You Ain’t No Punk, You Punk

Punk is unique in that it is the only subculture in which the absence of signifiers of the style and mindset can be twisted into actually representing the style and mindset: when a person says, “You don’t look punk,” the instant retort is “Well, isn’t that actually punk?” This opens an opportunity to reconsider punk’s semiotics, born from a postmodern sensibility, to see how well its signifiers “float.” The essay examines the phenomenon through the concept of doxa, the ideas and beliefs that become “taken for granted” in a community to then function as a tool of social control. A recent example of this is found in the anger expressed within the punk fan community concerning alt-right Trump supporters eagerly touting themselves as the “new punk.” The issue of deploying a closed definition of punk can then be extended to questioning systems of authenticity and ontology in relation to identity as a whole.

The Art of Slouching: Posture in Punk

In this chapter, the author argues that the way performers of punk music inhabit the stage, through hunched postures, gains significance when set against the backdrop of a longer history framing the meaning of posture. Punk postures often represent pain as both kinesthetic and visceral. As discourses about posture move away from questions about morality and class, attached to the upright postures of “proper” citizens, and toward scientific claims about alignment and health concerns, novel performance practices ensue, infused with new musical meanings. The author suggests that theatrical punk performers who display different body organizations demonstrate not only the pain of being asked to “align” and “fix” their bodies to fit in, but also alternative meanings of success in society that are not built on able-bodied discourses but often nevertheless attuned to the desire for power.

Guilty of Not Being White

Punk is inherently music for the oppressed, yet it is often seen as a genre catering exclusively toward white male subcultures. However, when looking at the genesis of punk, one sees a rich history of blackness and radicalization usurped by white artists over time. From Elvis utilizing rock and roll in a more marketable fashion for a white populous than Ray Charles, to Minor Threat’s proclamation that the oppression of whites was on par with anti-blackness, to the mistreatment of black nonbinary punk act Fuck U Pay Us during a sold-out Bikini Kill concert, it is plain to see multiple instances of black punk voices being extinguished by supposed white allies, ultimately altering the histories of a genre centered around marginalized voices. Nevertheless, by dissecting the appropriation of black music and fashion, one begins to see that blackness not only created punk, but still permeates in the genre’s genes on a level more potent than white contemporaries. Looking at Afropunk, 80s Hardcore, the literary work of James Baldwin, and cover songs by black punk bands, this chapter’s argument will seek to understand people of color’s displacement in punk, as well as what steps need to be taken to reclaim identity, subvert the violence of white appropriation, and remain visible in a genre made for people of color.

World’s End: Punk Films from London and New York, 1977–1984

This chapter discusses punk films set in London and New York from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Their chief characteristics are considered in relation to two areas of discussion. First, it addresses an idea of an endemic alienation that, unlike the alienation understood to determine previous periods of filmmaking about youthful rebels, may seem without the possibility of exit or alleviation. Punk versions of “no future” are contrasted with the optimism detected in films allied with disco. Second, it looks at an idea of liminal spaces, arising from uses and repurposings of semi-abandoned inner-city areas. An essential divergence in the possibilities of the punk lifestyle is identified and explored: that New York punk cinema more typically suggests the beginnings of a regeneration and cultural renaissance, while London punk cinema seems uniformly downbeat.

Punk Zines

Zines are typically regarded as noncommercial, nonprofessional works that the creators usually produce, publish, and distribute themselves, typically in small numbers. At the heart of zine culture is a commitment to a do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos and the understanding that profit is not the primary intent of publication, which helped make zines an integral part of punk culture since its inception. This article provides a brief history of zines, discussing the evolution of zines, and reflecting on the implications for punk zines on local scenes and the global punk community. Challenging the dominant capitalist consumer culture, which constructs relationships between consumer and product that are devoid of any sort of reciprocal creativity, punk zines reinscribe the individual as a cultural producer instead of a passive consumer.

Riot Grrrl

Since about 2010, Riot Grrrl has re-entered the public consciousness in ways that draw on nostalgia and display a desire to craft feminist histories. From reunion tours to the establishment of an archival presence in the academy, the Riot Grrrl resurgence has helped to establish the movement as an essential moment both in the founding of third-wave feminism and in the history of women in punk rock. In the process of historicization, academics and journalists have at times overemphasized Riot Grrrl’s political force, and at others struggled to address its failings, particularly around race, class, and elitism, that have shaped the movement from its beginnings. Drawing on feminist archive theory and theories of nostalgia, this chapter questions the political nature of remembering Riot Grrrl in the present day and addresses the juncture where the now-popular production of 1990s nostalgia intersects with the feminist historiography of the third wave.

