Subculture
What does Punk mean?
A scene of short rock, refusal and do-it-yourself: New York in the mid-1970s, London in 1976 — the mohawk came later.
Definition
It is music, zines, distros and a way of producing without asking leave. In New York, between 1974 and 1976, CBGB — opened December 1973 on the Bowery; the letters were still country, bluegrass, blues — became home to Television, Patti Smith, the Ramones and Blondie. In January 1976 Punk magazine stuck the label on the scene. In London, Malcolm McLaren came back from the New York Dolls in 1975, with Vivienne Westwood’s SEX shop and the Sex Pistols; 1976 is the year of the British panic.
Then came hardcore, post-punk, Oi! and pop-punk. DIY — your own label, a fanzine, a basement show — became ethic as much as look. Goth and visual kei borrowed hair and black; the core remains refusal and three chords. The word also became a shop-window adjective.
Origin
In older English, punk was an insult: a kid, a prostitute, trash. In the 1960s critics already called garage rock punk. The New York scene inherited the slur; the 1976 magazine and 1976 Britain made it a tribe name. Suicide, in 1970, already described their own sound as punk.
History
From the Bowery to King’s Road the look — ripped shirt, pin, Richard Hell’s cropped hair — became a uniform. In the 80s American hardcore sped the tempo up; in the 90s mall pop-punk lived next to the distro. The adjective (“that’s so punk”) outlived the first generation and the expensive jacket.
How it emerged
Short basement rock needed a name that did not ask AM radio for permission. The old insult fit: whoever played CBGB and whoever spat in London wore the word as pride.
Usage examples
DIY still weighs more than the expensive jacket.
She runs the label from her room and calls it punk.
Translations
- pt punk
- en punk
- es punk
Synonyms
- DIY
- hardcore
- CBGB
- three chords