Punks: From Mass Hysteria
to Mass Consumption
T
By Romy Dunford
4
he punk subculture emerged in the
1970s as an aggressive visual protest
against the constraints of society.
Originally punks fought against a sense of
conformity or commercialization. However,
and indeed ironically, in today’s society the
“punk” style has become a mass produced,
commercialized means or way of dressing.
What had, by the 1970s, emerged as
‘subcultures’, were understood to be groups of
youths within a culture, with the aim of
distancing themselves from the larger culture
to which belonged. Clothes and music were
often seen as a way for these smaller
subcultural groups to connect, and indeed
often used as a tool for distancing themselves
from society’s “limits” or “boundaries”. In his
1979 book, Subcultures: The Meaning of
Style, Dick Hebdige wrote of subcultures,
saying that they can often be perceived as a
negative force or influence on society, due to
the nature of their criticism towards the
dominant social standard. This could be said
to be true of the subculture of punk a
subculture which was reacting to the social
issues and problems of 1970s Britain.
During the 1970s, Britain was a place of
unrest and turmoil, as a result of chaotic social
issues, such as unemployment, racism,
violence and rioting, coupled with poor living
conditions and standards. For many, there was
a feeling of loss and hopelessness within
society. According to Johnny Rotten in the
2000 documentary, The Filth and the Fury, the
working class at that time both felt, and were
being told that, “If you weren’t born into
money, you wouldn’t amount to nothing”. The
subculture of Punk soon surfaced in a
rebellious and rather unhinged manner. Armed
with an aggressive style of dress and music,
the 1970s punks were ready to battle and
challenge the norms which society had put in
place and set.
At the time, the punk style was almost
revolutionary, causing mass hysteria and fear
among the media and the general public.
Originally led by Vivienne Westwood and
Malcolm McLaren, punk has often been hailed
as one of the most influential fashion
movements of the 1970s, becoming
infamously iconic. Described by writer and
broadcaster, Jon Savage as a “bricolage” of
almost every previous youth culture that
existed in Post War Western society “stuck
together with safety pins”, punk saw the
rejection of the previously accepted and
formulated notions and styles of beauty, and
instead birth a style which consisted of mainly
homemade clothing items, ripped and torn
garments, worn in layers of dishevelment and
worn alongside gathered and found items and
objects, namely plastic bags, animal’s bones
and carcasses, safety pins and chains. The
colours and tones often worn by punks
reflected and mirrored their thoughts and
attitudes towards society. Dark, sombre and
murky tones of purple, black and grey, coupled
with heavily applied and blunt, dark make up,
facial and body piercings, as well as loud,
extreme and radical hair styles projecting an
anti-conformist and societal attitude. The punk
style was like nothing British society had seen
before, which led it to become highly
controversial, causing fear and sense of frenzy
and panic within society. However, over time,
the punk style began to lose its potency, and
indeed, it even became a diluted and watered
down version of it’s self.
The punk subculture began to become
homogenized with the everyday, mainstream
society. Punk’s original rebellious spirit,
attitude and identity began to become less
effective and its style less authentic, with a
more commercialized version of the punk style
becoming apparent and visible in society. Even
today, we are still being presented with a
diluted notion of the punk style. High street
clothing stores, such as H&M, have adopted a
“punk”- look; with the Swedish fashion store
producing a range or collection displaying a
printed safety pin motif. This could be
understood as ironically evoking a sense of
non-conformity in a very safe and rather
commercial way. However, it is not just high
street stores which have homogenized the
1970s movement, international fashion houses
have also been influenced by punk,
transforming it from a DIY fashion style to an
expensive, luxurious commodity. As recently
as 2013, designers have sent punk inspired
looks down the catwalks of various fashio