The “New Flowers” of Bulgarian Punk: Cultural Translation, Local Subcultural Scenes, and Heritage

First formed in the late 1970s, the Bulgarian punk band Novi Tsvetya was considered one of the first in the country, and they challenged restrictions associated with the totalitarian regime at the time. Focusing on Novi Tsvetya—or “New Flowers”—who are still active on the scene in the small town of Kyustendil where they first started, this chapter seeks to explore the genesis of the translation of “Western” subcultural music scenes into Eastern European Cold War contexts. It is argued that DIY politics of access, creation, and music performance enabled opportunities for youth agency and expression. They were in symbolic opposition to perceived repressive aspects of Cold War social and political environments in Bulgaria. The chapter also interrogates contemporary developments in relation to the wider interpretation of Bulgarian subcultural scenes, particularly a move towards a DIY cultural heritage discourse: a process of mythologizing youth resistance and creativity. While New Flowers and other bands discussed in this chapter are mostly musically and aesthetically engaged with punk and post-punk, the symbol of flowers in their name highlights the connectedness of subcultural scenes with other, earlier youth cultures, particularly the hippie culture. As the word flowers appears elsewhere in Bulgarian punk/post-punk, such as the song “Flowers of the Late 80s” (1987) by Revu, this chapter seeks to develop the notion of flowers as a conceptual and metaphorical device to understand how pre-1989 subcultural youth practices are holistically memorialized. The study is based on ethnographic interviews and observations, alongside analysis of musical, lyrical, and visual content, interpreting punk as an evolving intergenerational global language with a DIY ethos.

Rethinking the Cultural Politics of Punk

This chapter is a reconsideration of the contribution punk rock made to antinuclear and antiwar expression and campaigning in the 1980s in Britain. Much has been written about the avant-garde, underground, independent, DIY, and grass-roots (counter)cultural politics of punk and post-punk, but the argument here is that such scholarship has often been at the expense of considering the music’s hit and even chart-topping singles. The chapter has three aims: first, to trace the relations between punk and cultures of war and peace; second, to reframe punk’s protest within a mainstream pop music context via analysis of its antiwar hit singles in two key years, 1980 and 1984; third, more broadly, to further our understanding of (musical) cultures of peace. Punk was a pop phenomenon, but so was political punk: the vast majority of the many pop hit songs and headline acts with antiwar and antinuclear messages in the military dread years of the early 1980s were a lot, or a bit, punky. This chapter argues that a wider and at the time significantly higher-profile social resonance of punk has been overlooked in the subsequent critical narratives. In doing so it seeks to revise punk history, and retheorize punk’s social contribution as a remarkable music of truly popular protest.

Punk in Russia: From the “Declassed Elements” to the Class Struggle

This chapter discusses the evolution of punk in Russia since its inception at the end of the 1970s. It pays particular attention to the changing perception of class belonging and the political engagement of the punk scene in Russia. Whereas in the West punk was a political movement closely associated with its working-class background, in the Soviet Union it emerged as a protest of middle-class intellectuals fighting for the right to be different and to stand out from the uniformed workers’ and peasants’ collective. This defined the particular stand of early Russian punk toward the genre’s social engagement and political appeal. Working-classness and political commitment—initial conditions of punk identity in the West—became something early Russian punk was positioned against. The dramatic transformation of Russian society over the following decades inevitably affected the cultural ideology of Russian punk, and from the 1990s onward it had to find its place and defend its significant difference amid the realities of “wild” neoliberal capitalism. The chapter shows how in Russia punk evolved from being a highly individualistic and apolitical practice to one of the most radical and politically committed scenes, closely affiliated with other struggles on the Left.

From Punk to Poser: T-Shirts, Authenticity, Postmodernism, and the Fashion Cycle

The graphic T-shirt is a highly nuanced, multifaceted garment, communicating both a personal style and a greater symbolism. This article analyzes the use of punk rock imagery on graphic T-shirts both as a form of an identity marker for the wearer and as a call to authenticity. A survey of open-ended short questions, as well as interviews, were performed with a random sample of individuals from the punk community, retailers that merchandise products to that scene, and others who wear the garments associated with the style. With origins in the late 1960s, graphic T-shirts are often associated with music and subculture; more specifically, band T-shirts ubiquitously communicate several social meanings. Traditionally, band T-shirts were purchased at a concert or directly from a member of the musical group. Today, mass-market retailers are laden with their own designs of famous band T-shirts and other graphic T-shirts. With this increased access to punk-style band T-shirts, more consumers are finding meaning in these garments. Thus, there are three main groups of people who wear punk T-shirts—the Lifestyle Wearer, the Semi-Adopter, and the Design Wearer. While all three wearers have individual motives for wearing the punk T-shirt, the debate over authenticity often rears its head. Wearer intention and viewer perception impact the functionality and social communication of the garment. Despite its widespread presence in the fashion cycle, the punk T-shirt remains meaningful to those who are active in the subculture.