PUNK CULTURE

Perspectives on drugs and alcohol

 GLUE

The dirty, destructive scourge of huffing glue has been a means to an instantaneous high
for generations of Americans and Europeans, but it really hit its zenith from the mid-'70s
through the mid-'90s, spurred by easy availability and a punk culture looking for DIY highs.

 A British sociology textbook from 1991 explains, “Sniffing was adopted by punks
because public perceptions of sniffing fitted in with their self-image. Originally used
experimentally and as a cheap high, adult disgust and hostility encouraged punks to use
glue sniffing as a way of shocking society.” Hence the Ramones song, “Now I Want to Sniff

Some Glue.”

STRAIGHT EDGE

 Straight edge is a philosophy of hardcore punk culture, adeherents of which refrain from
using alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs, in reaction to the excesses of punk
subculture. For some, this extends to refraining from engaging in promiscuous sex, following a
vegetarian or vegan diet, and not drinking coffee or taking prescribed medicine. The term
straight edge was adopted from the 1981 song "Straight Edge" by the hardcore punk band
Minor Threat.

 Straight edge emerged amid the early-1980s hardcore punk scene. Since then, a wide variety
of beliefs and ideas have been associated with the movement, including vegetarianism and
animal rights. Ross Haenfler writes that as of the late 1990s, approximately three out of four
straight edge participants were vegetarian or vegan

LIFESTYLE AND COMMUNITY

PUNKS come from all culture and economic classes. Compared to some subcultures, punk
ideology is much closer to gender equality. Although the punk subculture is mostly anti-racist, it
is overwhelmingly white.[72] However, members of other groups (such as African Americans,
other black people, Latinos, and Asians) have contributed to the development of the
subculture. Violence has also sometimes appeared in the punk subculture, but has been
opposed by some subsets of the subculture, such as the pacifist strain anarcho-punk.
Punks often form a local scene, which can have as few as half a dozen members in a small town,
or as many as thousands of in a major city. A local scene usually has a small group of dedicated
punks surrounded by a more casual periphery.

 AUTHENTICITY

In the punk and hardcore subcultures, members of the scene are often evaluated in terms of
the authenticity of their commitment to the values or philosophies of the scene, which may
range from political beliefs to lifestyle practices. In the punk subculture, the epithet poseur (or
"poser") is used to describe "a person who habitually pretends to be something [they are] not.“

In the discussion of authenticity it is necessary to recognize the origins of punk music. Proto-
punk bands came out of garage-rock during the late 1960s. Usually white working class boys are
credited for pioneering the genre, however there were many women and people of color who
contributed to the original punk sound and aesthetic. Because the original subculture meant to
challenge everything about the mainstream, usually in shocking ways, the "punk" that people
usually picture became inauthentic once it was brought to the mainstream; “‘Inauthentic’ punk
is a commercialized and debased form of an original ‘street’ form of punk”(Sabin, 1999). This is
the paradox of punk; as a subculture it must always be evolving in order to stay out of the
mainstream.

Interactions with other subcultures

Glam rockers such as T.Rex, the New York Dolls and David Bowie had big influences on proto-
punk, early punk rock, and the crossover subgenre later called glam punk. Punk and hip-hop
emerged around the same time in the late 1970s New York City, and there has been some
interaction between the two subcultures. Some of the first hip-hop MCs called themselves punk
rockers, and some punk fashions have found their way into hip-hop dress and vice versa.
Malcolm McLaren played roles in introducing both punk and hip-hop to the United Kingdom.
Hip-hop later influenced some punk and hardcore bands, such as Hed PE, Blaggers I.T.A.,
Biohazard, E.Town Concrete, The Transplants and Refused.

The skinhead subculture of the United Kingdom in the late 1960s – which had almost
disappeared in the early 1970s — was revived in the late 1970s, partly because of the influence
of punk rock, especially the Oi! punk subgenre. Conversely, ska and reggae, popular among
traditionalist skinheads, has influenced several punk musicians. Punks and skinheads have had
both antagonistic and friendly relationships, depending on the social circumstances, time
period and geographic location.

 The punk and heavy metal subcultures have shared some similarities since punk's inception.
The early 1970s proto-punk scene had an influence on the development of heavy metal.
Alice Cooper was a forerunner of the fashion and music of both the punk and metal
subcultures. Motörhead, since their first album release in 1977, have enjoyed continued
popularity in the punk scene, and their now-deceased frontman Lemmy was a fan of punk
rock.

Genres such as metalcore, grindcore and crossover thrash were greatly influenced by punk rock
and heavy metal. The new wave of British heavy metal influenced the UK 82-style of bands like
Discharge, and hardcore was a primary influence on thrash metal bands such as Metallica,
Megadeth and Slayer. The early 1990s grunge subculture was a fusion of punk anti-fashion
ideals and metal-influenced guitar sounds. However, hardcore punk and grunge developed in
part as reactions against the heavy metal music that was popular during the 1980s.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

• MEXICO

In Mexico, punk culture is primarily a phenomenon among middle and lower class youth, many
of whom were first exposed to punk music through travel to England. Because of low fees at
public universities in Mexico, a significant minority of Mexican punks are university students. It
is estimated approximately 5,000 young people are active punks in Mexico City, hosting two or
three underground shows a week. These young people often form youth gangs that organise
subculture activity by creating formal meeting spaces for rituals and practices.

