celebration," honoring Taylor held at Royal Albert Hall, London (Lee, 16)
 

"Also appearing were Blondie's Debbie Harry, opera star Andrea Bocelli, Jamiroquai, ex-EastEnder actress Martine McCutcheon, and former Wet Wet Wet singer Marti Pellow...."-On an event, "Elizabeth Taylor: A Musical Celebration," honoring Taylor held at Royal Albert Hall, London (Robins, "News" section, p. 11)

"'...south Asian influences are slowly appearing in mainstream products. Drum and bass producer Talvin Singh has worked with Madonna and Blondie." (Advani)
 

"...lots of Blondie, also the Raspberries and Lynyrd Skynyrd."-What's on the jukebox at theLos Angeles nightclub, The Burgundy Room (Bream, 14 May 2000, 1G)
 

"...we are also preparing the way for tastes of the future and our next generation of listeners which is why artists such as Sting, Blondie and George Michael are on the play list."-James Moir, Controller, BBC Radio 2 (Moir, James, 79)
 

"...the new 'core list' of artists, including Simply Red, The Police, Madonna, David Bowie, Blondie and The Beautiful South."-On the BBC Radio 2 play list (Lewis, 43)
 

"...there is an abundance of soft rock favourites from the 60s through to now-albeit top quality ones-from the likes of Paul Weller, The Beautiful South, Queen, Blondie, U2, Eurythmics, Status Quo, Genesis, Robert Palmer and Texas."-On the double CD set, Top of the Pops 2 (Pagett, 7)
 

"...I was really in love with this guy, and we would send each other mixed tapes and I would send him my nice little pop songs...really romantic, like, Blondie's 'In the Flesh,' you know, 'Darling, darling, darling, I can't wait to see you.'"-Columnist and essayist Sarah Vowell (Gross)
 

"Some women we admire. Some women we want to call on the phone and talk with for hours. Some women we simply want to be. That's all Deborah Harry. 'She seems unfazed by anything,' says playwright Paul Rudnick, who loves her 'real, rough glamour.' The sardonic siren's attitude--heard vamping in her classic tunes like 'Call Me' and seen camping in John Waters's Hairspray--has weathered the years very well, earning her band Blondie a touching comeback this year."-On a poll of gay men conducted by The Advocate magazine of the "25 coolest women," including Deborah Harry (Giltz, 36)
 

"'And even though...I liked the [Bay City] Rollers, I was also going to gigs by Led Zeppelin and I saw the early punk gigs of Blondie, the Ramones, and I knew which I preferred musically.'"-Caroline Sullivan, Guardian rock critic and author of the book Bye Bye Baby, on her early musical tastes (Allan, Vicky, S12)
 

"In both [books] Bitch and Prozac Nation, you write a lot about people who have inspired you, like Deborah Harry and Chrissie Hynde."-On author Elizabeth Wurtzel (Dodero)
 

"...follows the paths taken through the Sunshine State [Florida] by the good guys (Jimmy Buffett, Arnold Palmer, Debbie Harry) and the not-so-good guys...."-On the book entitled Pop Culture Florida by James P. Goss (Nason, "Commentary" section, p. 4)
 

"The opening finds Joe consumed by music. From fantasies of Debbie Harry to joyriding, bad discos, grubby sex and alcohol, it's all in the detail."-On the novel Human Punk by John King (Evans, Gareth, "Comment" section, p. 5)
 

"It's one of my favorite books, and it really fires the reader's imagination. William was a dear friend of mine."-Deborah Harry on Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs ("Culture Club....," 196)
 

"One of rock's most provocative and influential women gets the full treatment in this thorough biography. Out author and Advocate contributor Che doggedly tracks her subject through punk, rock, new wave, reggae, disco, rap, and all-out divadom."-On Deborah Harry and the book entitled Deborah Harry by Cathay Che (Duralde, 131+)
 

"...the first work to acknowledge Harry's tremendous influence on current female and male performers."-On Deborah Harry and the book entitled Deborah Harry by Cathay Che (McCormack, 2000, 103-104) 
 

"A self-confessed former rock chick, Zanotti explored the energy of punk and metal and studied icons such as the Ramones and Debbie Harry."- On Marisa Zanotti, choreographer and director of the Scottish dance company, Anatomy, on a dance production called "Love Songs In A Lonely Desert Full Of Crying Men And Howling Women"; in preparation for this work, Zanotti studied the relationship of dance to rock (McGill, 6)
 

"...immaculately made up, hair slicked back, eyes closed to show off stunning eye shadow, and red, glistening lips pouting to perfection, would look completely at home on a stylised album cover."-On a photograph of Deborah Harry by publisher-photographer Rankin from the CeleBritation photo exhibition (Mikhail, "Features" section, p. 9)
 

"They took dates to see 'Fame' ('80), 'Endless Love' ('81) and 'Flashdance' ('83). They boogied to Blondie and the Go-Go's. They thought David Cassidy was so foxy."-On "Generation Jones," a term coined by writer Jonathan Pontell, for "Americans born between 1954 and 1965 who are usually lumped it with the baby boomers or Generation X, but don't feel like they belong in either" (Hanrahan, E1)
 

It's been "...20 years since she first made her mark on the pop culture landscape...."--On Deborah Harry (Che, 1999, 89)
 

"Blondie learned their Andy Warhol lessons well: They made pop art out of pop music, tripping us all out with the universal language of fun and turning fifteen minutes of fame into something eternal and blessed." ("Blondie: The Life Story") 
 

"...inspire[d] other musicians to collaborate with H.R. Giger.-On the cover art of the album, Koo Koo (White, Fraser)
 

"'We're a pop art band. Not a pop band'"....-Chris Stein on Blondie (Freydkin)
 

