Punk Music- History of American Popular Music

1289 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Punk's subculture interests

Punk Music

History of American Popular Music; Period 5

The poet Victor Hugo once stated that “music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot be silent.” This quote seems to represent punk music in a way that isn’t immediately apparent. Punk is considered to be an “underground” genre and style that is popular with teens and young adults that feel oppressed. The expression that "cannot be put into words" and "cannot be silent" describes the ideals of punk perfectly.

The punk genre and age was born in 1977 in the United States and Britain. Punk was born in a time of a failing economy, mass unemployment, a malfunctioning government, racial strife and a time when new possibilities seem unavailable. This new type of music appeared to come from a subculture that was angry. The philosophy of this music came from anger, disillusionment, deviance, violence, and hopelessness. The idea of no future became a present concept in many songs. This scene began "as a backlash against disco and pop and progressive rock" (Morrison 2006,).

The genre thrived and declared its difference from other types of music. In order to freely express themselves, "punk players and singers rejected musical ostentation and artifice" (Morrison 2006,). They abandoned embellishments, keyboards and productions. "... all that was left was slashing guitars, pumping bass, thumping drums, and snarling voices singing frankly realistic lyrics" (Morrison 2006,). The music itself seemed to offend instead of please.

There are many artists and bands that started the punk scene in the late 1970's and the 1980's. These bands include The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Patti Smith, Velvet Underground, NOFX, Dead Kennedy's, Iggy Pop, and MC5 (or Motor...

... middle of paper ...

... Bathroom. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993. (accessed February 10, 2014).

Masar, Brenden. The History of Punk Rock. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2006. (accessed February 10, 2014).

Morrison , Craig. punk rock. New York: American History Online, 2006. (accessed February 10, 2014).

Shively, Denise. "History of the Vans Warped Tour." Suite 101. https://suite101.com/a/history-of-the-vans-warped-tour-a21757 (accessed February 10, 2014).

Simon, Leslie. Wish You Were Here. New York: HarperCollins, 2009. (accessed February 10, 2014).

Discography

All Time Low, Break Out! Break Out!, © 2006 by Hopeless Records, MP3 download.

Panic! At the Disco, The Only Difference Between Matyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage, © 2005 by Fueled By Ramen, internet music video.

Blink-182, All The Small Things, © 1999 by Jerry Finn, internet music video.

Show More
Related

  • Rock n Roll & 20th Century Culture

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rock ‘n’ roll and 20th Century Culture According to Philip Ennis, rock ‘n’ roll emerged from the convergence of social transformations which resulted from World War II (Ryan 927). Despite its pop culture origins, rock music is arguably one of the strongest cultural factors to develop in this century. Artists such as Lennon, McCartney and Dylan defined the emotions of a generation and, in the last decade, it as even been acknowledged by members of the establishment which it hoped to change as a major influence in the country. In order to understand how rock went from a sign of rebellion to a cultural icon, it is necessary to understand where it came from.

    Read More

  • The Hippie Aesthetic Era of Rock and Roll

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    The hippie aesthetic era was an important time in rock and roll during the late 60’s and on into the early 80’s. It was a time were rock had a sense of purpose. They sung about the issues that plagued the country. It was also a time where technology would play an important roll in the sound of music, with the advancement in recording and synthesizer technology (Covach, “The Hippie Aesthetic”). The hippie aesthetic was not immune to the advancement of music. This essay will go over three songs that represent the different aspects of this era. It’ll will review a song that is predominately hippie aesthetic, a song that is a little of both, and finally a song that has no trace of hippie aesthetic.

    Read More

  • History of the Punk Movement

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    There was not one single person, or a couple of persons that started Punk, nor did any

    Read More

  • Essay On Riot Grrrl

    547 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout history, music has been the artistic stage of philosphoical output of both ideas, emotions and stories, enducing emotional and cogitational responses from the audience, through it’s representation of ideas and through ‘words in music’. Victor Hugo says- “Music expresses…. that which cannot remain silent” (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885), and is a predominant feature in the early 1990s ‘Riot Grrrl’ movement, in which female-empowerment bands would address modern issues of sexual abuse, racism, and the patriarchy through their underground, punk rock music.

    Read More

  • Rock and Roll: The Changing of American Culture

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    American attitudes and behaviors have shifted and swayed throughout the history of this great country. They are often influenced by things happening in not only our nation, but in the world. Things like world wars, economic upheaval, and even natural disasters. These ever changing shifts in how we view and respond to the world around us change us as a nation. Some of those changes are fleeting, some fade and we revert back to former ways, but one stands out from all the rest. One change, an explosion of our view of cultural norms, burst onto the scene and changed us in a deeper and more meaningful way than ever before. This change was caused by rock and’ roll music. It brought about such deep transformation to our societal views about family, sexuality, and race that even today we are “All Shook Up.”

