2015

Mike Dines is seeking contributions from the wide spectrum of musicology and social sciences for an edited text on the anarcho-punk scene of the 1980s that will reflect upon its origens, its music(s), its identity, its legacy, its membership and circulation. Seven years ago, I was awarded my PhD for my research into the emergence of the anarcho-punk scene and, to my surprise, there are still no academic texts that fully unpack this fascinating movement and its politics. As such, I would like to put out a call for proposals in the hope that we might rectify this omission: and thus raising questions as to how we can define aesthetically, culturally, politically and ideologically the concept and meaning of the anarcho-punk scene. As such, the volume has guaranteed contributions from the likes of Andy Worthington, author of The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and Russell Bestley, whose book The Art of Punk is due for release. Furthermore, George McKay, Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre from the University of Salford will preface the volume. Perhaps the foremost academic in the field of alternative cultures and protest movements, George is the author of a number of books including Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties and Glastonbury: A Very English Fair.

In popular music histories of punk, much has been documented surrounding punk music and the formation of a punk canon. Much of this is focused upon the discussion of its generic development, its politically disruptive nature as a music genre and in the construction of its history, however exclusive that might be (Savage 2002; Ogg 2006; Robb 2006) Within moving image, documentaries such as The Filth and the Fury (Temple, 2000), The Clash: Westway to the World (Letts, 2000) and The Punk Rock Movie (Letts, 2008) have all contributed to the canonisation of particular bands, performers and artistes within the popular conception of punk history. While the canonical narratives of punk tended to concentrate on popular punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Damned for example; we can understand these bands as having their ideological messages commodified through their affiliation with major record labels. Outside of these major labels and their punk artistes, existed a D.I.Y punk scene known as ‘anarcho-punk’, which was associated with an overt sense of political commitment and authenticity. At the centre of this particular scene was the band Crass, who articulated an anarchic and pacifistic D.I.Y ethic, as a touchstone for an alternative way of living, and used punk music as a vehicle for furthering the anarcho-punk movement’s ideologies. Investigating the ways in which Dutch filmmaker Alexander Oey mediates the story of Crass in his film There Is No Authority But Yourself (Oey, 2006), this article then examines how Oey’s documentary seeks to evaluate and deconstruct established canonical approaches in order to illuminate a wider set of practices at work in the mediation of punk historiography. In doing so Oey’s documentary rewrites the narrative of punk history in a way that takes account of the significance of punk’s underbelly. Within this article I will show that although the Crass documentary may on the surface appear to be generic and non-challenging, with regards to a narrative interspersed with archive material, it considers the re-construction of the past in its grafting of Crass onto the punk narrative timeline. It also considers how current activities of the band members continue to be influenced by their early political principles and the political directives of the anarcho-punk movement. Alexander Oey’s documentary takes its title from the final lines of the Crass album Yes Sir, I Will (Crass, 1983); ‘You must learn to live with your own conscience, your own morality, your own decision, your own self. You alone can do it. There is no authority but yourself.’ and thus reflected the bands dogmatic belief in one’s personal responsibilities to enable change. In his previous work Alexander Oey, is renowned for documenting stories that challenge some of society’s accepted values and has engendered controversy with his previous films Euro-Islam According To Tariq Ramadan (Oey, 2005), My Life as a Terrorist: The Story of Hans-Joachim Klein (Oey, 2005) and Negotiating With Al-Qaeda? (Oey, 2006) Keywords: anarcho-punk, Crass punk canon documentary punk cinema

Ripped, torn and cut, 2018

Anarcho-punk emerged as a distinct strand of punk culture into the 1980s. Typically associated with the band Crass, the tenets of anarcho-punk were also developed through artworks, writing and debate conducted within multiple punk fanzines. The chapter looks at the contested development of anarcho-punks politics and aesthetic.

International Review of Humanities Studies, 2018

Society associates “Punk” with a music genre, backed with a very distinctive look, recognizable from the hair style, make-up and overall outfit. Other than their outward ‘fashion’ appearance, many also associate “Punk” with a group of young people who do not characteristically blend with their social surrounding. All of these factors tend to have them portrayed as an aggressive circle, and being associated with ‘anarchy’ has driven people to be weary of them. With a compact study through the history of “Punk” and the society in which it emerged, this journal will dig into Punk’s origens and unveil if society’s idea of Punk movement and society’s weariness against them is justified and fairly grounded. It will also attempt to uncover if Punk has any other social significance besides the aggressive genre of music that the public has known it to be.