"The first concrete clue that an eighties consciousness was buzzing around again came when Blondie, the New York quartet that had been at the forefront of punk in 1977 and a catalyst for new wave, reunited in 1998. To the band's credit, it didn't attempt a quick-and-dirty greatest-hits-style comeback. Instead, guitarist Chris Stein and singer Debbie Harry, whose post-Blondie years had been marked by acting roles (Hairspray, Cop Land) and cameo appearances on unusual albums, wrote a batch of songs that, though new, still echoed the hits. Stein say[s], that this was the conscious plan behind No Exit: 'We'd been offered to do reunions before, and people seemed to want the greatest hits. For us to be interested, we had to have new material.' He adds that the band, which is working on another new record, will move even further from greatest-hits territory: 'The next record is going to have to be a lot less referential, not look back as much to the old styles.' What was the most shocking thing Blondie encountered when it returned? In the old days, Stein groans, 'there was more of a distinction between the hip world and the unhip world. Now everybody is hip. Everybody runs around wearing black now.'"-On Blondie's continued influence on music, culture, and fashion style (Moon, 125)
 

"...after a taste of commercial success with 'Court and Spark' in 1975, Mitchell became restless with pop/rock and started to increasingly experiment with Jazz and Blues (at the time considered poison for radio air-play). It was into this vacuum that Deborah Harry would eventually step. 

Although parallels can be made between Deborah Harry and Joni Mitchell, in their impact on future generations, their approach was of course radically different. Harry had always been enamoured with silver screen icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield. Harry incorporated screen glamour with Rock and Roll and created a unique hybrid of fashion and anti-fashion. It is for this, that Harry receives most attention, possibly because it is the most visible form of her influence on musical culture."-On Joni Mitchell, Deborah Harry, fashion, and culture (White, Fraser) 
 

"In a pop music world where the lines of fandom are often drawn in the blood of class and culture, Blondie found a way to speak to everyone; from hairdressers to firemen, Bowery punk rockers and coked-out disco denizens of Studio 54. At the height of their career Blondie was a beloved icon in suburban teenage bedrooms everywhere...." ("Blondie: The Life Story")
 

"'...a band who's set so many musical and cultural standards.'"-Alex Hodges, senior vice president of Universal Concerts, on Blondie (John)
 

"It's tough being an icon."-On Blondie (Ostroff)

"'When we started we were influenced by pop culture....But now it seems we've become pop culture, a part of the fabric of the music community.'"-Jimmy Destri (Ostroff)

"...Blondie...has bounced around our cultural consciousness since the 1970s...." (Buttars, D3) 

Rap/Hip-Hop
 

While references have been made previously to Blondie's contribution to rap and hip-hop music, this section focuses on that contribution.
 

'Rapture' "...seems to be doing for rapping music what 'Heart of Glass did for disco, and 'The Tide Is High' for ska: serving a black/esoteric musical form to a white/mass market." (Isler, 19) 
 

"'The whole rapping thing is totally fresh. It's the closest thing I've seen to new wave/punk in a long time.'"--Chris Stein on rap and its similarities to new wave and punk (Isler, 22) 
 

"1981: New-wave band Blondie's rap song 'Rapture' goes No.1"-- Newsweek's take on "How Rap Made It To the Mainstream," with Blondie being one of the influences (Alter and Foote, 34) 
 

The song "Rapture" made "Harry the first white rock star to score a mainstream hit with rap music." (Rose, 1E) 
 

Blondie is one of the "pioneers" of rap. "The influence of rap has surfaced in the music of a number of modern rock acts for more than a decade, from pioneers such as the Clash, Blondie, the Pet Shop Boys, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to newcomers such as Beck, Luscious Jackson, and G. Love & Special Sauce." (Rosen, 120) 
 

"There might have been a few dopier records than 'Rapture,' but at a time when white rock was coming to terms with a de facto separatism of the previous decade, the group was already miles ahead."--On Blondie (Webb, 27 August 1999, 9) 
 

"Such white artists as Blondie's Debbie Harry and the Beastie Boys talk about their contributions to hip-hop culture" as part of the PBS "Rock & Roll" documentary series, in "The Perfect Beat" segment. (Holston and Bream, 1F) 
 

"A Blondie comeback would be timely, since one of its old hits is the basis of a current rap single by KRS-One."--On Blondie's continued influence regarding rap (Catlin, A4) 
 

"Blondie paid homage to hip-hop long before it was fashionable with 'Rapture.'" (Johnson, Kevin C., 28 March 1999, F1) 
 

"Early in 1981, the certified mainstream radio hit group Blondie, which itself bubbled out of the New York underground in 1979, cut a single called 'Rapture' that talked about rap, graffiti and hip hop. 'Flash is fast, Flash is cool,' it went. It also went to No. 1 across the country."--On Blondie's contribution at the beginnings of rap and hip hop (Hinckley, 55) 
 

Fred Brathwaite (a.k.a. Fab Five Freddy) introduced Chris Stein and Deborah Harry to rap pioneer Grand Master Flash, who along with Brathwaite is immortalized on "Rapture." Although, in Brathwaite's opinion, Harry did not have an "'influence on rap music,...she did introduce...the idea of rapping to the mainstream public. She whet the appetite.'" (Chaplin, 67) 
 

Blondie's "groundbreaking 1981 hit 'Rapture,' [was] the first rap single ever to hit No. 1." (Linden, 37) 
 

Musically, Blondie has had many achievements, one of the most notable being the hit song "Rapture," which constituted the "first real example...of white pop interfacing with black hip hop." (Hoskyns, 1999 February, 74) 
 

"Rap has always paralleled the punk movement, too, you know--the time line is the same. The destructivist mentality is similar, about breaking down existing forms and then putting them back together."--Chris Stein on similarities between rap and punk (Martin, David, "Music" section)
 

