Chapter 1: “The development of the punk Australian music scene”. ” Groups that accept and reject The culture and community created around Australia’s punk scene influences identities by creating a space where out groups/outsiders can exist without the need to conform. The punk music scene in Australia focuses on local, small venues, and DIY sound. “The idea of punk – with dive bars, worn down warehouses, basement shows and wild hair – has given rise to a new wave of traditional/pub-punk. Most songs in this new sub-genre are either about beer, cigarettes, the dole, or drugs.” Punk music employs lyrics about ideas like anti establishment, community and breaking societal norms. “Punk scenes have the general illusio [sic] of being resistant to …show more content…
Understanding the effects of power and authority at the micro, meso, and macro levels is crucial in analysing the impact of institutional music control over the punk scene. To research the Australian punk identity and the effects of macro institutional music control over the punk scene, I interviewed a Gen Z, male, musician named Jacob Ingram. Ingram is a member of punk band “Ocn” and indie band “Fripps and Fripps” which has reached meso success with 7,844 monthly listeners on Spotify and Triple J exposure In my interview with Ingram, he mentions how “venue management are very eager to get people in the door, which is fair, they need to make money, but sometimes it makes it feel more like a business than just playing music and having fun is at the core of it [playing punk shows]. It's really about expression and enjoying it, so ideal”. The adage is “the ideal”. Control of the music industry has been a continuous issue for punk groups at these micro, meso and macro levels. The dependence Australian artists have on social media for building a following or community is reinforced by a respondent to my Questionnaire who asserted that, “Starting out trying to get gigs can be quite difficult as venues won't want to have you if you don't have a following, but creating a local following without gigging can be difficult. Social media can be a good way to get yourself out there, however there's a fine line between promoting yourself and selling your soul to tiktok.” This is further supported by another response to my questionnaire stating, “The music industry is extremely tough and gruelling to endure. Music streaming has brainwashed the general populace into thinking music is free and despite some artists touring internationally
“Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you alive.” Sid Vicious-Lead Singer of the Sex Pistols. (Brainyquotes.com) This quote by Sid Vicious from 1977 summed up the feelings of many of the Originators of Punk Music and the Punk lifestyle.
There was an emergence of numerous pioneering female punk and rock musicians from the UK, throughout the period of the late 1970 and early-mid 1980’s who ultimately served to influence the ‘Riot Grrrl’ movement (Sabin 1999). Musicians such as ‘The Slits’, ‘Siouxie Sioux’, ‘Poly Styrene and X-Ray-Spex’ ‘Au Pairs’ and ‘The Raincoats’ are all examples of British Musicians who later went on to inspire ‘Riot Grrl’
Since the early 1980’s many indigenous Australian groups have used hip hop as a way to express their frustration against racial discrimination and injustice. Indigenous Hip Hop has not been the leading area of Australian Hip Hop, Many popular aboriginal artist have produced songs that address the concerns of the Indigenous Australians. American Hip Hop group “Public Enemy” has been a large musical influence for the Indigenous
Although the style of ‘Rock music’ is easily adaptable to many different sounds, it is still thoroughly identified by its definingly amplified rhythm. The sudden worldwide popularity of rock and roll resulted in an unparalleled social impact. Rock ‘n’ Roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language in a way few other social developments have equaled. The social impact is so large that rock stars are worshipped worldwide. In its early years, many adults condemned the style of music, placing a stigma on its name, and forbid their children from listening and following its ways.
The American rock band Nirvana impacted American culture and society by paving the way for the punk rock subculture into mainstream corporate America. Punk rock music stems from the rock genre but has its own agenda. The crux of punk rock is that it is a movement of the counterculture against the norms of society. Punk rock in itself is made up of a subculture of people who rejected the tameness of rock and roll music during the 1970s. (Masar, 2006, p. 8). The music stresses anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian ideas in its lyrics as well as scorns political idealism in American society. Before Nirvana unintentionally made punk rock a multi-million dollar commercialized genre of music, underground rock paved the way for the punk rock genre by creating core values that punk rockers drew upon.