    Read More

  • Nirvana’s Effect on American Culture and Society

    1392 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On Grunge

    3076 Words  | 7 Pages

    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)

    Read More

  • Anarchy: Political Ideals To A Symbol Of Unconformity

    1736 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Anarchism, then really stands for the liberation of human mind from the domination of religion, The liberation of the human body from the domination of property, Liberation from the shackles and restraints of government”#-Emma Golman. During the late 1800’s urbanization began to inflict the cities and the industrial revolution began resulting in governments gaining more and more power. “The state is authority; its force”#-Mikhail Bakunin. As the governments grew it was believed the state was more concerned with its growing power rather than the interests of the people. A group known as the anarchist believed that the government should be abolished and then the people would be free to live co-operatively with full social and political. Anarchy began as a political philosophy and soon turned in to an all out revolution resulting in assignations, bombings and kidnappings spanning over the better part of the past century. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, anarchy started to become more of a fashion trend if you will, rather than a political philosophy. “I Wanna Be Anarchy”-Sex Pistols. The Punk movement in music during the late 70’s was first to wide spread expose the public to anarchy and anarchist ideals. Followers of punk and punk music usually didn’t have the tendency to look of the proper meaning of anarchy, but since Johnny Rotten was saying it, it was cool. Today if you take a look at the public wither you are in a public school or a shopping mall, you can see teenagers with anarchy symbols on their shirts, pants, back packs and even drawn on their sneakers in an attempt to look what the public calls “hardcore”. “Anarchism is the sprit of the youth against out worn traditions”-Mikhail Bakunin, this would prove to be all too true in this new era of “anarchism”. This paper will further outline how anarchy started out as a political philosophy and turned in to a symbol of unconformity.

    Read More

  • The Similarities Of US And US Punk As A Subculture

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though debatable, punk is said to have started sometime in the 60’s or 70’s. At a time when war and unemployment raged around the world, many young person’s turned to music as a means of self-expression; hence the birth of punk and its many derivatives. According to Michael wood of American Punk; “America made better punk music because the atmosphere was different. From irreverent to politically charged manifestos, our songs were based on our lives, whether it was craving escape from the suburban hell holes of Orange County or righteous outrage at an American society gone mad with greed and power.” (Wood)

    Read More

  • Fashion in the 1960's and 1970' s

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    With rioting and terrorism taking place around the world, more aggressive and rebellious styles were being created. The punk look came with this; singers like Johnny Rotton and bands like The Ramones and the Sex Pistols were a few to lead a new generation of teens. There was also the introduction of glam-rock in which musicians mixed glamour with rock. Davis Bowie was the most successful. Fans copied his "rooster" hair cut. He made the androgynous look popular.

    Read More

  • How Woodstock Shaped American Popular Culture

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    Woodstock was a three day music and art fair held during August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was an idea formed by a partnership between John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld, and Michael Lang. The four men held the festival in hopes of making enough money to build a recording studio in New York City. Although Woodstock is remembered for being a major Rockfest, it shaped America’s youth, and helped develop their ideas on war, love, freedom, and the occasional use of certain substances. They hoped to hold the event in New York City, but they could not find enough space.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of DIY Punk

    2063 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the article by Dawson Barrett, “DIY Democracy: The Direct Action Politics of U.S. Punk Collectives,” as the DIY name implies, these bands basically had the freedom to do their own thing (23). What that means is that they did not have a major label pushing them to do one thing or another, so they were able to pick and choose what they did or did not want to do regarding their music, the scene they played in, and where they wanted to tour. If they would have had a major label, they would not have had the ability to do these things on their own. Ian Moran states in his article “Punk: The Do-It-Yourself Subculture” that the reason these bands were considered DIY was also because of the fact that they specifically wanted to seek an alternative lifestyle from the norms of music at the time (58). The norms definitely were not the crazy hair, weird style, aggressive behavior, or form of music these bands portrayed. For example, punks did not care what other people thought of them, they were just doing the music they wanted to do and trying to get a message across that they strongly believed in. If someone did not like it, that actually fueled them, because then they knew they were accomplishing their

    Read More

  • Hegemony and Youth Culture

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Dave Grohl's Sonic Highways

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    tells a story about not having a guitar until he was in his teens, but playing with rubber bands or a string with a button on it just so he could hear it. This idea is eventually tied to punk, a connection that was right on. The DIY spirit of both genres is clear and is reflected in the rawness of both. In a voice over, Grohl says something to the effect that hearing old blues records or old punk records, it’s hard to imagine either of these styles would have a commercial aspect to them at all. It’s like they were just recorded for the artist

    Read More

  • Grunge Style Analysis

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    Most commonly referred to as “Seattle Sound”. Sometimes the songs sound like happy songs but if you listen to the words and what they are saying, it can turn into something really sad and depressing fast. The term grunge was said to be started in Seattle washington as a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the 1980s, by the 1990s it started to become more popular and it started spreading to california and other parts of the u.s. even to some parts of australia. Grunge really started to breakout with records from band such as Nirvana, pearl jam, and Sound Garden. One of Cobain's songs (Smells like teen spirit) was thought to have started the grunge movement. But there are many great Groups such as Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and Husker Do to name a few. Pop Punk was most often referred to by SoCal, with groups like Green Day Blink-182.

    Read More

More about Punk Music- History of American Popular Music

Open Document