"'I think what's always attracted me to rap is that it was a breakthrough event....What it did for young black artists, and for the black audience, was it gave them a voice that was kin to folk music. Rap just really had to happen,...and when it did happen it was so exciting and so obvious....I can't really say that I am the penultimate rap fan, that I follow doggedly at the heels of rappers, but...I've met Foxy Brown, and I like Lil' Kim and Missy Elliott....I think the stuff is fantastic. It's beautifully written, it's clever, it's rhythmically interesting. There's so much going on. It's good stuff.'"--Deborah Harry on rap (Guerra, 26 August 1999, "Zest" section, p. 1) 
 

"Blondie had the unique distinction of recognizing the relationship between rap and rock before most white Americans even knew what rap was." (Aquilante, 12 February 1999, "Living" section, p. 50)
 

"We've been told by guys from Wu Tang that 'Rapture' was the first rap song they ever heard--which is pretty amazing. It's really touching to hear it from those guys, because that's what they do. Chris [Stein] and Debbie must be pleased, too, because it was their idea to do this song in the first place.--Jimmy Destri in response to a question about Blondie's "place in hip-hop history" due to the song 'Rapture' (Aquilante, 12 February 1999, "Living" section, p. 50)
 

"...one of the first records to expose hip-hop to the mainstream...."--On "Rapture" (Pantsios, 14 August 1999, 5B) 
 

Blondie's "...erstwhile No. 1 smash, 'Rapture,'...introduced rap to the new-wave rock masses with more prescience than skill." (Robson, Britt, 4B) 
 

"Rapture, surely one of the first mainstream pop songs to incorporate rap...[reflected a]...beguiling mixture of innocence and sluttishness that makes her [Deborah Harry] that modern rarity, a true pop icon." (Evans, Simon,18) 
 

"The title track, with a guest rap by Coolio, is a reminder that Blondie introduced the world outside New York City to hip hop with its hit 'Rapture.'"--On the song "No Exit" (Ross, Curtis, 31 August 1999, "Baylife" section, p. 1) 

"...the first rap tune ever to hit the Top 10..."--On the hit song "Rapture" ("Inside Track: The Roots of Rap, " 5C)
 

"Deborah Harry and Chris Stein's restlessness encourag[ed] new and fascinating twists in their approach to music making. 'Rapture' from the album 'Autoamerican,' was an obvious example of Blondie's originality and talent for innovation. By being the first to successfully incorporate rap music with pop, Blondie would help legitimise rap music and introduce a whole new style [of] music to the world. Although this gave music academics an extra footnote to add to Blondie's legacy, it was of dubious honour, due to the unacceptability of rap in conventional musical circles." (White, Fraser) 
 

"...we found [they] had a real appreciation for us doing rap....They all told us 'Rapture' was the first rap tune they ever heard on the radio when they were little kids.'"--Clem Burke on contemporary hip-hoppers who acknowledge Blondie's contribution to that musical genre ("Inside Track: The Roots of Rap," 5C)
 

"Perhaps nowhere is Blondie's influence on modern rock more readily clear than on the rock/hip-hop hybrid of 'Rapture.'" (Kielty, "Calendar" section, p. 8)
 

"'....New styles like hip hop and rap have come to prominence.'"--Deborah Harry on how music has changed since the 1970s (Barry, "Showbiz: Music" section, p. 15)
 

"You might not remember Fab Five Freddy, but then someone will play you that Blondie song going 'Fab Five Freddy tells me everything's fly--' and it will all come back to you."--On the song "Rapture" (Williams)
 

"This seminal figure of hip hop, the man who took it from street corners to proper parties in buildings and from there to MTV and on to the rest of the world, may have been behind arguably the most important, and certainly the most lucrative musical explosion of the last century, but dang, it took Blondie to get us to remember his name."--On Fab Five Freddy and Blondie (Williams)
 

"Is London now the equivalent of the Bronx in the Eighties--a bomb full of flavour, waiting for a canny mover with a good ear to detonate it? It will take someone like Fab Five Freddy to find out. And then maybe Blondie can write another song about it."--On the potential appeal of hip hop in London (Williams)
 

"Yet another dimension of meaning [in music] arises when familiar materials are combined. A montage is not just the sum of its parts, as anyone can tell from Grandmaster Flash's appropriations of Blondie, Chic, Queen, and the Sugar Hill Gang on 'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel' (1981)."--On Blondie as one of the groups from whom Grandmaster Flash borrowed (Gracyk, 172-173)
 

"...one of pop's most adventurous [bands], and, with 'Rapture,' one of the earliest mainstream rap forays."-On Blondie (Graff, 1999)
 

"'I really remember people telling me rap music was just a fad and would be over in a year or two; but it's really an honor to have us cemented in that scene. It was sort of us paying homage to rap at that time, but I don't think people considered us really a part of it. Maybe now that will change.'"-Chris Stein in response to the observation that: "It has to be gratifying that today Blondie is recognized for its eclecticism and for introducing mainstream pop audiences to things like rap." (Graff, 1999)
 

"'I wanted to do a gangsta rap thing. I wanted to take the rap thing a step further into this generation, because when we did "Rapture," Chris was more influenced by the earlier rappers at Sugar Hill and that kind of thing. I wanted to make it more tough and heavy.'"-Jimmy Destri on the evolution of the rap song 'No Exit' (Graff, 1999)
 

"...features a combination of the band's rap and hard-rock influences, with rap star Coolio lending a hand."-On Blondie and the song "No Exit" (Anderson, Leigh)
 

"...Blondie successfully blends their own early rap style with newer, harder edged sounds."-On the song "No Exit" (Geller)
 