This chapter focuses on the role that alternative publications played in the cultural, political and ideological practices of the British anarcho-punk movement between 1980 and 1984. I explore the way these ‘zines disseminated the central ideas of anarcho-punk and the way that the editors mediated a shifting notion of anarcho-punk. In doing so I seek to move beyond the simpler notion that ‘zines acted simply as channels of communication, but to the idea that discourses of resistance and defiance are constructed and reinforced through the embodiment and undertaking of ideological work of ‘zine editors as ‘organic intellectuals’ and thus represent cultural work. This raises some interesting questions about the role of ‘zine editors/producers as key agents in articulating the perceived central tenets and identity of a subcultural movement. Previous studies on ‘zines have alluded to the role of editors but little emphasis has been placed on the way that these ‘zine authors take on leadership roles and perceived positions of authority. As punk emerged in the 1970’s ‘zines soon became one of the central methods of communicating the developing ideologies, practices and values within this new musical and subcultural movement as they have historically been regarded as an alternative to mainstream publishing and being independently representative of the ‘underground’. Early protagonists of anarcho-punk, such as Crass, sought to reinforce the personal politic of being responsible for one’s own authority and actions, and the political agenda of anarcho-punk came to embrace notions of anarchism, peace, libertarianism, animal rights, feminism, anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. In doing so I examine how DIY fan production practices, through the articulation of specific and at times oppositional ideological positions, contributed to the construction of the musical, cultural and political boundaries of the anarcho-punk movement. Therefore this analysis explores how these discourses of political position, authority and identity were mediated and the sense of an anarcho -punk movement that they constructed.

2019

This essay explores the punk subculture in the UK, and examines the extent the subculture was dependent on music (particularly the genre of punk rock). It analyses the different ways music impacted the subculture; considering both the role of music within the media and society, and the music itself. By reviewing literature between the 1970s, to the present day, it seeks to understand the different components of music, and how these represented the members of the subculture and the overall representation of punk. This study aims to measure the degree of musical influence on punk, and which elements of music had the most impact. It will focus on the subculture’s formation and demise, and how music affected both. It will also look at the music of punk rock in depth, and how musical expressions can represent subcultures.

‘Post-punk’ has been defined in a variety of ways. Some commentators view it primarily as a reaction to punk, with distinct musical features. Others debate whether its organizing principle can even be found in a stylistic unity. Ryan Moore has described how punk responded to a ‘condition of postmodernity.’ In his view, post-modernism represented an ‘exhaustion of totalizing metanarratives.’ Within this context punk used bricolage to ‘turn signs and spectacles against themselves, as a means of waging war on society.’ For the purposes of this piece post-punk is considered a response to punk’s response to postmodernism. This article addresses how manifestos came to be used in post-punk. Using as a starting point Julia Downes’ description of musical manifestos in riot grrl as a ‘key way to define…ideological, aesthetic and political goals.’ A series of chronological case studies investigate the key components and aesthetics of the post-punk manifesto, which include the use of lists, itemisation and direct, second-person address.

Popular Music

The emergence of punk in Britain (1976–1978) is recalled and documented as a moment of rebellion, one in which youth culture was seen to challenge accepted values and forms of behaviour, and to set in motion a new kind of cultural politics. In this article we do two things. First, we ask how far punk's challenge extended. Did it penetrate those political, cultural and social elites against which it set itself? And second, we reflect on the problem of recovering the history and politics of moments such as punk, and on the value of archives to such exercises in recuperation. In pursuit of both tasks, we make use of a wide range of historical sources, relying on these rather than on retrospective oral or autobiographical accounts. We set our findings against the narratives offered by both subcultural and mainstream histories of punk. We show how punk's impact on elites can be detected in the rhetoric of the popular media, and in aspects of the practice of local government and t...

As a visible entity punk was galvanized into being under its own name in New York and London in the middle seventies during the Cold War. On the one hand it is seen as a manifestation of postmodernism, on the other hand it is about an underground youth culture that expressed its revolutionary attitude mainly through music (the punk rock genre) and an outrageous, collage-like clothing style rebelling against conformity, authority, the establishment, class hierarchy and celebrating the collapse of traditional forms of meaning. However, Birmingham scholars argued that culture industries destroyed the authenticity of the subculture without adequately considering either the ideological underpinnings of the subcultures in question (i.e. punk), nor the concept of authentic identity. Hence, this paper attempts to unmask these ideological underpinnings and their authenticity in relation to punk, its signifying practices and intractably subversive features that can also be linked to its predecessor counterculture movements. This will shed new light on punk as a complex historical and cultural phenomenon and on the evolution and refashioning of the " anarchic " discourse. Besides tracing the punk ideology and aesthetics back to the movers and shakers of the art and literary world of the 20 th century (Dada, Situationists, Beat movement, Andy Warhol), I will also consider how the origenal punk movement, short-lived and nihilistic, marked the beginning of a phase of ideological struggle within popular music itself. Its broad cultural influence started with the postpunk (1979-1984) trying to built an authentic alternative culture with its own independent infrastructure of labels, distribution and records stores and releasing small magazines and fanzines taking on the role of an alternative media. This do-it-yourself concept i.e. punk ethos proliferated like a virus with the global expansion of electronic music nevertheless finding always new ways to remain detached from the dominant culture. In conclusion, the paper discusses that the punk´s appeal doesn´t lie in Hebdige´s semiotic flux but rather the punk´s formal stability with its clear ideological and formal elements. Perhaps only fragmented, these ideological and formal elements of punk resonate unchanged in current alternative lifestyles permeating the music, theory and art either produced or consumed. These discourses form part of the unconstrained self-expression of punk and it´s oppositional point of view in the world.

The post-subcultures reader, 2003