Oral nicknames are a distinguishing feature of Mexican punk, where the tradition of oral culture
has influenced the development of nicknames for almost all Mexican punks. Patches are widely
used as an inexpensive way to alter clothing and express identity. Though English language
bands like the Dead Kennedys are well known in Mexico, punks there prefer Spanish-language
music or covers translated into Spanish. Mexican punks have been active in the Anarcho-punk,
and Anti-globalisation movements.

• RUSSIA AND THE SOVIET UNION

The anti-establishment punk sub-culture has appealed to Russians for decades, with punk
media, fashion, and albums becoming enormously popular underground items in the late 1970s
onwards. Musically, the sound of punk rock became a clear protest against the disco influenced,
heavily electronic official Soviet regime songs. The government suppressed punks and
ruthlessly censored their music.

The founder of Russian punk is considered to be Yegor Letov with his band Grazhdanskaya
Oborona, which started performing in the early 80's.

In the late 80's Sektor Gaza formed, reaching cult status. They created a genre called "Kolkhoz
punk", which mixed elements from village life into punk music. Another cult band which started
a few years later was Korol i Shut, introducing horror punk, using costumes and lyrics in the
form of tales and fables. Korol i Shut became one of the best selling and most highly regarded
bands in the history of Russian Rock.

• SOUTH AFRICA

South African punk developed separately in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town and relied
on live performances in townships and streets as the multi-racial composition of bands and fan
bases challenged the legal and social conventions of the apartheid regime.

Political participation is foundational to punk subculture in South Africa. During the apartheid
regime, punk was second only to Rock music in its importance to multi-racial interactions in
South Africa. Because of this, any involvement in the punk scene was in itself a political
statement. Police harassment was common and the government often censored explicitly
political lyrics. Johannesburg based band National Wake was routinely censored and even
banned for songs like "International News," which challenged the South African government's
refusal to acknowledge the racial and political conflict in the country. National Wake guitarist
Ivan Kadey attributes the punk scene's ability to persevere despite the legal challenges of multi-
racial mixing to punk subculture's DIY ethic and anti-establishment attitude.

SFR YUGOSLAVIA

The former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was not a member of the Eastern Bloc, but a
founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Maintaining a more liberal communist
system, Yugoslavia was more opened to Western influences comparing to the other communist
states. Hence, starting from the 1950s onwards, a well-developed Yugoslav rock scene was able
to emerge with all its music genres and subgenres including punk rock, heavy metal and so on.
The Yugoslav punk bands were the first punk rock acts ever to emerge in a communist country.
Notable artists included: the pioneers Pankrti, Paraf and Pekinška patka (the first two formed in
1977, the latter in 1978), the 1980s hardcore punk acts: KUD Idijoti, Niet, KBO! and many
others. Many bands from the first generation often appeared on TV and in the magazines,
however some preferred independent labels and the DIY ethos.
The Yugoslav punk music also included social commentary, which was generally tolerated,
however there were certain cases of censorship and some punks faced occasional problems
with the authorities.

The scene ceased to exist with the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s, and its former artists continued
their work in the independent countries that emerged after the breakup of Yugoslavia, where
many of them were involved in anti-war activities. The Yugoslav punk is considered an
important part of the former Yugoslav culture, not only that it influenced the formation of the
once vibrant Yugoslav new wave scene but also it gave inspiration to some authentic domestic
movements such as New Primitives and others.

SPAIN

In Spain, the punk rock scene emerged in 1978, when the country had just emerged from forty
years of fascist dictatorship under General Franco, a state that "melded state repression with
fundamentalist Catholic moralism. When punk emerged, it "did not appropriate socialism as its
goal"; instead, it embraced "nihilism", and focused on keeping the memories of past abuses
alive, and accusing all of Spanish society of collaborating with the fascist regime.

The early punk scene included a range of marginalized and outcast people, including workers,
unemployed, leftists, anarchists, queens, dykes, poseurs, scroungers, and petty criminals. The
scenes varied by city. In Madrid, which had been the power center of Franco’s Falangist party,
the punk scene was like "a release valve" for the formerly repressed youth. In Barcelona, a city
which had a particularly "marginalized status under Franco", because he suppressed the area’s
"Catalan language and culture", the youth felt an "exclusion from mainstream society" that
enabled them to come together and form a punk subculture.

The first independently-released Spanish punk disc was a 45 RPM record by Almen TNT in 1979.
The song, which sounded like the US band The Stooges stated that no one believed in
revolution anymore, and it criticized the emerging consumer culture in Spain, as people flocked
to the new department stores. The early Spanish punk records, most of which emerged in the
explosion of punk in 1978, often reached back to "old-fashioned 50s rock’n’roll to glam to early
metal to Detroit’s hard proto-punk", creating an aggressive mix of fuzz guitar, jagged sounds,
and crude Spanish slang lyrics.