"The title track fuses Bach fugues with gangsta rap, featuring a guest turn from hip-hop star Coolio--an appropriate nod to Blondie's 1981 smash 'Rapture,' which was one of rap's first forays into the pop mainstream." (Graff, 27 February 1999)
 

"...the band's homage to rap."--On the song "Rapture" (O'Brien, 1999 June, Playboy, 122)
 

"...their own cross-cultural creation...."-On Blondie and their "groundbreaking" song "Rapture" ("Blondie: The Life Story")
 

"...the early-'80s hit single featuring Debbie Harry's hysterical 'the man from Mars / Only eats guitars' lyric-dropping session that gave us a taste of what we could expect from Vanilla Ice just a few years later."--On the song "Rapture" and its later influence (Rayner, 8 April 2000, AR3)
 

"...when Grandmaster Flash used parallel turntables to mix pieces of Spoonie Gee, Chic, Blondie, Queen, a Flash Gordon episode, and a skit where somebody tries to sell you dope...."--On the "1981 collage symphony 'Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel'" (Eddy, 129)
 

"...he mixed Harry's tribute line ('Flash is fast, Flash is cool') into his scratching landmark 'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel.'"--On Grandmaster Flash (Sheffield, 1995, 49)
 

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "display of rap was paltry, despite the section of wall devoted to that music form. It included forerunners, like GrandMaster Flash. It included Blondie and the Beastie Boys...." (Barker, G4) 
 

"The New York group Blondie covered 'The Tide Is High' by Jamaican singer/writer John Holt in 1980, and returned the next year with their own version of Jamaican dub (known as rap in New York), 'Rapture.'" (Charlton, 224)
 

"The Rap Revolutionary"--On Deborah Harry (Dickerson, 161)
 

"Ironically, it was a woman--a former Playboy bunny--who introduced white America to rap music....Blondie was already soaring when Deborah and band member Chris Stein decided to write a song based on the new music they'd been hearing in the Bronx and in Brooklyn. 

For a native Southern--Harry was born in Miami, Florida, but raised by adoptive parents in Hawthorne, New Jersey--the rap parties she and the other band members attended in New York City struck a familiar chord. One day, Stein suggested they write and record a rap song of their own. The result was 'Rapture,' the first rap song to ever make the pop charts." (Dickerson, 161)

"...one of the first groups to record rapping music, and certainly the first mainstream pop/new wave band to take it on...."-On Blondie and rap (Geller)
 

"Videos include: Run DMC w/ Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way'; REM w/ KRS-One 'Radio Song'; Pras & Puff Daddy w/ Sting 'Roxanne 97'; Public Enemy w/ Stephen Stills 'He Got Game' and Blondie 'Rapture'."-On the premiere of the VH1 program "Pop-Up Video: Rock Meets Rap" ("VH1....")
 
 
 

Videos/MTV
 

Blondie made a definite contribution to the visual aspect of music in the form of music videos and MTV.
 

"Let Blondie lead your eyes and ears to a brave new video world."-On the Eat to the Beat video (Eat to the Beat [back cover video container])
 

"...they're so convinced that all the tracks could be released as singles and that videos are the medium of the future that they are making special videos of the whole album--the first time a group has done that."--On Blondie and the Eat to the Beat video ("Debbie Harry Sets the Record Straight," 44)
 

"Blondie has always had a fascination with modern technology. That fascination is taken to the max with this sight-and-sound funfest based on the group's multimillion-selling LP Eat to the Beat."-On the Eat to the Beat video (Eat to the Beat [back cover video container])
 

"...one of the earliest concept video compilations ever conjured-up for the home market (and one of the first-ever Grammy Award nominees in the Music Video category), vibrantly lives up to Blondie's freewheeling standards on rock's cutting edge."-On the Eat to the Beat video (Eat to the Beat [back cover video container])
 

"It's a new world of music, flesh and fantasy merging and dissolving, a unique experience for fans of both rock and video. Savor this pioneering vanguard of the music video revolution that still entertains and enthralls...."-On the Eat to the Beat video (Eat to the Beat [back cover video container])
 

"The Men Who Make the Music was going to be the first Video LP released when it was made in 1979. However, legal troubles between Time-Life and Warner delayed its release 'till 1981, by which time Blondie's "Eat to the Beat" video LP had stolen the crown." ("Misc. Info...")
 

While Deborah Harry was the "voice and face" of Blondie, Chris Stein was "known as a media mind as well as an incredibly influential musician, and many of Blondie's firsts were the result of his vision," including videos. (O'Brien, Glen, 1986, 43) 
 

"'We couldn't do Blondie, without Chris. He was the one who initiated most of the groundbreaking musical things we did and a lot of the time he was the one who had to fight to push them through....'"--Deborah Harry on the importance of Chris Stein to Blondie in relation to innovations like music videos (Malins, 13) 
 

Blondie has had a lasting impact on the music industry because it helped initiate the "video music craze" ("Blondie is Gone," D15) with the 1979 "groundbreaking video album 'Eat To The Beat.'" (Russell, 37) 
 

"Harry's cool, sensual presence on stage and in videos like 'Detroit 442' catapulted Blondie's appeal far beyond their original cult audience." ("Blondie Makes a Comeback" [transcript]) 
 

"While new video outlets for music may mean increased opportunities for writers and for small labels, they also raise new problems. It may be fine, even desirable, to stay at home for an evening of Olivia Newton-John or Deborah Harry, but it may mean that those talented writers and singers suffering from acne will be losing a prospective audience. Chrysalis records has made a full-length video disc version of Blondie's 'Eat to the Beat' album, which admittedly was orchestrated as much around Harry's visual impact as for the musical effect."--Reflects early skepticism about music videos, with references to Deborah Harry, Blondie, and the "Eat To The Beat" video (London, 175)
 

"'People used to say that Blondie was too much image and not enough music....I guess it is all our fault. Hey, hey.'"--Deborah Harry on Blondie's influence on videos ("Blondie is Gone," D15). It is of note that Harry and her collaborator, Chris Stein, were having reservations in the mid-eighties over music videos and contemplating not doing them anymore since image seemed to prevail over music. They probably, however, have subsequently changed their minds on this score.
 

