Académique Documents
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1
Contents
Page number
Prologue 3
Introduction…………………………………..…………………………..5
Origins and subcultures……………………..…………………...………5
Identity and the “closing days of the modern era”...................................8
Bodies of Consumerism………………………………………….……....9
Punk’s dead?.............................................................................................11
Embodiment versus Consumerism...........................................................12
Punk and Sociology at the Millenium......................................................14
Methodology 18
Introduction……………………………………………………………...26
Competing Definitions..............................................................................26
Learning to be “Punk” ..............................................................................28
Alternative Media......................................................................................30
Dress and Difference.................................................................................32
Individuality versus “the Scene”...............................................................38
Punk in Context- Conclusion....................................................................40
Epilogue....................................................................................................46
Bibliography 47
2
Prologue
“Don't try and tell me Green Day are punk. They're not, they're plonk and they're
bandwagoning on something they didn't come up with themselves. I think they are
phony…”
“…The government's against you, the police are on you. So there we are fending off
all that and it pisses me off that years later a wank outfit like Green Day hop in and
John Lydon, former lead singer of the Sex Pistols (in Contactmusic.com 2006).
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Literature Review
4
Introduction
and experience of punk differs from other discourses. The aim will be to examine
differing experiences of punk for young Britains around the turn of the century and to
research the micro and macro social events which have shaped these interpretations.
“Punk” as a musical/social phenomenon dates from the mid to late 70s. It’s followers
patched jackets and spiked haircuts, it was a spectacular style, which led to it being
oft analysed, most influentially by Hebdige (1979) and the Centre for Contemporary
The CCCS approach was influenced by Marxist and semiotic approaches. Albert
being a response to problems imposed by structure is a useful starting point for the
CCCS’s theories on punk. The essence is that culture is a response and solution (real
society. Culture itself has a multiplicity of meanings, but culture is not just expressive
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represents more than what is nominally called “art” and immediate aesthetics. Another
early influence on the CCCS was Barthes’s (1972) study of semiotics in everyday life,
stretching from theatre, to conversations, to dress, and how each of these aspects was
part of an ideology. Althusser (1971 in Hebdige 1979:12) had already shown that
ideology was a malleable, relativised form, which was present in structure and was
unconscious. Hebdige (1979: 14) wrote that dominant ideology was unequal in
distribution, i.e. the working class had less power and thus less influence in creating
it. Also influential were Gramsci’s notes on hegemony (in Hebdige 1979:16), which
like Althusser’s theory of ideology, noted that forms of ideological control even
though virtually omnipresent, were not fixed and had to be (re)won and sustained.
There is thus the possibility of rival discourses which, to paraphrase Hebdige (1979:
16), can “prise open” the interplay between ideology and social order. Barthes’s
(1971) notion of polysemy, which means that objects or actions can change their
dominant ideology may be virtually omnipresent in structures. Thus Hebdige and the
CCCS devoted much of their study to the idea that style could be mobilized as
To the CCCS, the punk style was seen as being a response to the specific historical
and structural factors of the time in Britain, such as increasing joblessness and
poverty. According to Hebdige (1979:87), punk’s response was so styled that although
it involved new appropriations of objects and dress, it was able to be read for the most
part as how it was written; a rebellion and a nuisance to established society. In this
way polysemy was used as a tool of subversion (Hebdige 1979:3). This was important
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to the rise and infamy of punk, as it was the subversion of the ideology of expression
Punk as an aesthetic style was a bricolage (items taken out of original discursive
context, see Clarke, 1976) of various styles roughly cut and held together by objects
such as safety pins, clothes pegs and bin liners which automatically became “punk
fashion” when taken out of their original use value contexts (Hebdige 1979:107). Also
perceived from the punk style was a knowing, sometime ironic signification; chains
1995:11).
What about the music? Punk had a musical aesthetic that was fast, abrasive, snotty
and even amateur in performance. Lyrics contained more social and political comment
than the contemporary pop music did (Laing 1985:27 in Longhurst 1995:169). If we
pause to consider punk in it’s contemporary form, whatever the subjectivities and
values of those who are aligned with punk, the music is still of paramount importance
and we can trace aesthetic lineages from ‘77 style to the present day, still operating
ostensibly under “punk”. Willis (1990 [1978]) in his study of biker boys and hippies
drew connections between the music of the subculture and the values and lifestyle, of
the members. This implied that subcultures were in part, objectively structured. Punk
was said to define itself by using knowledge of the structure of society (Grossberg
1990: 118). Hebdige took up this idea of a “homology” (lifestyle and style being
(1979:123). To the CCCS theorists, the music of punk arose as expression of the
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Identity and the “closing days of the modern era”(Maffesoli 1996:1).
