Their music mixed the more experimental elements of British 1970s punk with the raw energy of the 1980s American hardcore punk scene. Dead Kennedys' songs mixed deliberately shocking lyrics with satirical and sarcastic criticism of social and political issues of the Reagan era.
In the late 1980s, the band was embroiled in an obscenity trial in the US over the artwork of their 1985 album, Frankenchrist, which included the explicit titular subject of H. R. Giger's Penis Landscape. The band was charged with distribution of harmful matter to minors, but the trial ended with a hung jury.
The Dead Kennedys officially disbanded in 1986. In 2001, the band reformed without original singer Jello Biafra, who had been in a legal dispute with the other members over royalties, before going on indefinite hiatus in 2008. Biafra has gone on to be a spoken word performer, covering political topics in particular, since the dissolution of the Dead Kennedys.
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