When the Punk Movement emerged in the mid-1970s in both the United States and United Kingdom, it spanned into such areas as fashion, music, as well as youth mentality and thus became its own type of subculture. However, this movement can also be considered a form of social deviance when viewed through the lens of Robert Merton’s theory of anomie. This deviance stems from the anti-social and anti-conventional nature of the movement’s members in response to lower and middle class socio-economic strain. Therefore, the Punk Movement can be categorized as a combination of two of Merton’s types of adaptation to strain, including retreatism and rebellion, due to the subculture’s rejection of capitalist values, withdrawal from the workforce and apathetic attitude.
The Punk Rock movement of the 1980’s was an explosion of hybrid and eccentric beats and lyrics that caught everyone’s attention, especially the young adolescents of the time period. The movement of Punk Rock took a major role in shaping the culture in the 80’s. The template for the 1980’s Punk Rock emerged from its preceptor of the 70’s Punk Rock which emerged from London. It’s loud and reckless tunes, to some sounded like noise, but to others it imposed many political standings and raised discussions of controversial topics in its lyrics. From this movements figurative and literal expressions through its bold fashion and uncensored lyrics, it definitely made a stance in the history of music and the 20th century.
The late 1970s gave birth to a punk culture that further distended into an evolution of the genre during the mid-1980s, particularly in Seattle, USA. A punk inspired movement called grunge became internationally recognized after Nirvana’s debut release album ‘Nevermind’, in 1995. Grunge gained a mass recognition for its punk ideology, attire and music, which stemmed further away, and was in itself a rejection to the mainstream metal and pop boom in the music industry of that time. Grunge incorporated a fusion of cultural and social threads that linked themes like feminism, liberalism, anti-authoritarianism, wry post-modernism, and not least a love of dirty, abrasive music; grunge reconciled all these into a seminal whole. (Standard grunge definition, Internet source)
US punk is better than UK punk and the fact that Punk is still popular in the US proves it!
Seventies punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of the protest song, rock music associated with political activism as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex and drug use. This was often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism an...
Punk subculture ultimately challenged society by believing in anti-establishments and promoting individual freedom. Although punk subculture could be described as a new trend in society or as a new type of conformity, it ultimately influenced British civilization in a positive way. Even though punk disrupted and altered society’s views, it did not subvert the British culture completely. Punk subculture was an influential movement that changed humanity for the better. First, Punk did this by giving people courage to speak up and rebel. Second, Punk challenged the British monarchy. And lastly, Punk was mainly about “Do It Yourself” items. This taught children that one did not have to have designer clothing. Leather jackets, ripped jeans and worn out shoes were just as good. Punk was a culture of misfits and outsiders. It welcomed everyone who did not care about following others but liked being an individual.
Punk rock, what is it? Is it rebellion? Anarchism? What makes rock truly punk? Being rooted from garage rock and getting away from the excess mainstream rock, comes punk. A rock genre that spoke often of anti-establishment, anarchism, and rebellion to the norm and society. Genre that was started in a garage and becoming a major cultural phenomenon.
One subculture youth group created is called punk. This started in the 1970s in Britain and America (Griffiths 234). More recently youth in New Zealand have adopted a similar subculture group calling it anarcho-punk. These groups were formed to establish a common community that differed from the larger community. Resistance from a larger societal group is part of what anarcho-punks sought to do (Griffiths 234).
With the music being the highly profitable, capitalist enterprise that it is today, it is no wonder that it is controlled and regulated by a few large conglomerates that exist is today’s world. It is important to make clear that although evidence is being presented of the positive aspects of globalization through music that there is overwhelming evidence that cultural imperialism is more than it seems on the outside. One must keep in mind that cultural imperialism, globalization and the creation of a global village is a business. People are profiting at other people’s loss of cultural identity, they are sold a culture and heritage. With the every growing N’Sync fan clubs and Britney clones, the world is turning into a stage for pop culture and its glamorous unattainable standards.
The story of subcultures in and through modern music has to start in the 1920’s America. In the wake of prohibition, popular nightclubs were closing down and music fell by the wayside. However, a strong underground scene reared its head during that time as well. Well-dressed men and flapper girls swarmed speakeasies in search of music, liquor and a good time. Mainstream America looked down on these rebels. They were often thought of as no good young people with loose morals and no respect for authority. Little did mainstream America know, however, exactly how important those few rebels were during the roaring Twenties and how their actions helped mold musical societies for the rest of the millennium.