Identity forms a necessary part of the debate on subcultures. In the modern age,
identity has been created relating to the context of society. For around thirty years, the
notion of identity has been reworked to allow for the growing ascendancy of capitalist
hegemony and globalizing influences, which have implications for everyday life on a
micro scale (Giddens 1991:32). It has also been noted that since the birth of punk,
there have been more changes to our society. The breakdown of grand narrative
structures such as the cold war has led to a more global consensus on liberal
capitalism and democracy and a discourse somewhat optimistically known as “the end
of history” (Fukuyama 1992). Global consensus has also resulted in the shrinking of
civil society, as actors are detached from the decision making process (Castells
1997:11). In Britain, the left (of which the punks traditionally represented the radical
Thatcherism (Hirst 1989:11), thus resulting in schisms within the left. These global
and local influences have resulted in political apathy with voting figures in the 2001
Giddens see a move to individual “life politics” (1991:214), which are the everyday
decisions of action which relate to self-identity. This self identity can only be
opposed to external objectivities (1991:215). We can see the original punk subcultures
alternative actions in music and aesthetics, as well as being partly backed up by more
8
Susman (1979 in Ewen 1990:45) sees a change in our ways of perceiving others, there
is a change from the “Character” which is intrinsic and relatively unchanging, to the
“Personality” which is extrinsic and mouldable. This suggests that our identities do
not have to stay fixed through our lifetimes, but are open to change. More and more
we are able to challenge the weakened power of the state to (re)construct our identity
(Castells 1997:243), the variety of subcultures itself being an example of the new self
determination. Hall (1992 in Longhurst 1995:124) shows how the Postmodern view
of identity differs from traditional sociological views. While sociology accepts that
while identities change over time, they are still grounded in our relationships with
others. Postmodernist views on identity is that is unfixed and dislocated. Willis (1990)
has put forward that in late modernity, symbolic work (the work in which we produce
identity, which shall be discussed later.) becomes “contested and unstable” (1990: 12).
Bodies of consumerism
Consumerism is one of the major factors identified as changing the way in which we
shift in Western society from producing to consuming. Western society is thus reliant
on the consumer traits of the individual, which differ from a pre industrial fear of the
new and are more aligned to the spectacle and play of styles (Campbell 1987:39,
Muggelton 1997:170).
The body has also become more and more a foundation for identity owing in part to
2003:2, Giddens 1991:218). We are more likely to use the relationship between
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society and our possessions to create our own identities (Lury 1996:8). Dress is a
fundamental part of style and identity and it can be seen to have reflected the macro
social changes in production and consumerism. Our dress can become a visual
metaphor for identity as well as our status and morality (Davis 1992:25 in Entwistle
Bell (1976) has posited that there is a contradictory pair of ethos within modern
capitalism, with a rational economy on one side and a hedonistic culture on the other.
has moved to stylistic niche markets. Post Fordist production means that there are
now many more styles to choose from (Muggleton 1997:171). But even though we
marketers have long attempted to market identity as part of the value of consumer
products (Jenkins, 1996:7-8, Redhead 1990:78). What we see in adverts is less focus
on the use value of the product and more emphasis on the means of selling it by the
more controlled than before. Entwistle (2000:21) argues that while we are not
controlled in the Foucaldian sense, for example physically proscribed corsets, we are
10
still controlled in a qualitatively different way by the need to conform to social norms.
An important way for subcultures such as punk to assess who is part of the group is
Punk’s dead?
believe they are observing a waning in homogenous subcultural groups such as punk
as more people pick and choose from a variety of styles. Many now look back to the
normalised by institutions such as the media and the judiciary (1979:94). But there is
groups as there once was (Sweetman 2004:79). Being part of a subculture may be
(Sweetman 2004:84), thus the concept of homology cannot really fit tightly anymore
used by everyone (Clarke 1990:92), counter culture and mainstream styles have
become blurred (Wilson 1990:222 [2]). Willis (1990:16) argues that the impact of the
“spectacular” (i.e. aesthetically shocking) subcultures of the 50s and 60s are
impossible to replicate now as all “styles and taste cultures” aim to express identity
outside of work and it’s formal styles. There seems to be a paradox at the heart of
style led consumerism: when fashions become blurred, it becomes less easy to use
punk has also been largely weakened. It has been argued that “punk” could no longer
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be a statement of rebellion as it had been incorporated into society. Once incorporated
1990:43). Attalli (1985 cited in Best 1997:21) perhaps putting it in the most stark
terms;
ideological normalization”
Thus while “punk” once symbolised rebellion, now it has been said that the
Yet the study of subcultures, as part of a growing trend in sociological analysis has
taken a move to a subjective and interpretative approach, with the individual and the
evolved to take into account micro social phenomena and the increasingly
theorists have posited that identity is created by our purchases (see above), Bourdieu’s
theory of “habitus” (1984), allows for the individual experiences to account for
consumer habits. Bourdieu offers that our tastes are developed by our social position,
for example class and education. Thus, Polhemus’s “supermarket of style” (1997), can
be seen to offer a vision of unlimited choice for everyone while ignoring the realities
of social differentiation along lines such as gender, class, and location (Entwistle
12
2000:39). Csordas (1993, 1996 in Entwistle 2000:27) explains the “paradigm of
examining the meanings and location of the actors. Embodiment is about the context
and the location of the individual and is equally or more concerned with what the
body does rather than what is being done to it (Crossley 1995b:43 in Entwistle
2000:27
accept that the embodied individual experiences punk in relation to his/her time and
space, then we also have to accept that their view of the whole of punk and the
individuals who are a part of it, is not objective but specific to the individual punk fan.
the minds of individual punk fans. As with nations, despite being nominally
homogenous, there exist wide opinions and variations within the group of what
which youth make their identity in the imagined mould of the subculture. While the
is also embodied in aspects like slang/argot, and dancing. Nationalist identities too,
require culture to define and justify the group (Arnason 1990: 217).
