next

How to be Punk

by Charlie Jupp

Women are, by very definition, punk. In fact, the term was first used in the 16th century to refer to a female prostitute. Today, the term punk can mean a lot of things, but at its core it is anti-establishment. According to Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, “women are natural anarchists, because you're always operating in a male framework”. Thus, not only is punk anti-establishment, but it is also anti-patriarchy. Punk is anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-colonial, and anti-oppresive bullshit. At least, it should be; these are the ideas which the establishment rests upon.

The most obvious way punk presents its anti-establishmentarianism is through its lyrics. The punk movement throughout the 1970s and 1980s embodied the disenfranchisement of the working class, with songs such as the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” (“God save the queen/The fascist regime/They made you a moron/A potential H bomb”), The Business’ “Employer’s Black List” (“Job chances seem very thin/It's a losing battle we must all win/The C.B.I. are winning keep down the pay/Mysterious people calling early in the day/The "x" has appeared another lost life/No tears are shed for the children and wife”), and Suicidal Tendencies’ “I Want More” (“Slaving in a factory, a different kind of insanity/Feels like I'm locked in a cage/Working like a maniac, gave myself a heart attack/For a job that pays minimum wage”). Although the United Kingdom was under a Labour government throughout the 1970s, the working class and labour unionists felt disconnected from the party, which had felt failed to meet their needs. The following decade brought an age of neoconservative Regan- and Thatcher-isms, which further disenfranchised the working class and marginalized. The shouted lyrics were people yelling at their government, collectively. 

As time went on, punk evolved. Numerous subgenres grew, some of which were criticised for a perceived pop sound, and for failing to maintain the initial anti-establishment ethos. Nevertheless, in the early 1990s, riot grrrl emerged out of the Pacific Northwest. The genre shared much in common with the original, aggressive, DIY sound of the 1970s punk scene; however, as its name suggests, it was a genre founded by women. The subgenre sound attracted women, and riot grrrl bands sang about issues that affected women specifically. This was a conscious effort, as women had felt largely excluded from the punk rock movement since the 1970s. In fact, it was not uncommon for punk and hardcore lyrics to be misogynistic and degrading to women –– band names, and song and album titles were often offensive or sexually demeaning. Riot grrrl’s lyrics were critical of men and misogyny, mirroring the way their predecessors were critical of their governments. Songs such as “Dead Men Don’t Rape” by 7 Year Bitch (“For those who get joy from a woman's fear/I'd rather get a gun and just blow you away/Then you'll learn first hand/Dead men don't rape”) and Bikini Kill’s “White Boy” (“I'm so sorry if I'm alienating some of you/Your whole fucking culture alienates me”) addressed rape culture directly. 

Punk is not just anti-establishment lyricism. As Dr Yetta Howard says, “Punk sounds!” There is a vital sonic aspect to punk. It is not just an idea, but an idea that is communicated sonically. The core tenets of the punk sound are a DIY spirit (technically good musicianship has not been historically valued nor trusted), distorted guitars, shouting vocals, and most importantly, loudness. Punk music is all consuming. The floor shakes, the crowd jumps, and you are forced to engage with the music not only sonically, but physically. The message is overwhelming and unavoidable. In their book, Metal Rules the World, ethnomusicologists Jeremy Wallach, Harris M Berger, and Paul D Green call this overwhelming experience affective overdrive, and it is a key aspect of punk. Experiencing affective overdrive means it is impossible to experience anything else besides the music. According to Wallach, Berger, and Greene, this allows both musicians and audience members to express a control and a voice which they may otherwise lack.

Although punk’s anti-establishmentarianism should mean it gives a voice to the voiceless (which it often has), its history is not puritanically progressive. In fact, punk rockers have a deep responsibilty to address the genre’s associations with neo-Nazi skinheads and other far right movements. While many of the most famous punk songs are deeply antifacist (such as Dead Kennedy’s “Nazi Punks Fuck Off”), even the most mainstream punk bands toyed with Nazi imagery. Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols and Siouxie Sioux of Souixie and the Banshees wore swastikas on stage, and the former wrote, recorded, and performed the song “Belsen Was a Gas”, about the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Siouxie and those who knew Sid Vicious denied they were actually Nazis, and instead insisted that they were attempting to be as shocking as possible, as a part of their anti-establishment, “fuck you” ideology. But white supremacy has never been anti-establishment, particularly not in 1970s and 80s Great Britain. Moreover, these symbols attracted neo-Nazi skinheads to the movement, intentionally or not. Neo-Nazi punk band No Remorse covered “Belsen Was a Gas”, and skinheads would often storm shows. Oi! (a genre which developed in London in the 1970s, and got its name from Cockney Rejects’s “Oi! Oi! Oi!”) bands especially attracted a neo-Nazi skinhead following, despite the fact that many Oi! bands were left-wing. Sham 69, an Oi! band, stopped performing live after white power skinheads started a riot and stormed the stage at one of their shows. 

Riot grrrl also had a responsibility to address and dismantle racism, and often failed. Although riot grrl made space for women, a group historically not included in the punk scene, they failed to make space for women of colour. Laina Dawes writes in Bitch Magazine, “the white women within the punk scene were capable of being just as exclusionary and bigoted as the men were, and among the white women I knew who identified as feminists, there was a strong sense that there was little to no concern as to how ethnicity made my experiences as a woman different”. Although some songs made an attempt to address race, such as “White Girl” by Heavens to Betsy (“White girl/I want to change the world/But I won't change anything/Unless I change my racist self”), the movement has been heavily critiqued for its failure to make itself inclusive. How anti-establishment are you really, when your movement is fronted by mostly middle-class white women? Black women still made punk music –– they carved out their own space. In the late 1990s, Tamar-Kali Brown, along with Honeychild Coleman, Maya Glick, and Simi Stone started Sista Grrrl Riots, a series of performances with Black women punk bands in New York City. The DIY spirit and anti-establishmentarianism of the Sista Grrrl Riots is so punk. 

Punk rockers have a lot to be proud of, and a lot to answer for. It has given a voice and a space for those who lacked them; however, while punk is about “sticking it to the man”, it has also at times been “the man”. There is nothing punk about upholding oppressive power structures; those structures are the establishment. Punk is important, and it is fun, and it plays an important political role. For punk rockers to embody punk, and avoid being posers (the worst thing a punk can be), they have to take an active stance against violent state actions. Punk is action when that’s what the establishment is most afraid of. Stick it to ‘em. ■


spirit