Essay on The Origination Of Punk Rock

“He [Pearson’s father] would freak out when he read the song titles to the cassettes that my friends and I would shoplift from the mall…He was certain that I’d become a Junkie if I listened to that kind of music. But with an alcoholic wife-beater father who didn’t give a shit about his son I was bound to avoid the cliched, nihilist aspects of punk culture” (Pearson 12).

Upon reading the article “The Future is Unwritten,” written by Kenneth J. Bindas, it was my understanding that there was a connection between the anger and angst in punk music and the economic difficulties of the 1970s. There are two main reasons for this idea. The first reason being the fact that there was a larger percentage of adolescents that had just graduated high school, but now found themselves without a job, without a visible future, with large amount of anger, angst, and finally with a whole lot of time on their hands. Thus, because many of the members of the punk movement “came from the working class they were scornful of the scant material rewards of welfare capitalism,” (Bindas, 70) meaning that they were upset with the fact that

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.

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.

Mike Ness is the lead singer and has seen how the “punk rock style” changed from being looked down upon and then slowly became culturally accepted. The “punk rock style” in 2014 is very criticized and looked down upon within our society. In my experiement culture shcok was probably the most prevalent sociological

New acts and artists jumped onto the bandwagon to revise rock “ In the 1970s, musicians like KISS, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Alice Cooper (1948–) took hard rock in different directions.” Much of the youth at the time loved this new music that riled up their parents and was much more modern than what was originally on the radio. Not only was rock music becoming more diverse as a genre it inspired popular sub genres like punk and new wave. Punk music went against the conformity that was promoted at the time along with the idea that America as a society should be simple minded.

Both disco and punk “encouraged energetic public action”.[3] Disco entertained people, and punk led youth aggressive. These built the rise of punk and disco in the late

The most well know band like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Sex Pistols, Ramones, Genesis, all took a huge hit during the 1970s. During this time it was usually always played in the wide open where everyone could always hear it. In 1976 rock and roll started to give a disco feeling to it which created the genre punk rock. The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and many more originated from this genre. Glam Rock which also came to be in the seventies was described as rock and roll with lipstick. The music in the protocolar genre shined with a glitter like feeling. Led Zeppelin became really huge in the 70s recording up to ten albums, but broke up in the 80s when one of the members died.

The origins of Punk Rock have been stated as unknown. However, true “punk” has long lived in the hearts of the youthful subcultures in America, the United Kingdom, and Australia, since the late 1960’s and early 70’s. During this time, Punk Rock, which was influenced by Rock and Roll, offered its upbeat compositions and in-your-face lyrics, which brought some intelligence to the get drunk, get laid mentality that prevailed. Much like a shot of adrenaline to a dying heart, Punk Rock regenerated the “danger” in Rock and Roll that had become salable and overemotional. As a NBC reporter stated in 1977, “This is punk rock and its purpose is to promote violence, sex and destruction, in that order." Yet, it was rapidly becoming the voice of

When you imagine a Punk Rock band, you probably think of a group of guys with black hair styled into mohawks. The typical stereotype is eyeliner, leather jacket, tight pants, and maybe even a laced pair of doc martins. What is said about the music has it’s own stereotypes as well. It has heavy guitar solos, horrid language, and hard to follow lyrics. When you hear the term “punk rock” it’s hard to imagine a group of Christians.

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.

With the economic decline and availability of jobs with upward movement, a culture of youths formed in Britain that challenged the ideals and cultural norms of the generations that came before them. A consistent movement from traditional society through youth subcultures brings light through the eyes of the musicians that describe their generation’s feelings of homelessness in an era filled with unemployment, low wages, and violence. The insurgence of the counterculture movement, poor economic conditions, and the commercialization of previous Rock and Roll music in Britain directly led to the punk subculture because it allowed youths to speak up about their conditions and frustrations through an easily understood and accessible medium while maintaining a different stance than their predecessors.

Martinez seems to feel that “the nature of the punk movements [sic] anti-authoritarian, anti-market stance raises a stronger possibility for how popular music can become a platform to challenge oppressive socioeconomic systems and politically fraught environments”. He gives the example of the Sex Pistols, a British punk band that exploded in popularity as well as provoked public ire with their outrageousness in the late 1970’s. For example, the band’s drummer, Steve Jones, was infamously rude and swore several times during a television interview in December 1976. However, these sort of incidents turned into publicity stunts that attracted immense popularity to the band and brought them fame, deserved or not, all over the United Kingdom, making them a household name and not an underground, anti-populist group in any form. They became pop music and therefore became irrelevant both in the main part of the United Kingdom as well as in Northern Ireland insofar as the desire to run against the status quo was

Throughout Hanif Kureishi’s novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, there is a focus on the emergence of the punk scene in London during the 1970s. The first obvious encounter we have with punk in the novel appears on page 129, when Karim and Charlie go to the Nashville and see their first punk band. The Nashville is a popular venue where many punk bands got their start, and a lot of famous bands, such as the Sex Pistols, performed. Karim describes the scene that they come upon with a great detailed description of the outlandish appearances of both the audience and the band members. He also describes the unusual way they are acting, the aggressive way they are dancing and the abuse between the band and audience. Though his attention is mainly on the emergence of the

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.