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Tomoya Cruz
Music 1040
Barbara Shelton
The Last Subculture
Punk rock culture has often been referred to as a dead musical subculture, and has dulled
and weakened down from breaking out of normality views of the adolescence, to a petty fashion
design without influential messages that Punk once had in the past on the younger adults. Punk
had started out as a music-based subculture, with the word punk refereeing to an amateur
guitarist and the style started from garage bands, so its history is one that practically cannot be
traced in America, however some bands such as Velvet Underground and New York Dolls are
said to have been one of the few bands of this genre in America, that started the push towards
Punk culture. It started out in Great Britain, with a pessimistic attitude for the future, and did
everything it could to be against the social norm of society at the time, along with the feeling of a
hopeless future theme throughout many of the songs such as God Save the Queen 1976 from
the Sex Pistols. Though they were against the social norms, they were also at odds with Hippies
and their messages of society.
The person I interviewed is named Troy Black, my uncle who was greatly influence by
punk culture in his youth, and had a more positive and lighter attitude for Punk when he was
introduced to it in the early 1990s and towards the 2000s. He did however have the stereotypical
tendencies of Punk culture for the distain of the norm in society and wanting to break out of the
system, and had previously before had Heavy Metal influence before he got into Punk. He had
the 6 inch Mohawk, often in different colors such as green, blue, orange etc. and shaved the sides
once every week, the black Mary Kay eyeliner, piercings and tattoos, and had said that it costed a
lot of money and effort to keep up the look. The haircut and eyeliner came to a total of 30
dollars, the tattoos and piercings however were the more expensive products, ranging from 70 to
180 dollars for one tattoo, and the jewelry starting around 100. Unlike the stores that we have

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today that dedicate themselves to having punk style merchandise, he had to buy his accessories
from places like the DI or Savers.
He enjoyed the light heartedness of the music of songs like Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
or The Quitter. Those songs showed the silliness in some of the punk rock music compared to
the other music that had been present in the early 21st century. What brought him into the punk
rock culture were his friends influence when they would bring their own mix tapes filled with
different punk rock music, and would listen to it as they drove in their cars, till eventually his
friend burned him a copy. They would go to concerts together, and to Troy, it seemed that
everyone was super friendly and easy to talk to at those events. He eventually got into dressing in
the punk rock style as they got Mohawks, pierced their ears, lips, and tongue. He loved the style
of the music, and how silly it was, and sometimes he could relate to the messages that were given
in those lyrics. He would go to the Warp tour, and all day event where different punk bands
would play. His passion for art had been as well incorporated into the Punk culture as he took up
a hobby as a tattoo artist.
The main point for them was to be able to identify as themselves, and be different in their
own ways, yet have belongingness in a group. He mentioned that it felt like they were looking
out for each other. Contrary towards some myths or beliefs, mosh pits (at least to the concerts he
had gone through when he was active in Punk culture) were not as violent as many are rumored
by other people. In a recent video asking people of the punk culture today, what ideas they had
for women who feel unsafe in punk rock concerts, people would casually say that they could
make a separate section where women could knit and sew during the concerts. However
according to Troy, if a girl were to have fallen down during those Punk concerts, theyd stop and
help her back up to make sure that she didnt get trampled.
Though there is a lot of light heartedness in his story, there are many groups in the Punk
culture that do have violence, drugs and anarchy incorporated in their culture. In Great Britain;

