London's Street Art Scene

While these white punks were able to return to their middle-class, financially stable lives, many minorities had no choice but to live in the cheap apartments they were offered at the time. Although the intention of the white punks may have been to unify all races under the label of ‘punk’, they actually reinforced clear differences between the two groups. The lifestyle became a desired object to white privileged punks into which they launched themselves head-on. The white punks desired to internalize the struggle rather than be contradictory by singing about it and not actually living it. White punks believed that by doing this, they were not only eliminating race within the punk subculture, but they were also furthering their own participation within the subculture by creating a “self-imposed minority”2 and an “appropriation of Otherness”2.

In this essay, I will be discussing about a social group that took fashion to the next level and create a huge impact in British history were the punks culture during the late nineteen seventies. The punk cultures were to rebel against the government during the great depression and were all about the attitude of the younger generations. During the late nineteen seventies was the time of unemployment and social unrest, a lot of the young white kids felt outcast from the British culture, foreseeing their lives with little prospect and so called “no future”. It was also a DIY “Do it yourself” movement. Younger generation that adopted the punk look often create their own garment by wearing safety pins,

Punk rock music has been used for decades to express dissatisfaction with society, government, or any idea common in mainstream media. Yet punk rock is not simply a tangent of the mainstream, it is a dynamic and fluid genre with many distinct songs. Don Letts, a mainstay in the London punk scene during the 70’s and 80’s, went as far to say that hip-hop was essentially “black” punk. While punk and hip-hop music are stylistically different, the fundamental tone of the two genres is the same. Even throughout the decades, hip-hop has sang the same issues as punk, including the plight of the lower class, police brutality, and gang violence.

“In contrast to government-commissioned public art, street art is illicit and subversive in nature. Therefore, most street artists, including Banksy, use pseudonyms to avoid legal prosecution for vandalism.”(Chung 27) Banksy’s street art does not focus on competing with rival artists, but focuses on engaging with a broader audience in a deeper level. He provokes his audience by deeply expressing out various social practices that helps viewers to reflect and confront certain aspects together as a community. (27) The underlying message of Banksy’s art can lead towards an active involvement of street art within the community.

The Sex Pistols are a very important topic to bring to attention because they were such an influential band. Even though they only lasted two years, they “never really faded away.” (Dougan 413) According to Dougan, they are always present “when the words punk-rock are uttered” (413). The Sex Pistols not only instilled a love of punk rock, but also imagined a world where “a crud could become a king.” (Dougan 414-415). Hence, the Sex Pistols advocated for the English working class, and had a revolutionary impact against the norms

As a teenager growing up in 1970s Washington D.C. one might rise out of bed in the morning, squeeze into their bell bottoms and skin-tight t-shirts, not expecting that that would be the day they ran into a group of kids dawned in black with clothes pins in their shirts, who called themselves punks and were looking to make a change in DC music history. In a time where the country was divided by political beliefs, a raging war, and racial tensions, smack dab in the center of Washington D.C. came the punk scene. It was said that the hippie scene majorly influenced the punk scene, some would say that the hippies were “the real punks”(Punk: Attitude, 3:12). The punk scene consisted of kids who opposed hippies, so in retrospect the hippies are what

When the Punk Movement emerged in the mid-1970s in both the United States and United Kingdom, it spanned into such areas as fashion, music, as well as youth mentality and thus became its own type of subculture. However, this movement can also be considered a form of social deviance when viewed through the lens of Robert Merton’s theory of anomie. This deviance stems from the anti-social and anti-conventional nature of the movement’s members in response to lower and middle class socio-economic strain. Therefore, the Punk Movement can be categorized as a combination of two of Merton’s types of adaptation to strain, including retreatism and rebellion, due to the subculture’s rejection of capitalist values, withdrawal from the workforce and

Within this essay I will discuss Widdicombe and Wooffitt’s suggestions made within their book ‘The Language of Youth Subcultures’ regarding resistance and will use the subculture example of punks to portray a clear conclusion. This book is about how different identities, both social and personal are established, maintained and managed within their everyday language. Widdicombe and Wooffitt seem to narrow in specifically on youth subcultures, particularly interviews with punks. We will look carefully at the language used by them to construct their identities and why they ‘resist’

Thesis: The punk rock culture is something that you all have probably been exposed to, but may not know much about.

Secondly, Punk Rock artists were rebels with a cause, their motive, destruction and rebellion through their ideology. “In its original nature, the punk culture has been primarily concerned with individual freedom, which

A contributing factor that resulted in punk becoming so popular in the U.K. was the sociopolitical environment in Great Britain, as at the time the nation was undergoing major social upheaval. During the early nineteen-seventies, the global oil and steel manufacturing crises rocking most of the world helped throw the United Kingdom into a recession. The recession resulted in the British government cutting funding for many essential services which in turn would lead to strikes, riots, rolling blackouts and an unstable government. The economy was slow to recover thanks to high inflation and unemployment rates resulting in stale economic growth. It was estimated that more than half of all 18 year olds were either unemployed or underemployed.

In the contemporary art world changes are constantly happening. Some changes benefitted the art world and some did not. Lucky for artists in the 1970s the amount of art–related jobs were a lot and many public places opened up to display new art. During the 1970s, SoHo was kicking off in the art world and attracting many and by the end of the 1970s artists were beginning to become familiar with one another and their works. In the 1980s, painters and sculptures had so much creativity that a lot of their pieces made it into the clubs and different areas. Also in the 1980s a lot of “punk” artwork was released. As time passed on rent prices raised almost three times than it had originally been. This economic downfall continued into the 1990s making

Punk rock developed in the late 60s and was considered “the rebellious little brother of rock and roll” (). It is marked by extreme and deliberately offensive expressions of alienation and social discontent. Punk has changed and shifted throughout the years, but is still an expression of rebellion and dissatisfaction. It has given people the ability to express themselves.

During 1970s Britain, life was a picture of austerity and hardship for many members of the public. The country was facing the worst economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s and large numbers of the electorate were quickly beginning to grow tired of the failing policies being touted by both Labour and Conservative minority governments. The experience of Britain for many in the 1970s was one of drawn out decline and decay, the consensus politics of the 1960's was falling apart and Harold Macmillan’s notion of ‘You’ve never had it so good’ couldn’t have been further from the truth. It could be argued that the aforementioned factors played a role of importance when assessing the largely spontaneous emergence of the punk

To situate concepts of gender in punk rock, a brief look must be given to the history of punk rock. Punk started in the late 1970’s, primarily in New York and London. The New York bands were influenced by artists such as the New York Dolls, Patti Smith, and The Stooges, with the London bands being influenced by glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Mott the Hoople; as well as pub rock performers such as the 101ers. The punk movement flourished briefly between 1976 and