"Debbie Harry became the face of the early '80s, and no one loved that face more than the new MTV channel, which sent her visage out into the farthest corners of America. And the group embraced the new media. For their Autoamerican album, they actually did a video for every song on the album."-This source was probably referring to Eat to the Beat ("Blondie: The Life Story")
 

"When MTV arrived..., it was a vast and empty chasm. Madonna and Michael [Jackson] were missing. The world needed people who sounded good and looked great. In short, it was the perfect time for Deborah Harry," who "savored music (with her group, Blondie) and images."-- On Deborah Harry in the context of music and videos (Hughes) 
 

Deborah Harry "admires women like Madonna, who have molded MTV to fit their world. 'What's not to like? There's more of a sense of an artist realizing her vision. That someone, regardless of what sex she is, could be limited really bothers me.'"--Deborah Harry on MTV and Madonna (Hughes) 
 

The "ultimate time capsule of New York's downtown scene, circa 1981."--On Blondie's pioneering 1981 "Rapture" video (Dunn, 98) 
 

"'Well, how many music videos feature the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat?'...Harry acknowledges that hordes of suburban kids have Blondie to credit for their first taste of rap music. 'Nobody had ever done a rap video,' she says. 'It was the first thing to break through the color line.'"--Deborah Harry on the "Rapture" video (Dunn, 98) 
 

"He was a star of 1980s pop culture who numbered among his friends and associates Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, and Madonna."-On Jean-Michel Basquiat ("Portrait of an Artist," "Arts" section, p. 16)
 

"The emergence of rap on MTV, with such early crossover videos as Blondie's 'Rapture' and Run DMC's 'Walk This Way' with Aerosmith, are covered...."-On the VH1 series "Video Killed the Radio Star," Part 3 of 4 (Bianculli, 10 May 2000, "TV Tonight" section, p. 92)
 

At the time of the Parallel Lines album, Blondie was "one of the hottest commercial properties of the late Seventies, although they kept their cult status and 'street cred.' Media attention concentrated on Debbie Harry's looks (which made them one of the first bands of the video age)...." ("Vulture's 100 Best Albums of All Time") 
 

"...an ideal medium for Blondie's telegenic vocalist Deborah Harry...."--On MTV (Pantsios, 14 August 1999, 5B) 
 

"They patented the Big! Exciting! video...."--On Blondie (Roberts, 1994, 102)
 
 
 

Bands/Singers: General Discussion
 

This section contains general references to Blondie/Deborah Harry's influence on other rock acts or multiple references to bands identified as being influenced by them.
 

Blondie is the "influential New York post-punk band." Its legacy and that of its lead singer, Deborah Harry remains. "Madonna, Regina, Fiona [Apple], Belinda [Carlisle], The Bangles, the American Girls and an abundance of other new-age female rock performers might never have caught the attention of the main men of the macho, male-dominated American record business if Blondie hadn't broken through first. With a series of exploratory pop singles, 'Heart Of Glass,' 'Eat To The Beat,' 'The Tide Is High' and 'Rapture,' Blondie made perfect artistic and commercial sense by blending power pop with such fringe fads as disco, reggae and rap. As importantly, the music seemed to have been invented for the glamorous, platinum-haired, thin-voiced woman who fronted the band. She was bold yet vulnerable, beautiful yet occasionally vulgar. Those songs couldn't have been performed by anyone else." (Quill, G1) 
 

"Building on the pure pop approach of its predecessor [Plastic Letters], 'Parallel Lines' was chock full of classy songs, and the formula was wisely repeated in the follow-up, 'Eat To The Beat.' In the wake of 'Heart of Glass,' many rock acts felt obliged to copy Blondie and 'go disco,' but rarely with such success." (Heatley, 278-279) 
 

"Toni Childs, Michelle Shocked, Tracy Chapman and Sinead O'Connor may be grabbing attention with serious, unconventional songwriting and de-glamorized images. But a sharply different female persona has been surfacing at the other end of the pop-music spectrum. In bands such as Transvision Vamp and The Primitives, the young women singers are pouty, pretty, impudent and peroxide blonde, which is not much a surprise given the obvious Debbie Harry influence on both of them. Nor is it surprising that both these bands are from England, a country which has always been fixated on Harry and her former band, Blondie. On their debut album, 'Pop Art,' Transvision Vamp has picked up on Blondie's nastiness while abandoning their mentor's sense of humor. The music is catchy, charging rock, but derivative. On their debut album, 'Lovely,' The Primitives have reworked Blondie with greater charm and quirky cleverness. It's almost impossible not to like this group. But certainly neither band is breaking new ground like the originator did. Which begs the question: When are Harry and Blondie's mastermind, Chris Stein, going to come up with an album that shows these upstarts how its done?"--On women in rock in the late 1980s, including acknowledgment of Deborah Harry's influence on them (Infusino, 21 September 1988, C4) 
 

When Blondie became famous, "Debbie Harry, the Jersey girl with the fabulous style, great looks and hit records, became one the most visible personalities of the era, part of the cool crowd that included Andy Warhol, Stephen Sprouse and photographer Steven Meisel." (Hershkovits, 24) 
 

"As the '80s generation of women vocalists moved up, Harry became more of an anachronism,...keeping up a good front while the likes of Madonna, Paula Abdul, Debbie Gibson and Jody Watley sold all the records." (Hershkovits, 24). While later articles noted Harry's influence on other female singers, this late 1980s look at Harry depicts her more as being eclipsed by them. This perception, however, would change with the passage of time.
 