Willis (1990) also takes an embodied approach to consumerism. He argues that while
stylistically it is now hard to make a statement, we put our own meanings into
consumption. The ways in which we make ourselves individual are through what
Willis calls “symbolic work” which are the meanings invested in language, the body
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and drama, the settings for communication (1990:11). While Willis acknowledges that
symbolism is unstable and can be contested (15), he does not reduce consumers to
passive tools of consumerism, but rather located (or embodied) individuals who use
culture into a consumer bought culture. There are parallels to be drawn with
consumption. Bourdieu argues that aesthetics is a question of taste, which exists not
just in art but also in lived culture, and we participate in aesthetics by asserting “forms
over function” (1984:5) in our consumer and lived habits. While the structure frames
the choices of identity, it does not determine it, as each person consumes within a
context (O’Byrne 2001:154). Giddens’s “life politics” of self identity also recognises
the importance of the consumer bought signs. While abstract, they are defined by the
themselves with media personalities to help create self identity (Blumler and Katz
We can see here that consumerism and the media do not merely represent a change in
economic activities but changes in everyday life at the level of identity and, as we will
“the nagging sense is that the lives, selves and identities don’t always stand for what
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The increase of qualitative and interpretivist sociological theory and research has led
to more developed arguments against the CCCS approach. One of the earliest critics
was Clarke (1990[1981]) who put forward that the subcultural theory of Hebdige was
essentialist and was only concerned with analysing “original” members of groups. For
Clarke, this is too objective when analysing style as it raises the question of just who
decides what is real or not (1990:87). The problem with Hebdige’s account of
assumed that the style worn was a reaction to structure, while being sparse on
Sociological study of subcultures has thus moved to a place where the contradictions
tackled by a subjective approach, which puts the meanings and perceptions of subjects
at “the first, privileged level of analysis” (Muggleton 1997:183). Thus the distinction
is made between the nominal identity, which exists as a name, and the virtual identity,
which is created from lived experience (Jenkins 2001: 24). A similar distinction is
made by Touraine (1995: 167), who sees the “self” as produced by society’s
normalising structures, while the “I” is constituted through resistance. Giddens (1984)
has noted that our understanding of social activities are more founded in practical
consciousness than discursive (26). We can see a shift away from a purely textual
analysis of stylistic objects and ways of behaviour and a look at how modes of
subcultural behaviour construct rather than just express (Sweetman 2001:185). For
example, similar aesthetics can help groups recognise each other and feel common
(Maffesoli 1996: 77). They can also act as differentiators, and fulfil a function of
legitimating social differences, even if just on the surface (Ewen 1990: 42, Bourdieu
15
1984:7), as consumerism educates individuals in reading signs (Featherstone 1985:9
perspectives of individuals we can see that the crowd itself interacts not just through
According to Bourdieu (1984:7), our systems of classifying, are what classify us and
to differentiate the self. This can take an individual approach (Willis 1990:89), which
can explain the increased blurring of styles and bricolage. However it can also take a
the collective above or below the mainstream (Frith 1983:208 in Longhurst 1995:216,
Hodkinson 2004:144). Barth (1969:14 in Jenkins 1996:93) has written that the
products of a common culture act more as boundary markers rather than defining the
group. If we make a statement about ourselves with our dress, then relating to
If consumerism involves interpretation, then dress and style involve acts of decoding
others and relating their style to “musical, political and social orientations” (Willis
identity are created by the semiotic resources of the cultural commodities, but it does
But decoding styles of dress or musical taste is not as fundamental as the embodied
affectual feelings we experience. Sweetman (2001:193/4) argues that the body is more
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than a screen for discourse and that while we experience an embodied, corporeal
forms our subjectivities on the subculture rather than the discourse. These experiential
and affective aspects are what give individuals their sense of belonging and
identification with the group (Sweetman 2004:79). The “affect” is notoriously hard to
describe but can be seen as pleasure which is above everyday gratification. Grossberg
used the example of the “grain of the voice” which gave feelings “beyond (or before)
words”.
There are also changes in the approach to musical analysis. Kristeva (cited in Barthes
through language, text and genre, and the “geno song” which is the embodied
performance. While the music industry may rationalize music in line with capitalist
and bureaucratic discourse (Goodwin 1992 in Longhurst 1995), Frith (1988 cited in
Longhurst 1995:172/3) has argued that not all aspects of music can be rationalised,
such as the “private” feelings, which can be interpreted from the music. It would be
oversimplistic to read emotion and meanings simply from lyrics (Redhead 1990:51).
On one hand we have the consumer society of marketed identities and weakened
ideology. On the other we have the embodied approach which takes into account the
un-sellable meanings that individuals place into the objects they consume. Any
approach to punk, will have to take into account the apparent contradictions of these
sociological theories.