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where the whole culture started, there were many children who were influenced by the rebellious
views of Punk artists and lived a much less healthy lifestyle filled with drugs, alcohol and sex. In
a quick five minute documentary, an interviewer recorded a story, where a group of punk kids
had gathered in a small, abandoned house that was set for deconstruction, and lived together in
close proximities. The house had vulgar words spray-painted onto the wall they would play and
sing about nothing while getting drunk and high off of different drugs. Though they had a few
rules as for what drugs they could take while in the house, it still did not improve the sanity of
the household while they were kissing the rats in their house. The reporter had joked whether it
would be the kids to contract a disease from the rat, or the other way around.
Of course, that is just one example of what some of this subculture was like back in Great
Britain, with the importation of punk subculture into the United States in the 1970s, there was the
same desire to make themselves stand out, be different, and break away from the way that they
felt the government wanted them to be. There was a need to shock the audience with their music,
lighting, fashion, language, and sexual questions to their viewers. Some of these groups would be
walking around Great Britain, and charging anyone that would try to photograph them, or taking
on apprentices onto the streets to do the same thing.
Social wise, they make themselves a magnet to attention as they get multiple piercings on
their face and body, have extremely unusual colored hairs and hair styles, and flashy fashion
choices. The Punk music genre has the message of being out of the norms of society crafted by
the government and to break away the social norms that were given to them due to either gender,
race, or even social class, but having the belongingness to be a part of the group as they get the
same hairstyles as Mohawks and Liberty spikes, piercings, tattoos, and similar accessories to
identify as a part of Punk Culture. Punk members do not care about how they look to other
people, that is the whole point for how they dress and act, whether or not theyre trying to gain

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attention from others, they dont care if people find their fashion distasteful or ugly; that is
practically their goal. To be different or to disobey from what others expect from them. In the
song Fatlip by Sum 41, the first few lyrics explains the feeling that bring many people into this
lifestyle. The music is light hearted, with a screw it (though not the exact words that would be
used in Punk) as they live a casual and carefree lifestyle, but its filled with distain and anger
towards establishment.
They had many disagreements with the way other subcultures lived their life, and the
Hippies were the counter-subculture to the Punks with their views of the government, with the
difference being peace vs. anarchy, and the effect had grown from The Great Rock n Roll
Swindle from the Sex Pistols with the saying Never Trust a Hippie. They saw rock n roll as a
mainstream product that paved the way for society of their time. The hate is directed towards
the way that rock n roll is the music that created what was going on today, and those bands and
the people that were a part of the band had a more snobby and stuck up view on Punk Rock
culture.
They were filled with anger towards a system, to be mashed up with the rest of society,
stuck in a docile job day after day, the fear of what would become of them if they were to fall
into place among the rest of them. Life was boring in their views with little excitement. There is
a constant theme of No Future to the people of this genre as they viewed their own future in
the same way. To many viewers, Punk is a dead Subculture as children of that time look back at
punk music and feel nostalgic of their past as children and feeling the happier times of youth, and
it seem that alone is what categorized Punk as a dead culture. To others however, Punk will
always in their hearts be a form of youth rebellion and disobedience.

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Works Cited
Moliterno, Alessandro G. "What Riot? Punk Rock Politics, Fascism, and Rock Against
Racism."Student Pulse 4.01 (2012). <http://www.studentpulse.com/a?id=612>
1983 Islington Squatter Punk Documentary.
Raposo, Ana. Never Trust a Hippie: The Representation of 'Extreme' Politics in Punk Music
Graphics and the Influences of Protest and Propaganda Traditions
Cogan, Brian. What Do I Get? Punk Rock, Authenticity and Cultural Capital.
Bartelt, Megan. No Future: The Conception and Evolution of Punk Music and Culture in the
United States and Great Britain from 1965 to the Present
Clark, Dylan. 2003. The Death and Life of Punk, The Last Subculture, pp. 223-36, in David
Muggleton and Rupert Weinzierl (eds.), The Post-Subcultures Reader. Oxford: Berg.
Hanner, Nathan. 2003. Unpopular Culture: The Relationship Between Punk Rock and
Mainstream Society.
Moran, Ian. 2011. Punk: The Do-It-Yourself Subculture. Western Connecticut State University
Sum 41. Fat Lip. Rec. 2001. 2001. Web. 23 Mar. 2016
Lydon, John, Steve Jones, and Glen Matlock. "God Save the Queen." By John Lydon and Paul
Cook. Rec. 1977. God Save the Queen. The Sex Pistols. Chris Thomas, 1977. Rolling
Stone. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.