With her usual modesty, this "living icon" acknowledged that her past work with Blondie "'may have been ground-breaking in a commercial or pop way.'"--Deborah Harry on her importance, including in relation to other female vocalists in the late 1980s (Hershkovits, 24) 
 

"These were women who led bands otherwise peopled entirely by men."--On the "enduring legacy of punk," which, to various degrees, empowered women musicians; two women who were particularly influential in that regard are Deborah Harry and Chrissie Hynde (Raphael, 1995, TT32) 
 

"While Blondie and the Pretenders were born of punk, Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone became the ultimate Eighties pop superstar, a female icon....While she has the same all-consuming desire to be a star as Courtney Love, Madonna probably couldn't have done it without Deborah Harry...."--On Deborah Harry's legacy in relation to Madonna (Raphael, 1995, TT32) 
 

"'Madonna mentioned I was important to her. That's very satisfying, but a cheque would be better.'"--Deborah Harry in a quip about Madonna (Raphael, 1995, TT32) 
 

Blondie's "influence never has been stronger-- especially in Britain, where bands ranging from Echobelly to Elastica have paid overt or implicit tribute to Blondie's sound" and, paraphrasing Deborah Harry, "these younger bands are reacting to their influences in the same way her old group did." (Considine, 19 May 1995, 24) 
 

"Madonna could not have existed without her [Deborah Harry]." Regarding memorable Blondie songs, British new wave-like band Elastica would loved to have composed "Rip Her to Shreds." ("Reissues Blondie Collection,"15) 
 

"From 1977 onwards, Blondie struck platinum, releasing 13 Top 20 singles, including five No 1s, and six albums whose influence on [bands such as] Sleeper, Elastica and Pulp is plain. Say all you like about their unique fusion of disco pop and prickly New Wave. What was at least as important was that Harry...had a mould-breaking, assertive sex appeal that made her both fantasy figure and feminist role-model years before Madonna Louise Ciccone reached for the bleach."--On Blondie's achievements and its influence on other bands (Barber, 28 January 1996, 16) 
 

"Blondie's Debbie Harry...gives up her arty hauteur and finally consents to a reunion of the greatest pop group of the post-punk era. Republica, Sleeper, The Audience and your ilk, bow down and weep!"--On the reunion of Blondie (Clapp, 7) 
 

It "'had been a long time coming.'"--Blondie founding member Chris Stein on Blondie receiving Q magazine's "Inspiration Award" at the ninth annual Q Music Awards on October 30, 1998 (Scott, 13) 
 

"'....You can see that Debbie Harry was very much an icon for a lot of the bands today and perhaps cruelly neglected for a time.'"--Q magazine editor David Davies (Scott, 13) 
 

"...just how difficult it is for today's female-fronted pop bands to top the drama, panache and clarity that is vintage Blondie. Only The Pretenders ever came close, and how long ago was that? They just don't make them like Blondie any more, however frantically the pop conveyor belt might churn"--On contemporary Blondie wannabes (Ellen, 9). 
 

Interview magazine "asked some of those she inspired--and was inspired by--to muse on their muse."--On Luscious Jackson's drummer Kate Schellenbach, Fred Brathwaite (a.k.a. Fab Five Freddy) who was immortalized on the "Rapture" music video, the Donnas' drummer Torry Castellano (a.k.a. Donna C.), and former Talking Heads' bassist Tina Weymouth, who all shared their ruminations about Deborah Harry and Blondie's influence (Chaplin, 67) 
 

"[I]f you happen to detect now-familiar elements from Top Forty acts like No Doubt or Hole on the new [Blondie] album [No Exit], just remember who came first." (Chaplin, 67) 
 

Deborah Harry "claims not to feel any real resentment towards Madonna, despite the fact that Madonna effectively stole her act. 'But she did it so well,'" Harry noted. (Burtson, 8) 
 

A "fitting continuation of the Blondie story....And because Blondie's influence can be heard just about everywhere these days, especially in bands such as Garbage and Republica, the album sounds contemporary"-- On No Exit (Burtson, 8) 
 

Blondie "'created a formula that went on to be sort of a standard in the [music] industry.'"--Deborah Harry on Blondie's past albums as a standard-setter (Burtson, 8) 
 

Blondie was "one of the most exhilarating and innovative pop acts of their era....Not only masters of guitar-led new-wave pop, Blondie were one of the first punk-generation bands to dabble with the dancefloor, incorporating disco, reggae and rap into hits such as Atomic, The Tide is High and Rapture." (Thrills, 12 February 1999, 47) 
 

Deborah "Harry's influence on female performers has persisted: Eighties singers as diverse as Madonna and Annie Lennox and, more recently, Hole's Courtney Love and Garbage's Shirley Manson, have cited her as an inspiration." (Thrills, 12 February 1999, 47) 
 

"During its too-short late '70s-early '80s reign, Blondie was like a breath of fresh air, deftly mixing rock, pop, disco and reggae into hard-to-ignore hits. And the band's front woman, Deborah Harry, would ultimately serve as a prototype for other highly watchable, not-so-dumb occasional blonde singers like Madonna, No Doubt's Gwen Stefani and Hole's Courtney Love." (Johnson, 19 February 1999, E4) 
 

I "'can really hear our influence in retrospect...when I listen to a Madonna or a No Doubt. So I'm really happy with the music.'"--Deborah Harry on Blondie's musical influence (Kappes, 42) 
 