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Methodology
18
“Theoretical Confession” and Ontology
In my review of the literature it became clear that the study of styles, taken here to
mean dress and consumption habits, has significantly moved to a more qualitative and
interpretative analysis which puts individual meanings and perceptions at the first
level of analysis (Muggleton 1987:183). While still accepting the wider factors of
society, qualitative research, such as social interactionism studies how the social
world is interpreted and produced by individuals and treats the social context as
flexible (Mason 2002:3). The new style of analysis advocated is part of a movement
Broadly, these frameworks aim for the study of human experience and the meanings,
1996:9). Thus interaction forms meanings in “it’s own right” rather than a medium for
determining factors (Blumer 1969:52). The arguments for the use of qualitative
research grounded in individual meanings for the study of (sub) cultures is covered in
the literature review. It can be summed in that the meanings of cultural objects of
reflexively use them to form meaning. I believe this approach which argues that
personal meaning is the most valid data, to be an accurate and acceptable form of
perspective, from which my research and analysis will be drawn from, is one which
However it is not just the written theory that has shaped my theoretical outlook but
my own lived experience. While one assumes that the goal of qualitative research is to
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arrive at an utmost subjectivity, many have accepted that a social interactionist stance
must also accept that the researchers own meanings will play a part. Willis (1997)
in the subject matter is because of my own experiences of the plurality of punk music
and style. Willis puts forward that to gain enhanced subjectivity we must treat our
subject’s (as opposed to object) opinions as as valid as our own (1997:249). There is a
fine line in participant research between knowledge and bias, but by primarily
Who’s punk,?
A lot of the theory in the literature review attempted to bring in recent developments
creation of (post) modern subcultural identities. There is also the notion that changes
on young punk fans aged around 20-25 who were not even born when punk blew up
in 1976, so I could put their meanings into a more general context. This criteria also
freely with the interviewees as I had experienced much the same as they had. I also
used aliases for the purpose of the analysis, to ensure confidentiality and to prevent
Relating to punk, the only prerequisite was that in the life of the subjects (past or
present), they were enthusiastic listeners of music which they have nominally denoted
as “punk”. From herein the subjects will be referred to as “punk fans”, rather than the
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more objective term “punk” which, used to describe individuals, usually comes to
mean squatters and politicised vagrants outside the mainstream economy. Although
the plurality of meanings was evident as one punk fan did call himself a “punk”.
Because of the variety of meanings associated with the word punk I also refrained
from using it in the interviews apart from to describe the music, something which
although itself has differing meanings, only differs on abstract aesthetics rather than a
lifestyle or ideology. As one of the key concepts of late modernism is the notion that
lifestyles are not fixed throughout time, I also chose to study those who were once
into punk as well as those who are still mainly punk fans. This gave me the
opportunity to examine the reasons behind why people moved on from punk.
Because of resource and temporal constraints, it was be hard to gain access to those
who were once into punk through random sampling. I was not be able to recognise
them through their aesthetic style and advertising for them seemed an unlikely
solution as I believed they would be unlikely to respond, especially given the small
resources I have access to, if they felt punk was no longer a major part of their
identity. Fortunately I had immediate access through mutual friends to subjects who
have consumed punk at a stage in their life with more commitment than they do now.
interviewees using a flyer, but this had no response. But I was able to meet people
through mutual friends. For people who I suspected might be punk fans, I asked them
if were into punk music, if they said they were I would ask them if they would like to
would ask them only after we had chatted about what punk bands we liked. I felt this
21
was necessary as I wanted to build a rapport with the individual first before asking
Because my sampling method was snowballing, this means that the sample relied on
because my theoretical standpoint holds that the idea of punk is highly subjective
through its individual embodiment, it must be accepted that it is impossible to gain all
then it will not matter if the selection of individuals is highly arbitrary, as I believe
Another problem with this method is that although I was primarily studying
individual’s “virtual identities” (Jenkins 1996), in some cases I had to use their
“cultural capital” (Thornton 1997) (e.g. bands, clothing) in order to assess them as
potential interviewees. While the onus was on the potential interviewee to define
themselves as a punk fan, for those I did not know personally it was up to me to
decide whether to approach them. This involved using my own subjective ideas of
what punk is. Having been a punk fan myself for around five years, I believe that I am
So it was still possible for me to recognise someone into punk music, regardless of
22
Interview and Analysis Methodology
approach to gathering the data that I needed. This would give individuals the chance
to talk more at length. Although the subjects already knew I was a punk fan, in the
setting up of the interviews I had remained neutral about my opinions of punk, apart
from mentioning a few bands that I liked. I also decided to conduct the interviews as a
researcher rather than a fellow punk fan, and made the interviews individual, so as
gain more individually based information from the punk fans. I asked questions
relating to how people became punk fans, the activities they associate with punk, and
what the significance (if any) of punk is to them. I tried to keep my own biases out of
the interviews by not giving examples of what punk may mean. I asked the questions
at more abstract levels such as “does punk mean anything more than music?”, or “do
you associate it with politics?”, rather than “do you think punk politics are generally
The idea of dress or punk fashion will also played a big part in the interviews. The
literature has varying concepts of dress, from conscious meaning put into self made
clothes, to marketed identities, and also the constructive meanings of dress in group
life. Because I did not wish to judge the participants based on my experience of punk,
I generally studied dress in abstract. Specific details of style and fashion and their
relation to punk as a whole were only looked at after the meanings of dress for the
However, I had to attempt to analyse punk beyond the level of individuals and to
place the views, meanings and experiences within wider contexts. Following the
23
paradigm of embodiment, there is paramount importance placed on context. So the
analysis was an attempt to examine the context of the punk fan’s life in wider scope
and to see how the macro changes to society form the frame in which identity is
created. Giddens’ (1984) synthetic notion of “Structuration” helped influence the style
of the analysis. For Giddens, a system, which could be punk subculture, is defined as
(1984:25). Structuration is the study of how individuals use rules and resources of
social systems (structure) actively, to reproduce the system (1984:25). Giddens shows
that structure (in most cases) is not a solid, objective form but is actually created and
So the “gateway” to analysing wider concepts was the study of the rules and resources
of the life of the individuals. These are the structures which they must negotiate. Of
particular interest were their perceptions of the rules and resources of punk and of life
as a young white male in a consumer society. Yet the interviews had to go deeper as
these “rules and resources” were not always consciously apparent to the punk fans.
