Early punk music originated in the mid-1970s as a rebellion against mainstream rock music and middle-class values in both the United Kingdom and United States. Punk bands like the Sex Pistols and Ramones promoted a do-it-yourself attitude through fast, stripped-down songs that criticized social and economic issues of the time. Punk fashion featured torn clothes, dyed hair, and safety pins as symbols of working-class defiance against societal norms. Punk concerts involved intense dancing like moshing that further challenged conformity. While initially a underground movement, punk grew in popularity and influence through the proliferation of fanzines and singles that expressed the spirit of political and cultural dissent.

1. #med332

2. 1. Punk
acts
as
Year
Zero
for
the
music
industry
2. Punk
as
reac8on
against
the
middle-­‐class
meanderings
of
progressive
rock
3. Punk
as
organic
working-­‐class
music
of
social
and
cultural
protest

3. Early
punk
was
a
proclama8on
and
embrace
of
discord.
In
England
it
was
begun
by
working
class
youths
decrying
a
declining
economy
and
rising
unemployment,
chiding
the
hypocrisy
of
the
rich,
and
refu8ng
the
no8on
of
reform.
In
America,
early
punk
was
a
middle
class
youth
movement,
a
reac8on
against
the
boredom
of
mainstream
culture
...
Early
punk
sought
to
tear
apart
consumer
goods,
royalty
and
sociability;
and
it
sought
to
destroy
the
idols
of
the
bourgeoisie.
-­‐
Clark
in
Muggleton
and
Weinzierl,
2003:
225

4. Punk
1976-1978

5. USA:
1960s
Garage
Rock
The
Standells
The
Swingin’
Medallions
The
Kingsmen
Electric
Prunes

6. USA:
1960s
Garage
Rock

7. USA:
1960s
Garage
Rock
The
Stooges
(feat
Iggy
Pop)
–
‘I
Wanna
Be
Your
Dog’
(1969)

11. The
Ramones
–
‘Blitzkrieg
Bop’
(1976)

14. Punk
wasn’t
a
musical
style,
or
at
least
it
shouldn't
have
been
…
It
was
more
a
kind
of
‘do
it
yourself
–
anyone
can
do
it
a_tude.
If
you
can
only
play
two
notes
on
the
guitar,
you
can
figure
out
a
way
to
make
a
song
out
of
that
-­‐
David
Bryne
cited
Bennea,
2001:
60

16. John
Lydon,
aka
Johnny
Roaon
(vocals)
Glen
Matlock
(bass)
Steve
Jones
(guitar)
Paul
Cook
(drums)

18. Stanley
Cohen
Moral
Panic
Folk
Devil

19. 1
December
1976
Thames
Television
Today

21. Punk’s
expressive
forms:
1. Iconography
2. Fashion
3. Gigs/dancing
4. Fandom

22. Iconography
• na8onal
culture
– Banking
crisis
– Energy
crisis
– Unemployment
crisis
– Race
riots

24. Sex
Pistols
–
‘Anarchy
in
the
UK’
(1976)

26. The
Clash
–
1976
‘Career
Opportuni8es’
‘White
Riot’

29. Sex
Pistols
–
‘
God
Save
The
Queen’
(1977)

30. #1
NME
chart
#2
UK
official
chart

31. Through
their
music
and
stylis8c
commitment,
[punks]
suggested
and
enlarged
the
spaces
for
subversive
cultural
‘play’
...
Punk
proclaimed
the
necessity
of
viola8ng
the
quiet,
everyday
script
of
common
sense.
It
proposed
a
macabre
parody
of
the
underlying
idealism
of
‘Englishness’
–
that
dour
pragma8sm
that
sees
no
future
beyond
the
present,
and
no
present
except
that
inherited,
apparently
unmodified,
from
the
past.
-­‐
Chambers,
1985:
185

32. Punk
was
a
total
cultural
revolt.
It
was
a
hardcore
confronta8on
with
the
black
side
of
history
and
culture,
right-­‐wing
imagery,
sexual
taboos,
a
delving
into
it
that
had
never
been
done
before
by
any
genera8on
in
such
a
thorough
way
-­‐
Vale,
cited
in
Savage,
2010:
440