"...when Blondie was riding high atop the New Wave Movement and Harry was blazing a trail for the likes of Madonna, Courtney Love and Gwen Stefani to follow"--On the late 1970's and early 1980s (Mehle, 21 February 1999, 3D) 
 

"For a band seemingly long consigned to the dustbin of pop history, Debbie Harry's Blondie...appear remarkably healthy these days" with its sixth number one single in France, "Maria." (Valles) 
 

Deborah Harry has retained the "same provocative personality which won her a spikey sex symbol image long before the likes of Madonna....'Right now, I'm better than ever,' said the woman cited as a key influence by Madonna and Annie Lennox." (Valles) 

"The best of the New Wave bands (Blondie, The Cars and Talking Heads) made some great records and left an indelible impression because they brought something extra to the formula, but they were the exception." (Roland, 123-124)
 

"It's been 17 years since Blondie disbanded, and we're still touched by their presence, dear: Luscious Jackson's street-smart rapture, Madonna's blond ambition, Shirley Manson's scowls, and most recently, Harvey Danger's 'Call Me' riffs. (Sherr, 9 March 1999, 74)
 

"They don't make sex symbols the way they used to."--On Deborah Harry (Chonin, C1) 
 

"For the first half of the '80s, Harry was the quintessential gutsy bleached blonde whose cool moves inspired Madonna, Courtney Love and No Doubt's Gwen Stefani. During their tenure as chart toppers, the band Blondie created a diva-and-band template still at work in groups ranging from Garbage to the Cranberries, and pioneered a pop-punk fusion that later became the signature sound of '90s indie rock. The difference is that they did it all with an impeccable, mega-platinum cool that no band or singer since has recaptured." (Chonin, C1) 

Non-Musical Cultural Icons: Marilyn Monroe
 

A number of comparisons have been made between Deborah Harry and Marilyn Monroe, a parallel Harry relished since Monroe had an influence on her formative years.
 

"One afternoon...my Aunt Helen said I looked like a movie star, which thrilled me and fueled another secret fantasy about Marilyn Monroe possibly being my natural mother. I always thought I was Marilyn Monroe's kid. I felt physically related and akin to her long before I knew she had been adopted herself. Of course my continual participation in this maternal fantasy has changed drastically as I've grown up and discovered that quite a few adopted girls have the same notion. But why Marilyn and not Lana Turner, Carole Lombard, Jayne Mansfield? Maybe it was Marilyn's need for immense doses of demonstrative love that is the common denominator between us"--Deborah Harry on her affinity to Marilyn Monroe (Harry, Stein, and Bockris, 7. See also Schruers, 12) 
 

"Cool, with a slightly self-mocking sense of street-wise irony, the tough yet vulnerable Harry was an instant pop archetype: the bottle-blonde bridge between Monroe and Madonna."--On Deborah Harry's connection to two other pop culture icons (Lee, F2) 
 

"Deborah Harry, Blondie's lead singer and its obvious choice for nom de bande, was the American new wave's Marilyn Monroe--long before Madonna Ciccone got the copycat glint in her eye."--On Marilyn Monroe within a Deborah Harry-Madonna context (Sullivan, Jim, 3 November 1989, 54)
 

With crossover hits like "Rapture" and "Heart of Glass," Blondie suddenly "belonged not just to the New York new wave scene, but to the world at large."--On Deborah Harry being a star like Marilyn Monroe had been (Sullivan, Jim, 3 November 1989, 54) 
 

"A decade before Madonna discovered peroxide, Deborah Harry's career had already gone platinum." (Bardin, 154) 
 

The "Marilyn Monroe of punk"--On Deborah Harry (Bardin, 154) 
 

"...it was taking that movie star quality and putting it into a rock setting for which Harry will be remembered...."--On the amalgam of glamor and rock as embodied by Deborah Harry, paraphrasing Chris Stein (Didcock, 4) 
 

"'It hadn't really been done before because all the other women in rock, such as Janis [Joplin], were coming at it from a male perspective. Debbie brought the whole Hollywood/Marilyn sensibility to it.'"--Chris Stein on the amalgam of glamor and rock as embodied by Deborah Harry, including a reference to Marilyn Monroe (Didcock, 4) 
 

"Harry's glamorous bombshell image came from the language of Hollywood, not rock...." (Farber, 10 January 1999, "New York Now: Music" section, p. 19)
 
 
 

Fashion
 

Deborah Harry and Blondie definitely have a fashion sense, which has had a larger cultural impact.
 

"While Van Halen veered away from punk in 1977, a number of bands chose to steer a midway course between punk and pop, influenced as much by Blondie as by the post-Flamin' Groovies bands (the Nerves, 20/20) favored by Greg Shaw. 'The first time we went out to LA in 1977, all the kids were dressed in bellbottoms and stuff,' recalled Blondie's Chris Stein. 'The next time we came they were all dressed like us in little suits with narrow labels.' Predictably, the majors perked up at the more accessible sound of these power-pop 'new wave' bands and began chasing their signatures. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be wearing jackets and skinny ties, whether it was older bands such as the Pop![,] the Quick, the Motels or newer ones such as the Plimsouls, formed by Peter Case from the ashes of the Nerves at the beginning of 1979."--On Blondie's mod fashion influence on both fans and other bands (Hoskyns, 1996, 297)
 

"'Blondie and the Ramones kicked off a lot of that [LA post-punk] stuff.'"-Chris Stein on Blondie's musical and mod fashion influence on Los Angeles and west coast fans (Heylin, 320)
 

"'...when we first came to California, all these girls were dressing in platform shoes, bellbottom jeans..., but I mean that's the California look, they're not that much into fashion, not like New York, it's a much looser fashion. Anyway, I was wearing high boots and mini's, black tights and berets and stuff like that, and the following week there were girls dressing like that.'"--On Deborah Harry's influence on fashion and the "Blondie look" (Spitzer, 94)
 