In this scenario, It was necessary to examine the reasons why they did not perceive
any rules in a self reproducing culture such as punk. Firstly this related to their
The analysis and methodology hope to examine individuals and how their identity is
punk, but can also provide an insight into the lives of young punk fans in Britain and
24
Analysis
25
Introduction
The punk fans that I interviewed were from around the UK rather than all being
located in one place. They were all white males aged around 21 -23 and had first
experienced punk when they were in the mid to late teens and had become punk fans
subsequently. They first experienced punk at around the turn of the century at least
twenty years since the beginning. This shows that at the least “Punk” has been
reproduced throughout time, although apart from the music it seems almost
Competing Definitions
What can we learn about the contemporary incarnation of punk from these
interviewees? They all saw punk as primarily a musical form, as this was the first
Dave-“For me, it’s purely about the music,…I love the music, still do.”
I was trying to examine if the punk fans perceived any kind of ideology or
underpinning philosophy outside of the music. Gary, Dave, Will and Richard
associated punk with certain left politics, anti conformism and equality.
26
Will-“it’s kinda almost got a secondary meaning, to be a rebel. And to just rebel
against… authority figures. Punk’s definitely anti racist. At gigs I’ve been to, it’s
Gary-“well I think punk has definitely got a message of anti conformism and like also
anti establishment, you know bands like Bad Religion and…you can just tell from the
lyrics.”
Richard-“you’ve got like the urm, like anti conformism kinda view. A lot of bands I
like are political too… generally like good views, anti racism, anti sexism, anti
homophobia…”
But these views remained secondary to the music and the subjects found it hard to
to the music and seeing bands live rather than the discourse which helped sustain the
interest in punk. I believe this validates the notion of the affect which is formed by
There was great importance attached to friends who were also punk fans as all of the
interviewees shared their love of punk with their friends. And all had, at one time,
been almost exclusively friends with punk or alternative rock fans. For most it was
their friends who got them into punk and also helped sustain an interest in the music.
They all associated their best memories or feelings of punk when at gigs with their
friends.
27
Kevin- “A lot of the music I listened came directly from friends who might have made
Will- “since school I guess, what my friends, listened to a type of music, and I didn’t
know what it was. Kept going on about it. so I borrowed a Green Day album… I liked
Dave- “yeah most of my mates [are into punk] it’s like a big crew of us, that’s what
Learning to be “Punk”
So if we are treat music as a taste, then the idea of habitus (Bourdieu 1984) makes
sense here. As the individuals were embodied in a situation where they were exposed
and socialised to like punk music, they unconsciously developed a taste for the music
However, being into punk was more complex than simply developing a taste for the
music. The idea of being different from the perceived norm was common to all of the
awareness that their social group was different from the other social groups of teenage
life.
28
Kevin-“I felt proud to be different, you know?, it did feel like we were “better” or
more real than all the rest and everyone else was missing out”
Gary-“ I think when I first found other people that liked what I felt it did sorta feel
like we were the rebels, even though that sounds a bit crap now!”
Richard-“I think I felt that because punk was underground and I liked punk than that
So why was a taste for punk seen as different and against the mainstream? Much of
the literature on punk has written about how it has been commoditised and has lost
much of it’s original rebellious qualities and is ideologically weakened. While the
research did certainly show that for the interviewees, punk was more about music than
politics there was still the feeling that punk was still rebellious. Part of this could be
due the historical lineage of punk. The interviewees were all aware of the foundations
are required to be historically situated (Zaretsky 1994 in Castells 1997:10). Thus even
if we accept that most of the revolutionary aspect of punk has been lost, the
knowledge of the musical lineage of punk and the founder member’s rhetoric is still
partially present in the minds of new punk fans. It could be said that it is the
commoditisation of punk which has enabled this. Key to our understanding here is the
nominal identity of punk. As we have seen above, the virtual identity (the individual
experiences) varies widely, yet it could be said that the social exchange value
29
with rebellion. So even someone with no lived experience of punk would still
Alternative media
While a discourse analysis of punk lyrics and of it’s mainstream sign value would no
doubt conclude that it contains a discourse of rebellion, this cannot provide us with all
the answers. A discourse analysis would have also concluded that because punk itself
is now a part of the capitalist system of trade it simultaneously lacks this rebellious
quality. But most of the interviewees found it hard to fully conceptualise a punk
ideology which may have been read from punk lyrics, or instead saw it as a musical
and lyrical culture which was more “real” or even “better”. It is also worth noting
that none of the interviewees were political activists, even those who did acknowledge
punk’s articulacy of political issues. This suggests that the rebellious qualities must
have been formed mostly from outside political discourse and more from lived
experience.
