While I have often been a critic of those in the punk movement who subscribe to the ideal of anarchy, my research thus far has helped me reevaluate my own position as a participant in both punk and mainstream societies. Anarchy under the punk movement is not, as it may appear, grounded in the proposal of a lawless, chaotic statelessness. It may be strange for a person who has participated heavily as a punk for nearly a decade to write this, but I just got anarchy. It is critical to distinguish the punk proposal of anarchy as the removal of compulsory laws which are created in a non-participatory environment (such as the current constitutional republic of the United States).
This understanding of the call by punk to “Murder the Government ” is a second major turning point for me in the development of this proposed plan of research. The first was the realization that many (though by no means all) researchers before this point have mischaracterized punk as an adolescent phase of rebellion by suburbanites against their parents rather than a meaningful social movement. Bikini Kill, which while specifically framing a feminist movement within punk also demonstrates a feeling within the punk movement as a whole, declairs:
“BECAUSE we must take over the means of production to create our own moanings [. . .] BECAUSE we don’t wanna assimilate to someone else’s (boy) standards of what is or isn’t [. . .] BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock “you can do anything” idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl revolution that seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours. BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-hierarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.”
While it is not inaccurate to say that teenage rebellion often arises dressed in the ‘uniform’ popularized by the punk movement throughout the last thirty years, it is not fair to characterize the punk movement using this population as a standard. While some of these members of the punk movement may indeed learn, be influenced by and participate in punk politics, many are simply experimenting with the role of the rebel and will “grow out” of the culture later in life. Regardless, the outward signs displayed by these neophyte punks are often the most radical (short of those displayed by band members: the “professional” punks) and thus are more able to be targeted as a population by researchers.
A second mischaracterization is the idea that punks become punk in order to create a sense of individuality against the tide of mainstream consumerist culture, and for these punks identity ends with individuality. However, this only allows part of the story of punk identity to be told, and thus oversimplifies the goals of the movement, allowing the misreading of the movement and leading to the fallacious conclusion that “Punk is Dead .” The story of punk identity does not end with a creation in each punk of a sense of individuality (except in relation to the personal choice to deviate from mainstream culture), but in reality with a sense of community and belonging .
The emergence of popular punk culture (realized in the Hot Topic chain store as well as the commercial success of many punk bands) has been taken by many as proof that punk has died and its remains have been commodified by the establishments it challenged. Essentially, the authenticity of modern punk sentiment has come into doubt because of its growing popularity and the perceived endorsement by popular culture. An understanding of anarchy and a rectification of the issue of punk identity enable the ability to question the reality of punk’s demise.
I argue that the modern “marketing of punk” does not signify the triumph of capitalism over the punk movement, but rather the success the punk movement has had in resetting the boundaries of society and in some senses occupying the means of cultural production to promote its own ends. Punk is successful because it has changed the way we conceive the world – through moderation of the body, diffusion of musical styles, and a redefining of what is the frontier of the radical in society.
There are two things wrong with the above title.