"In fashion terms, rock chick has almost always been a term of abuse. Women who took on the boys at their own musical game had a lot of bottle, but rarely the style to match, apart from rare exceptions, such as Patti Smith, Pauline Black of the Selecter and, of course, the delectable Debbie Harry."--On the gender connotations of rock fashion (Garratt) 
 

"....it was on the body of Blondie's Debbie Harry that Sprouse's fashion fantasies first assumed public form....He had been coloring huge black-and-white Xeroxes, when he became friendly with Harry and started to make her stage clothes."--On fashion designer Stephen Sprouse, who was a particular favorite of Deborah Harry (Cocks, 83) 
 

"'Stephen put me into minis and high black boots,' she says, 'and it went on from there.'"--On Deborah Harry's influence on fashion in relation to designer Stephen Sprouse and his fashion sense (Cocks, 83) 
 

Her "trademark style" includes thigh-high boots. "'I've always worn them as part of my Blondie look.'" Among her favorite designers are Stephen Sprouse, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Matsuda as well as other Japanese designers. "'I like Gaultier's exciting use of fabric, but I avoid his corset look that he did for Madonna. That look is burned out.'"--On Deborah Harry's sense of fashion (Parnes, 7E) 
 

"Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry made her fans want their roots to grow out in the early '80s. With her super-bleached tresses and dark roots always in need of a touch-up, Harry gave hairdressers a scare. She also mixed punk with disco in both her music and her fashion, showcasing her great gams with platform shoes and satin hotpants, or piling a business suit on top of a leopard-print toga"--On the impact of female rock fashion on fans (Herrmann, section 7, p. 9) 
 

The "look he created in the late '70s for Deborah Harry of the punk rock group Blondie, turning a pair of dancing tights into a one-shoulder micro-mini decorated with safety pins and razor blades."--On Stephen Sprouse's acknowledgement that art and music influence his work (McKown, 1) 
 

"Way back when, punk and its new wave offspring were hugely influential on anything or anyone aspiring to look new and now. (Think Debbie Harry's partnership with Stephen Sprouse or Vivienne Westwood's with the Sex Pistols)." (Maurstad, D4)
 

"...indisputably New Wave in its provocative don't-mess-sexiness. More frocks for Blondie behave-alikes."--On Paris fashion with reference made to Deborah Harry (Davidson, 26)
 

"If only [house of] Celine's American designer, Michael Kors, had locked Debbie Harry in his mind-set--rather than Alexis Colby or Krystal Carrington!"--Fashion statement with reference made to Deborah Harry(Davidson, 26)
 

"...mini-dresses for which the young Debbie Harry would happily have traded several locks of her bleached Blondie hair."--Fashion statement with reference made to Deborah Harry(Davidson, 26)
 

"...the '80s-inspired punk-rock fantasy actually works. Laced with the toughness of Billy Idol and the camp of Blondie, this glitzy collection redefines sexy."--On a house of Ungaro fashion collection (Avery, Nicola Volta, "Features" section, p. 3)
 

"They appeared to be paying homage to punk's hard, radical and shocking nature. The tough female icons they referred to were combinations of Chrissie Hynde, Blondie's Deborah Harry and Patti Smith."--On fashion designers in Paris, including a reference to Deborah Harry (Graham, FA2)
 

"Blondie used to do it, so did the kids from Fame...between the years 1983 and 1986....I'm taking about bagging your top over your skirt or trousers. It was the ultimate early-Eighties silhouette. The idea was to wear something skintight below with a billowing top belted at the hips...."--Deborah Harry as an example of a popular fashion look (Croft)
 

"...Blondie's Deborah Harry, 34...has pranced on stage in a plastic trash-can liner. In more sedate moments, it's jump suits and minishirts by Montana, Mugier or Yamamoto. Noting her impact on a generation of girls, critic [Betsy] Johnson says flatteringly: 'Debbie is pure '60s Barbie doll.'" ("From Fashion to Fizzle....," p. 26)
 

"It's a beauty classic that will not die. Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Blondie all understood that lining your lashes equals instant allure; today, Madonna carries the flag."-On liquid eyeliner (Buttolph, "Features" section, p. 51)
 

"...impersonating Debbie Harry in ads for Alexander McQueen eyewear...."-On model Sophie Dahl (Trebay, E4)
 

"[Italian design house] Gattinoni showed a souped-up bustier on model Sophie Dahl (who looks like Deborah Harry back when Deborah Harry looked like Deborah Harry) at the Milan shows." (McInery, L1)
 

"Hubert de Givenchy-who dressed Audrey Hepburn-would never have countenanced crotch-skimming patent minidresses, tight purple nappa catsuits and zip-up leather leggings that owed more to Debbie Harry than to Holly Golightly." (Craik)
 

"Think Farrah Fawcett and Deborah Harry with a touch of Gwyneth Paltrow's chic style and you have the Gucci look for women's wear this year [i.e. 2000]." (Bannister)
 

"There is a hugh American retro and punk rock chic thing going on this summer [2000]-lots of baseball tops and customised denim. Think Marlin Brando in A Street Car Named Desire for boys, Blondie's Heart of Glass for girls."-On British summer fashion trends (Whelan and King)

"It's about being Jean [Harlow] or Marilyn [Monroe], Debbie Harry or Jennifer (Lopez and Aniston)."-On the appeal of metallic colors like gold and silver in fashion (Armstrong, Lisa, "Features" section)
 

"'I'm a little punk. It's the Deborah Harry thing. She just did what she wanted.'"-Lucy Pearl singer and songwriter, Dawn Robinson, on her fashion style (Hayt, section 9, p. 3)
 

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