Thus we must examine the context in which they received punk, as this transcends the
objective discourses present in the product itself regardless of whether they had a
discourse of rebellion or not. For the interviewees, a lot of their exposure to punk was
through sharing music with friends and from this they went on to explore alternative
media such as the internet or punk record labels. But it is not just punk fans who share
music between themselves. One of the key themes arising from the interviews was
that of the perceived “underground” quality of punk music. The interviewees saw
30
punk as being qualitatively different from the mainstream media. It was noted that
punk music was not really popular and thus it had little mainstream exposure (in its
Richard- “Used to share a lot of music with friends and listen with them cause it
wasn’t so much hard to get hold of the music, but you didn’t hear it on the radio or
anything.”
“I guess it was cool because a few of the bands I was into were really obscure,
unknown bands.”
Will-“there’s lots of bands there which I listen to and no one had even heard of and I
know them…sorta made me feel cool cause it was like I was err different and the
Gary-“You didn’t really see a lot of punk in the media apart from stuff like Kerrang
and that.”
So when acquiring a habitus of punk as “good music”, the punk fans also
portrayal of punk. As what they listened to was not part of what they saw as the
mainstream, this difference became part of their identity, and part of the identity of
their friendship group, as they saw themselves as liking and being part of an
alternative culture. This also explains why Gary and Kevin noted that their social
31
groups were comprised of fans of punk and metal music, as metal music was also
Kevin- “I liked punk, but it wasn’t exclusive, cause we all liked a bit of nu metal back
then as well, and it sorta seemed that being a “greb” wasn’t about just being into
punk or just metal, but like, errr kinda mix of the two styles.”
Gary-“…at that time it was like the kids who were into metal and the kids who were
While the music was the most important aspect of being a punk fan, all of the
interviewees did note that their style in some way was similar to other punk fans. A
criticism levelled at contemporary punk is that its dress styles have become
acknowledging that their styles were representative of the particular punk fashions of
the time, Gary, and Dave wanted to distance themselves from the idea of fashion.
Dave, Will, John and Gary said that they wore the clothes they did because they liked
Dave-“I just dress the same all the time, I just wore what I wanted to be honest with
32
John-“You want to fit in with the crowd you want to be in, so yeah it probably did
influence what I was wearing…. I think personally it was more because I liked the
Gary-“I don’t think that my style of clothing changed much, at least not consciously.
We can contrast this with the original punk styles, which were created and given
meaning by the wearer who appropriated everyday items to purposely give them new
meanings. Thus because the contemporary punk fans were not creating their own
clothing, they consciously did not give it personal meaning. Kevin and Richard also
expressed similar views to the others, but while still primarily concerned with the
Kevin-“…to dress like we did, it was a bit like a badge of honour, I felt proud to be
different”
“…when you’re walking down the street, it’s like you’re showing off your clothes in a
Richard-“Well I wanted to stand out and for people to see me as different. So yeah I
Kevin and Richard, perhaps due to their embodied socialisation, thought more about
fashion. For those that were not concerned that much with fashion, a simple solution
33
would be that the reason for the group similarity was down to the learned habitus
simply by interaction with friends. But outside of “fashion”, dress had constructive
properties within the friendship group and the larger “imagined community. It served
as a practical way for individuals who shared a musical interest to identify each other
Dave-“…If I dress like that, the people would know what I’m actually into as well.”
Gary-“… I think at gigs you could wear whatever, but I guess you didn’t want to look
like a townie.”
Gary’s comment about not wanting to look like a “townie” at a gig seemingly hints at
pressures coming from within the imagined community of punk. But Gary, John,
Dave and Will did not perceive any pressures to dress in a certain way. In an attempt
to discover if there was any pressure from the scene I asked Dave if he would feel
comfortable going to a gig in mainstream clothing. His answer was that he didn’t
know because he wouldn’t wear that. What we can see is that because of the acquired
habitus of the clothing, for these punk fans they did not consciously feel pressure
from their imagined community of punk, as they wore what they liked which had
been internalised from friends, bands and other alternative media. It also shows that
not wanting to look like a “townie” was more about defining the boundary of the
group than defining the occupants (see Barth (1969:14 in Jenkins 1996:93)). However
we must be wary of placing too much emphasis on habitus, even though it serves as a
useful concept for the above punk fans perception of (lack of) dress “rules”. In some
cases it could be seen as too deterministic of socialisation without taking into account
34
the individual. Kevin and Richard, who had both had put the most conscious meaning
into their clothes, sometimes perceived pressures from within the punk scene.
Kevin-“sometimes I guess, you might feel, umm a little out of place if you were like in
a place with loads of like…I dunno. I think sometimes like it would be what t shirt
shall I wear tonight, like depending on what band you were going to see you know?”
Richard-“…like if I went to a gig I would definitely think about what I was gonna
wear sometimes”
Thus while they had acquired a general habitus of style, they were more self
conscious about how people saw them and wanted more to fit in. This is because they
were already thinking more about the meanings of their clothes on a personal level.
Habitus does not account for this as it is based more on taste, rather than reflexive
decisions about dress. We must also consider that for the other punk fans, the process
of learning to like certain styles of clothing was also informed by the perception of the
boundaries of the wider group. So maybe this does suggest that there were certain
rules. However for most, they were not what you could wear, but what you couldn’t.
what they were wearing even if they did not consciously put much meaning into their
clothes.
