The Punk Revolution: A counter-cultural movement

 

“Don't be told what you want

Don't be told what you need

There's no future.”

“I am an anarchist

Don't know what I want

But I know how to get it

I wanna destroy passersby.”

“You call us weirdos/you call us crazy

Say we’re evil/say we’re lazy

Say we’re just the violent type

Kind of dumb, not too bright.”

These are a few lyrics from some well-known punk songs. For the majority of the population, punk culture is associated with funky hairstyles, ripped jeans, tattoos, distorted guitar riffs, destruction, and aggressive lyrics. The word punk was originally an archaic term for a prostitute; ‘Puncke’ was used by Shakespeare ambiguously, and this term later became a slang term for anyone who posed a threat to authority or was a miscreant. The punk scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s wasn’t limited purely to music. In addition to literature, poetry, fashion, and political defiance, it became an ideology understood as a site of resistance against a specific political system and mainstream institutions. It turned into a movement established in England that rapidly spread to other parts of the world and was adopted by the youth of the world. This movement wanted to create a society where humans were free and opposed all forms of authority. It was characterized by nihilistic, rebellious, anarchist, and nonconformist beliefs and rejected the values of mainstream society, such as materialism, consumerism, and conformity. They embraced individuality and freedom of expression. The crudeness of punk art and clothing—leather jackets, mohawks, ripped clothes, and piercings—was an intentional attempt to shock and offend mainstream culture and authority figures. Therefore, punk was seen as a controversial movement and as a threat to traditional and mainstream values. 

During Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977, Sex Pistols released the song ‘God Save the Queen'.,  Its lyrics expressed negative views of the monarchy, including the opening lines, “God save the Queen/The fascist regime/They made you a moron”. There was outrage among the public when the artwork for the album showed the face of the British monarch defaced with swastikas for eyes. Despite the controversies surrounding the lyrics, the song flew off the shelves of the stores that did carry it, selling up to 150,000 copies a day. 

Punk screams community, but most of the time, it is typically an ideology centered around the concept of loneliness. As cultural theorist Dick Hebdige wrote in Subculture: The Meaning of Style, “No subculture has sought with more grim determination than the punks to detach itself from the taken-for-granted landscape of normalized forms, nor to bring down upon itself such vehement disapproval.”

How can a community become so well-knit when the people in that community only know how to be different and rejected? Let’s look at some social, political, and psychological factors that contribute to this sense of togetherness in the punk community. 

• Social justice: Punks are often passionate about social justice issues, such as anti-racism, anti-sexism, and Discrimination against the queer communities. To raise awareness and challenge the status quo, they often use their music, art, and activism. 

• Anti-authoritarianism: Punks are often anti-authoritarian and distrustful of authority figures. Often, they reject traditional institutions and values, including government, religion, and corporations.

• Anarchism: Many punks identify with anarchism, a political philosophy that advocates for the abolition of all forms of hierarchy and authority. It is the belief of anarchists that people should be able to govern themselves and live independently of the government.

• Sense of belongingness: The punk subculture often emphasizes a sense of community and belonging, which can appeal to young people rejected by society who may be seeking a sense of connection.

• Self-expression: Members of the punk community are often those who are shunned by society. A platform that offers them a voice of their own is empowering and contributes to binding a community together. 

• Self-acceptance: The mainstream is seen as the ‘norm’ by society. The punk community provided people who were excluded from mainstream culture with a sense of self-acceptance and belongingness. 

In times when the youth felt alienated from the economic, political, and social forces around them, they sought solace in the sense of community that punk provided. This manifested in angry lyrics, violent concerts, and a way of self-expression through a style that placed them within a minority that was speaking up about the injustices they felt they were being faced with. In its midst, it is a refuge for fragments of humanity who are unhappy, excluded from mainstream culture, and angry with the state of the world. Therefore, it became an escape for the people wallowing in anxiety and rejection—the ‘outcasts’.

An appropriate way to categorize punk is to say that it defies definition. In the words of Kurt Cobain, the late lead singer of Nirvana, “Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing, and playing what you want. In Webster's terms, ‘Nirvana’ means freedom from pain, suffering, and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of punk rock”. Punk was undoubtedly not born from joy; rather, it was borne out of loneliness, and this is what brought such a large population together. If these communities are more welcoming of non-mainstream people, such as those who are rejected and sidelined, it might mean that human society is capable of changing in a way that removes a major barrier to the social integration of these individuals. 

About the Author 

Ananya Sharma

Member at the Psycreative Column,

Third-year student of BSc. Applied Psychology, SDSOS, NMIMS.

She is passionate about music, with a diverse taste ranging from classic rock to hip-hop. She finds comfort in making playlists out of every emotion she experiences and listening to them on repeat until she gets sick of them. Her interests also lie in working out, reading, playing the guitar, watching crime documentaries, and analyzing psychological thrillers.