33. Fashion

35. Objects
borrowed
from
the
most
sordid
of
contexts
found
a
place
in
the
punks’
ensembles:
lavatory
chains
were
draped
in
graceful
arcs
across
chests
encased
in
plas8c
bin-­‐liners.
Safety
pins
were
taken
out
of
their
domes8c
‘u8lity’
context
and
worn
as
gruesome
ornaments
through
the
cheek,
ear
or
lip
...
Hair
was
obviously
dyed
(hay
yellow,
jet
black,
or
bright
orange
with
tuts
of
green
or
bleached
in
ques8on
marks),
and
T-­‐shirts
and
trousers
told
the
story
of
their
own
construc8on
with
mul8ple
zips
and
outside
seams
clearly
displayed.
-­‐
Hebdige,
1979:
107

38. Gigs/dancing

39. Slamdancing
...
mirrors
punk
ideologies
in
the
symbolic
breakdown
of
order
which
seems
to
occur
in
the
pit.
The
fast,
counter-­‐clockwise
mo8on
of
dancers
turns
the
pit
into
a
swirl
of
seemingly
chao8c
mo8on.
Although
slamdancers
themselves
do
follow
customs
which
prevent
the
pit
from
denegra8ng
[sic]
into
actual
chaos,
the
pit,
when
viewed
from
the
outside,
looks
like
a
lawless
realm.
The
enemy
for
punks
is
the
mainstream,
and
slamdancing
allows
punks
to
present
the
threat
of
chaos
while
s8ll
maintaining
unity
among
themselves
in
the
pit.
-­‐
Tsitsos,
1999:
407

42. Fanzines

44. Actually
we’re
not
into
music
…We’re
into
chaos
-­‐
Steve
Jones
(Sex
Pistols),
in
Savage,
2010:
152

46. ‘somebody
had
figured
out
how
to
make
ar8s8cally
and
commercially
viable
pop
music
based
on
a
rhythmic
process
outside
R&B,
a
feat
unequalled
since
the
advent
of
Elvis
Presley;
consequently,
things
were
fundamentally
different
thereater.
It
was
a
true
historic
disjuncture’
-­‐
Marsh
1989:
72

47. ‘there
seems
liale
doubt
that
Lydon
was
fed
material
by
Vivienne
Westwood
(McLaren’s
designer
partner)
and
Jamie
Reid
(the
Pistol’s
graphic
ar8st),
which
he
then
converted
to
his
own
lyric’
-­‐
Savage
1991:
204.

48. 1. Liveness
=
iden8ty
and
reputa8on
2. Voice
=
blurred
line
between
singing
and
speech
3. Mode
of
address
=
strong
declamatory
voice
4. Tempo
=
basic,
primi8ve,
breakneck

49. Cri8quing
the
common
narra8ve
of
punk

50. Cri8quing
the
common
narra8ve
of
punk
‘English’
punk
did
not
rise
spontaneously
from
below
on
a
wave
of
working
class
anger.
It
was
invented,
constructed
and
perpetrated
by
a
motley
bunch
of
1960s
counter-­‐culturally
informed
radicals
[…],
art
school
and
other
species
of
students[…],
middle
and
working
class
musicians
[…]
and
music
journalists
bored
with
stadium
rock,
and
disillusioned
by
rock’s
lost
radical
poten8ali8es
[…].
-­‐
Albiez,
2009

51. Cri8quing
the
common
narra8ve
of
punk
Boredom
with
mainstream
culture
and
ins8tu8ons
is
oten
a
characteris8c
of
adolescence
that
it
is
hard
to
suggest
has
a
specific
class
or
na8onal
base.
So
within
the
UK
punk
scene
of
the
early
1980s,
youth
from
various
socio-­‐
economic
backgrounds
rubbed
shoulders,
sharing
a
common
interest
in
the
poten8al
for
punk
to
become
a
vehicle
for
their
personal,
familial,
ins8tu8onal,
social,
economic
and/or
poli8cal
grievances.
-­‐
Albiez,
2009

53. Images
• Paul
Townsend
2013
Bristol
Punks
1980
• Andrew
2007
CBGB
Hardcore
Ma8nee
• EL_M@SCO
2005
CBGB's
1973-­‐2006
• Andrew
Vella
2012
Anarchy
graffi8
• Todosnuestrosmuertos
2010
punk
is
dead
• Gerry
Balding
2013
Planet
Punk