Gary-“sometimes I felt a bit like the odd one out in certain situations, cause of what I
35
Dave-“It made me feel slightly rebellious, I suppose when I was 16…”
Will- “just walking around, well obviously no one really dressed that way, sometimes
people are like, when you dress differently to people, you feel the need to hurl abuse
at them. “
John-“I wouldn’t say it was bad, but you were aware that you did look different and
At first this appeared to be a contradiction, as they claimed not to care about dress, yet
still put meanings into the punk style which they wore. But more careful analysis of
than consumer habits such as music, as it is the first thing people will see. Thus is a
the other punk fans could almost not help associating their clothes with rebellion. It
was created in a similar way to their perception of punk music, in that they were
internalising their surroundings. They had developed a habitus for clothing which was
visibly verified and then internalised as non mainstream. This accounts for the
36
apparent contradiction of simultaneously not caring about dress but still giving
meaning to it.
Gary, Dave and John expressed feelings which indicated they were against people
using clothing as a way to define themselves. Both Gary and Dave used the phrase
John- “there were a lot of people who were into say dance music or whatever who
were starting to dress a bit more rock and listen to rock and punk. And maybe at the
time it was kind of this isn’t the culture which they normally embrace, if that makes
sense.”
Dave-“people could be like I’ll get a Mohawk, rip my jeans, just to look punk…when
you see someone wearing a patch, patches of clash, ramones, and you have a
conversation with them and they don’t actually know any songs. And that’s defeats the
So whilst the clothes did have meaning, they could only gain this meaning through
lived experience. Kevin and Richard were also critical of the scene, and felt people
Kevin- “It felt like some people into punk were just trying too hard to be rebels and to
37
In this case we can see a definer of group attitudes. Whilst not positing any specific
ideology or way of living, the attitude towards “fakers” shows that it was believed
that to be a punk fan was about lived experience and for some, not caring about
Though it must be remembered that the punk fans who were seen as fake were
embodied in different times and social space and so had developed a different habitus
of punk.
John, Richard, Gary and Kevin were the four interviewees who had changed the most
(in style and music) and were not as fully into punk as they were, this was reflected in
their current style of clothing and musical preferences. They were more likely to see
punk as one of many types of music they liked and associated it with good memories,
as did all the interviewees. Dave and Will still saw themselves as being primarily
punk fans, but also broadened their musical tastes and wanted more to be individuals
Will-“it was a big thing for a while. But now it’s just, I kinda feel that I’m punk, but
Dave-“I would still call myself a punk, cause that is the majority of what I listen to,
but erm, but I’ve just broadened my horizons to other music as well.”
Dave also noted that sometimes he would wear punk clothes and sometimes he would
38
Gary and Kevin spoke of how they perceived the punk scene to be growing in
popularity. Gary attributed the “fakers” to punk’s more mainstream appeal now. He
also felt that as it got more popular it was losing some of it’s political message. John,
who had once put rebellious meaning into his clothes said he no longer felt it had the
same message as more and more people wore what was once a minority fashion.
Kevin-“but either way I think I’m past that now anyway, I’d rather make a statement
John was the punk fan who was the least articulate on any kind of punk ideology. His
reasons for changing his tastes were that he saw himself as more open minded to
different types of music and was not because he saw fault in the growing popularity of
punk music. This makes sense as he was the most likely to see punk as just a type of
music, and he grew up and made friends who weren’t into punk he learnt to like
“It wasn’t conscious, it’s just something that happens overtime, through meeting other
people, listening to other peoples music, going to festival, obviously you experience
39
All the interviewees felt more of an individual than they did when they were more
“committed to punk”. They put their individuality ahead of remaining just a punk fan.
Richard-“At one time I was like all about the punk music, but that’s just silly really,
Can we draw any conclusions about punk from these interviews? Because of the wide
variety of opinions and experiences it was hard to categorise the punk fans in
objective terms of how “punk” they were or are. But this was not the objective of the
research as I had realised before that the virtual identity of punk was pluralistic.
However careful analysis may help us understand not just punk, but the nature of
consumerism.
As a punk fan myself, I must resist from presenting punk in a wholly positive light
and take into account the findings which may contradict my assumptions before I
studied this area. I had expected the interviewees to be more articulate on punk
There was differing opinion on what exactly punk meant apart from music. And it was
not conceptualised into a holistic lifestyle, but was made up from either pieces of left
wing ideology or was simply seen as more real or better. From this we can see that as
an ideology in it’s own right, punk has been sufficiently weakened in the decades
since it’s birth, and does not exist as a definite ideology. For the interviewees punk
40
was primarily a style of music which they had learnt to like through a shared habitus
with their friends. The views on punk ideology of the interviewees can partly be
fracturing of the left and the increasing apathy towards mainstream politics represent
the wider political context in which the punk fans first received punk. They were far
from the politicized, class warriors of which Hebdige (1979) described as founding
the punk scene, and were not consciously trying to change the structure of society.
