Punk Music Research Paper

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.

Punk rock was especially popular in Britain and many people began to become punks because of unemployment and started to form bands then started to sing mostly about political, economic, or social events happening during the cold war. Punk rock stayed popular from 1976 - late 90’s then it started to die down and not many people were forming bands anymore or producing many albums (5). Before the cold war though swing, blues, country, and the big band was very popular. Popular vocalists during this period include Frank Sinatra who sang jazz music, Bing Crosby who sang pop and jazz music, Doris Day who was a big band singer, and Ella Fitzgerald who sang swing, pop, jazz and blues (6). During the 1940’s was when these genes and singers/songwriters became very popular.

In order to understand why punk came about the preceding periods will be considered. The baby boom after the war had resulted in a large amount of people being born at the same time. A knock on effect later down the line resulted in mass unemployment for young people. The punk era showed angry,

What is punk rock? How many people know the real definition? Punk rocks values, attitude, and ideologies? Punk rock isn’t just a style or a scene but a way of life. It all started in the late 1970s, originating from the working class angst and frustrations many youth were feeling about the economic inequality. One of punks’ main oppositions was rejection of mainstream, corporate mass culture and its values. It continued to evolve its ideology of anti-racist and anti-sexist belief systems as the movement spread from its origins in England and New York to Northern America.

In the late 1970s, the demand of relaxing music and multiracial made disco popular, and the embody of rebellion and aggression led punk rise. Disco rooted in the late 1960s, and peaked in the late 1970s when the demand of entertainment kept increasing. On the other hand, after age of hippy, many young musicians in the late 1970s tried to reject the older generation and accept anti-establishment mentality, which was closely connected to punk.

Music, in the past, has often spelled bad news to society at large. It can challenge norms and invoke a sense of hype in places that modern culture may be uncomfortable with, such as sex, sexuality, and drugs. Personally, when I think of punk music, I see a genre that stands to be individualistic, aggressive, and rebellious. Phrases such as ‘anti-establishment’ also come up. This notion comes from many aspects of punk subculture, including dress, music, performance, and my interpretations.

The mid to late 1970s brought about a slow but steady change in punk rock. With the advent of heavy metal and punk rock bands an explosion of new rock genres emerged. The change was started by three bands from New York. The New York Dolls, the Dictators and the Ramones started a new trend that quickly spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world. It slowly caught on in the US and when it finally did the hardcore form of punk rock became a national expression for millions of teens and young adults for the next two decades.

Though many will jokingly argue that “punk is dead” Punk is still very much alive in today’s society. From Mohawks to mosh pits punk has had an impact on today’s culture. Ironically enough punk once known as being a counterculture to the mainstream has now become a large part of it. It can be seen in fashion and dance and especially music. Overtime punk has changed and evolved. It has branched out into numerous sub genres such as pop punk, glam punk, skate punk, and many more. Bands like Fall Out Boy, Greenday, Paramore, The Wonder Years, and All Time Low are modern examples of punk. These bands continue to draw in the younger audiences, because they still exemplify the free and rebellious nature of punk. Punk will continue to live as long

Nevertheless, punk shouldn’t be held to such high standards of influence. It’s influential; it’s something that made misfits feel as though they had a place, but not something to be held to the unattainably high standards. All things considered, it did do something positive, it provided a home and inclusive environment for those who were frustrated and just plain angry.

For example, Hip hop focuses on the poorer populations and areas where there was struggle for the American dream. The music was inspired by the struggle of American Americans and is the root of Hip hop. Punk is different in that it attracted audiences that were of the middle to upper class. These were people who had jobs and were able to go to college. Eventually both genres gained fans of all financial backgrounds but this was a major difference in the culture of Hip hop and Punk.

“The History and Evolution of Rock and Roll” says “The founding fathers of punk were The Ramones who combined anarchism and teenage rage with rock and roll. Other bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash helped popularize and redefine punk rock. This powerful and intense new genre of music influenced many bands in the future”. An unfamiliar sound deviated from the typical Rock and Roll and it made Punk which the teenage population identified with. Heavy metal was also a uprising in the early 1970’s.

     The punk subculture is often seen as a rebellious group of misguided youngsters who often come from lower class dwellings and haven’t gotten the attention that they needed so they dye their hair, dress differently, and act differently. In Facing The Music edited by Simon Frith, Mary Harron reduced the meaning of punk to “the spectacle of middle-class children dressing up in a fantasy of proletarian aggression and lying desperately about their backgrounds” (History). The flipside to that is that maybe these youths are expressing their individualism and choose to stray away from

Most of the original rebellion was directed towards the British class structure. They wanted to express their disapproval of the structure that governed their country. In The Jam’s “Eton Rifles”, the band sarcastically attacks the upper class, calling them arrogant and preaching to them that rugby is the only thing making them strong (Punk 68). The Sex Pistols’ album “God Save The Queen” portrays the Queen of England with a safety pin through her nose on their cover. The reaction to this outburst of shocking rebellion from the mainstream society was a strong, displeased one. American writer Greil Marcus defined punk as, “…refusing the future society has planned for you.” Thousands of social misfits attempted just that. Through the many causes for this rebellious political expression: communism, anarchy, feminism, etc., the punks of England had a focus and a reason. It was this that made the “punk” a valid, yet undesired member of society, and the British public got to see this sociological change first hand (Chamberlain par.8). Although this movement was short lived, its impact was a phenomenon, and its effects were long- lasting, which distinguished this group from previous generations.

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. Punk bands typically use short or fast-paced songs, with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produced recordings and distributed them through informal channels.

Punk has always been about more than just the sound of the music people were making during that era, although the sound was a huge factor and played an interwoven part of the entire ordeal. Punk split itself from the traditional rock of its time, sonically, by deciding that clean guitar riffs, processed vocals, and any sound product that didn’t come straight out of the instrument/artist wasn’t “real enough”. Hanner stated in “Unpopular Culture…”: “Musically, punk and hardcore are characterized by short, strident, up-tempo songs performed with consistent, straightforward instrumentation, meaning a lack of synthesizers, guitar effects, or post-production audio modification.“ As a result Punk became the gritty, noisy, dirty and unique sound that everyone can instantly recognize. Punk was also an ideology. It was something people lived by and something that had a very blatant and in your face message of being anti-government, anti-establishment, and basically anti-authority all together. This exact sentiment is described in the same article by Nathan Hanner in “Unpopular Culture…”: