offered the liberation of all those who were oppressed (Berger 5). It offered an escape from
social expectations. If someone were gay, religious, feminist, etc. they were accepted (e.g.
Queercore, Christian Punk, Riot Grrrl respectively). Punk was inherently created to give a
voice to the minority.
“Bloody Revolutions”: Where Does Punk Come From?
Punk emerged out of an amalgamation of a whole host of prior resistance movements
but it specifically arose out of a rejection of Glam Rock (see Hebdige). Glam Rock focused its
energy on flamboyant clothing and expressed ideas of youth angst. It was meant to break
away from the collectivism of most other subcultures. Instead, members strived to individuate
themselves while pursuing hedonistic ideals. It abandoned political topics to focus on
escapism. Coincidently, Glam Rock became hugely popular and began to popularize the
concept of subculture and social deviance.
Punk twisted the Glam Rock escapist identity and combined it with Skinhead aggressive
politics. Both styles were combined to exhibit a combat-like uniform that was also flamboyant
and offensive to look at (e.g., tattered clothes, combat boots, long spiked hair, safety pin
jewelry). As Punk grew, it splintered into a whole host of other sub-genres like Garage Punk,
Straightedge, Hardcore, etc. (Turrini and Joseph 59). Each of these sub-genres of Punk
created their own styles of music, fashion, and ideology while still remaining under the Punk
umbrella.
In the late 80s and 90s, Punk became widely popular for mainstream audiences with
self-proclaimed Punk bands like Green Day and Blink 182 (Matula 21). However, these bands
tweaked the sound to be more appealing to larger audiences. They “used bratty vocals and
loud, compressed guitar sounds rather than the loudly mixed vocals, with guitar and bass
playing that employed distinctive ‘figures’ [of traditional Punk]” (Turrini and Joseph 59). Slowly,
Punk was twisted beyond recognition and gave rise to more self-oriented cultures like Grunge
and Goth (Clark 2).
After Punk, there was a change in the pattern of youth subcultural thinking. Punk
represented the final stage of subcultures and counter cultures (Clark 2-3). Punk groups stood
outside of dominant cultures. Every group before Punk had an idealistic purpose to challenge
normative behavior. They resisted hegemonic culture.
Post-Punk cultures could be more accurately termed co-cultures. They functioned in
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