They were experiencing a music which had been created over twenty years before. In
the context of their places in time, they were experiencing “punk” as a normalized
object of consumerism, as a cd, tape or live gig, the main focus was always the music,
which reflected their hedonistic impulses to experience the “affect”. We must also
consider that many of the “original” punks experienced the subculture in this way, as
The relative stylistic homogeneity of the punk fashions and the fact they were store
bought suggest that fashions had indeed become part of a “marketed identity”. But the
punk fans (whether they consciously presented themselves or not), bought the clothes
because they personally liked them. We could say that they had learnt through habitus
to like the clothing and were buying into the marketed rebellion. We could also say
the same thing about the marketing of the music and the feelings of difference felt
from listening to it. But this would ignore the individual meanings put into the
It was the context in which punk was consumed which created the feelings of
rebellion. They were skilled in reading and internalising the signs of modern
41
consumption and media, and because punk music came to them through friends and
the perceived “underground”, and was at the same time “different” to what they
perceived as the mass media, they put meanings of rebellion into the consumer
objects. And because simultaneously they were developing a taste for the music, these
feelings of rebellion were internalised as part of their self identity and were
For the fashion, even though some declared they did not care about the way they
looked, because of the nature of the body in modern consumerism they could not help
giving meaning to their dress. Dress styles were used practically and helped define the
group against outsiders, even if the dress styles were not so much a uniform as a
looser, “anti-uniform” for some of the punk fans. The practically of dress though,
could easily apply to any group in society. Because dress is highly visible, the punk
fans internalised the whole of the society in which they lived and saw that their styles
were different to the perceived norm. Thus their dress identity was not created by
to be so through lived experience of rival culture, just as the music had gained this
value.
The punk fans felt the most community at the level of friendship and shared the
feelings of difference and rebellion with their group. They were sharing music and
fashion directly with each other, rather than simply receiving it from more mainstream
sources. And because of the perceived difference between punk and the mainstream,
friends who were acting as alternative media were too, perceived to be rebellious and
different to larger society. At the level of live gigs, crowd interaction also helped
42
create temporary feelings of larger community. Feelings of community came because
at the level of friendship, the punk fans were both giving and receiving objects, so
So at the level of personal identity, punk still had the power to act as lifestyle politics
(Giddens 1991). But because of the context of both the resources of teenage life and
the societal effects of consumerism and political apathy, the foundation of authenticity
was based on lived experience of culture rather than what we might term traditional
politics. It was a politics of culture and consumerism because every time the punk
fans heard a punk song, bought an album, saw a live gig, or put on a band t shirt, they
were experiencing affect but were also investing meanings of personal identity into
This was largely individually created, because the punk scene was not perceived to
offer a change of lifestyle, apart from that based on the meanings put into objects of
consumerism. Because punk was mostly perceived as a musical culture, the main
identity it offered was that of a “punk music fan”. This helps explain the temporary
nature of commitment to punk music of some of the fans. For John, who was the fan
who was most likely to see punk as purely music, his change in direction was that of
experiencing different music which he shared with new friends. The others, who did
not feel as committed to punk as they were, also did not contradict themselves as their
punk identities were always based on individual lived experience of culture, rather
than being externally proscribed. All the interviewees were still fans of the music, but
in the modern quest for individuality could no longer base their identities around
punk. Will and Dave still defined themselves as mainly punk fans, as both still were
43
friends mainly with other punk fans. Thus for them, their punk identities were still
largely formed by the sharing of music through the alternative media of their friends.
The importance of friends even overrides Dave’s criticism of the “fakers” of the punk
scene, as presumably, he did not perceive his friendship group to be fakers. For others,
as their friends and them experienced other musical styles, they found the punk scene
lacking, as it was either too popular or lacked the definition that they had once given
to it or was seen as more concerned with image than substance. What we must
remember is that in the battleground of culture, punk cannot claim exclusive rights to
rebellion, the explosion of post-Fordist niche markets means that other cultures also at
We can say that in contemporary times the “self” can be marketed, in this case, the
punk fans were buying into a normalised, ideologically weakened “punk” which was
part of a wider consumer culture. The clothes too, were bought rather than being self
made. Analysing these punk fans in the manner of the original subcultural theorists
would conclude as above and note the rejection of ideology in favour of culture. Yet
by examining the “I”, which constitutes the virtual identity (Jenkins, 1996), we can
see that culture itself is a battleground which through lived experience creates feelings
I never went into this study with a view to finding out the “truth” of punk, with such
widespread diffusion and differing opinions such a task is practically impossible. Yet
the study has provided evidence and knowledge of the ways in which identity is
a paradigm of how we live, it can only ever be a medium for identity and cannot sell
44
the un-sellable such as affect and lived experience. As embodiment and context are
intrinsic to identity, it would be interesting to see the effect on identity of other punk
fans living in the context of other societal identities such as gender, race or sexuality,
something which I did not cover here. Changes to the way we construct our identity
are also happening as we speak, as the internet becomes a new site of “virtual
communities” (Castells 1996:22). This sort of community is still recent and none of
the punk fans interviewed were major participants in online communities. Though
undoubtedly, as punk continues to evolve, these global online communities will help
form identity. With the new emphasis on modes of consumerism, we must also return
to the “original” punks to look at the similarities between them and contemporary
incarnations. If there was a similarity of dress styles, does this not indicate
consumerism (albeit at a smaller level) rather than true individual expression? How
many of the “originals” still live the punk lifestyle, or do they look back to it as a fun
time full of great music, just as those of today too? However those that still cling to
the ideals of the past may find themselves isolated, as all the discourse in the world
cannot bring back 1976 and cannot relate to the embodied individuals who constantly
Epilogue
45
John Lydon’s accusations against Green Day now seem trivial and misplaced. He
argues that they didn’t experience working class life in 80s Britain like he did and are
not punk. Yet this is precisely why Green Day are a different band with a different
style to the “punk” of Lydon’s day. It is because they didn’t and couldn’t experience
what Lydon did that their “punk” is different. Some look to punk as an objective,
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46
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