Punk rock

Punk Rock is an anti-establishment music movement that began about 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified by The Damned, The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and The Clash. The term is also used to describe subsequent music scenes that share key characteristics with those first-generation "punks". The term is sometimes also applied to the fashions or the irreverent "DIY" ("do it yourself") attitude associated with this musical movement.

Punk attitudes and fashion

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An important feature of punk rock was a desire to return to the concise approach of early rock and roll. Punk rock emphasised simple musical structure and short songs, extolling a DIY ethic (the early UK punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue in 1977 famously included drawings of three chord shapes, captioned, "this is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band"). Punk lyrics introduced a confrontational frankness of expression in matters both political and sexual, dealing with urban boredom and rising unemployment in the UK — for example, the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" and "Pretty Vacant" — or decidedly anti-romantic depictions of sex and love, such as the Dead Kennedys' "Too Drunk to Fuck."

Related Topics:
UK - Fanzine - Sniffin' Glue - 1977 - Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen - Pretty Vacant - Dead Kennedys

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The punk phenomenon expressed a rejection of prevailing values in ways that extended beyond the music. British punk fashion deliberately outraged propriety with the highly theatrical use of cosmetics and hairstyles: eye makeup covering half the face, hair made to stand in spikes, cut into a "Mohawk" or another dramatic shape, colored with vibrant unnatural hues. Punk clothing typically adapted or mutilated existing objects for artistic effect: pants and shirts were cut, torn, or wrapped with tape, written on with marker or defaced with paint; safety pins and razor blades were used as jewelry (including using safety pins for piercings); a black bin liner bag (garbage bag) might become a dress, shirt or skirt. Leather, rubber and vinyl clothing was also common, possibly due to its implied connection with transgressive sexual practices, such as bondage and S&M. Taboo symbols such as the Nazi swastika or Iron Cross were also occasionally flaunted by punks.

Related Topics:
Punk fashion - Mohawk - Leather - Rubber - Vinyl - Transgressive - Sexual practices - Bondage - S&M - Nazi - Swastika - Iron Cross

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Punk bands and fans were often accused of nihilism, reflexive anarchism, wilful stupidity, hooliganism, and of outrageous behavior and dress that existed merely for shock value. Some of the furore over punk was caused by the behavior of the fans at shows, which often appeared to the uninitiated to be more of a small-scale riot than a music concert. Fans spat and threw beer bottles at the band and each other, while stage diving, pogoing and slam dancing (which eventually led to the mosh pit). Fights both inside and outside the venue were common, as was damage to sound equipment or the venue itself.

Related Topics:
Nihilism - Anarchism - Hooliganism - Riot - Stage diving - Pogoing - Slam dancing - Mosh pit

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But for its admirers, the music, dress and lifestyle included elements of ironic humor and genuine criticism of mainstream culture and values. Many bands, (The Clash being a prime example), openly espoused a left-wing or progressive social and political philosophy. Other bands, such as Crass (an anarchist/pacifist group), actively participated in political protests and projects to alter local or national communities.

Related Topics:
Lifestyle - Ironic - Mainstream - Culture - Values - The Clash - Left-wing - Progressive - Social - Political - Philosophy - Crass - Anarchist - Pacifist

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The DIY aesthetic of punk created a thriving underground press; you could not only start a band, you could also be a music journalist and critic. Mark Perry produced the first photocopied issue of Sniffin' Glue in London immediately after that Ramones concert in 1976. In the US, such titles as Punk, Search & Destroy (later REsearch), Flipside and Slash chronicled and helped to define the emerging culture. Such amateur magazines took inspiration from the rock fanzines of the early 70s, which themselves had roots in the science fiction fan community; probably the most influential of the fanzines to cross over from SF fandom to rock (and, later, punk rock and "new wave") was Greg Shaw's Who Put the Bomp, published since 1970.

Related Topics:
DIY - Aesthetic - Sniffin' Glue - Punk - REsearch - Flipside - Slash - Fanzines - SF fandom - Greg Shaw - Who Put the Bomp

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The politically-charged Maximum RocknRoll and the anarchist Profane Existence were among the most important fanzines in the 1980s and onward. By that time, every local "scene" had at least one, often primitively- or casually-published magazine with news, gossip, and interviews with local or touring bands. The magazine Factsheet Five chronicled thousands of underground publications and "zines" in the 1980s and 1990s.

Related Topics:
Maximum RocknRoll - Profane Existence - 1980s - Factsheet Five - 1990s

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