Global Punk in the 21st-Century cfp

2019

Russ Bestley, Mike Dines, Alastair Gordon and Paula Guerra (eds.): The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global, published by Intellect Books and The University of Chicago Press, August 2019. Edited by Bestley, Dines, Gordon and Guerra, designed by Russ Bestley. A first edition of this book was originally produced as a very short run proof print via the University of Porto, Portugal, in conjunction with KISMIF and the Punk Scholars Network. At that stage, the original named editors were Dines, Gordon and Guerra and Russ Bestley worked as graphic designer to pull the project together and create a final book layout. Bestley was also heavily involved in editing and proofing the various stages of the book through to printing. played a major part in not just the visual outcome of that content but also the editing (arranging and selecting material, text editing and visual editing), acting as more than simply someone who makes a graphic ‘product’ and in more of a c...

LUX, 2013

Little media attention has been devoted to the burgeoning punk scene that has raised alarm abroad in areas such as Banda Aceh, Indonesia and Moscow, Russia. While the punk subculture has been analyzed in-depth by such notable theorists as Dick Hebdige and Stuart Hall, their work has been limited to examining the rise and apparent decline of the subculture in England, rendering any further investigations into punk as looking back at a nostalgic novelty of post-World War II British milieu. Furthermore, the commodification of punk music and style has relegated punk to the realm of an alternative culture in Britain and locally in the U.S. In these current international incarnations, however, a social space for this alternative culture is threatened by severe punishment including what Indonesian police officials have label "moral rehabilitation" and, in the case of Russian punks, imprisonment. Punk today is once more-or, for the first time, truly becoming-an oppositional culture as described by Raymond Williams, rather than a non-threatening alternative. The international punk scene has become deeply connected to other punks through the internet, creating a growing global community. Through musical and stylistic culture, punk offers its members much more: a voice that questions established values, that screams for change. In these nations where punks have little agency in political and social matters, a guitar and a microphone offer a means of speaking. The communal aspect of punk creates an arena for those involved to foster a culture of dialogue and dissent.

Punk music is regarded as a very particular genre of music, because it is only enjoyed by a small group of people, and this very particularity produces space for its listeners to express their identities namely, as punk rockers. The music portrays an extreme idea of how the adolescence sees the society that they are living in. Facilitated by globalization, it is now how they perceive the world, and even, how it ought to be. In this essay, I will explain the evolution of Punk music, and also how the music production

‘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.

Punk and Post-Punk Journal, 2018

Conference Review: Fourth Punk Scholars Network Conference and Postgraduate Symposium, University of Bolton, Bolton, UK, 12–13 December 2017

Smash the System! Punk Anarchism as a Culture of Resistance, 2022

At Klub Counteraction-the main hub for punk and hardcore activity in the city of Sapporo, on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido-there is no mistaking the influence of British anarcho-punk and hardcore of the 1980s. Posters, record sleeves, band merchandise, and even tattoos echo the now classic styles of UK luminaries such as Crass, Discharge, Chaos UK and The Exploited. Spend some time at the venue and it soon becomes clear that, in addition to the visual style, the engagement with a politically aware practice of punk activism is also something that has been embraced by the Sapporo community. Charity events, benefits, and efforts to raise awareness of issues including racism, hate-speech, animal welfare, LGBTQ rights, and nuclear disarmament abound-to name but a few. This, of course, extends to the music, too. While the scene as a whole is remarkably eclectic, political and social commentary are common themes in many of the local bands' activities. It is clear that, here in Sapporo, hardcore (and punk) is, indeed, 'more than music'. At first glance, it would be natural to assume that punks in Sapporo, in particular (and Japan, in general), have adopted punk and hardcore tropes from 'the West' more-or-less wholesale. Such an apparently universalist (sub)cultural colonisation would be problematic, to say the least. However, Mueller (2011) argues that hardcore punk practices are 'dislocal'. He asserts that local and/or global (sub)cultural identities are 'loci of action' (2011, p. 138) around which and through which subculturalists act in ways that are constantly (re)constituting these same loci. He offers the humble distrosmall-scale, independent dealers in records, clothes, and other subculturerelated goods-as one example of a loci of action which simultaneously bridges and transcends localities. These collectors and re-sellers of music and

Popular Music

With Contemporary Punk Rock Communities, Ellen M. Bernhard makes a valuable contribution to scholarship on punk. She shows that punk in the US today is not identical to what it was in the past, and teases out a lot of detail about the changes that have occurred. She writes in an engaging way, weaving herself into the narrative in a manner that I found quite effective: it becomes clear, from the introductory pages onwards, that Bernhard is someone who knows these communities well. I do have a few aspects of the book to query in this review, but I certainly think it is a very welcome output which will have great value for those of us who are interested in the way US punk has changed since the 1990s. The shift in question begins with 'the popularization of the genre during the mid-90s and early 2000s, following the decline of grunge' (p. 7). From that time onwards, 'access to contemporary punk rock was accomplished with relative ease' thanks to MTV, 'video games' (Bernhard may be thinking of the likes of Skate 3) and a chain-store called Hot Topic which the author mentions at several points in the book (ibid.). Bernhard emphasises the pivotal importance of 1994 for the rise of 'pop punk' (Green Day's Dookie being released that year, for example) and demise of grunge (pp. 8-9). These days, it seems, a punk festival can be sponsored by a company like Pabst Blue Ribbon (p. 12) without many punks batting an eyelid (Bernhard herself passes over this datum without commenting that, in the 1980s, such a company linking itself to punk would have been unthinkable). The contemporary US punk scene, she argues persuasively, is more influenced by popular culture than pre-1990s punk was and is very much focussed on 'inclusivity and diversity'. She notes that her punk respondents showed 'little derision directed toward bands who signed to major record labels or agreed to allow their music to be used in an advertisement'. The respondents were 'ambivalent' about co-optation in general (ibid.). Bernhard draws some interesting links between hegemony and the co-optation process, suggesting that the relationship between punk and the mainstream is not antithetical today, owing to 'the normalization of punk fashion, the music, and the punk lifestyle' (pp. 26-7). I was a little disappointed that she did not tap into longer debates around co-optation, such as the arguments within the Frankfurt school, and was surprised at her declaration 'I believe that the mainstream is neither bad nor good when discussing contemporary punk scenes' (p. 27). That said, I recognise the veracity of her suggestion that 'issues of representation, sexism, homophobia, and so on' have today overtaken the more explicitly counter-hegemonic character which punk used to (and sometimes still does) have (p. 27). These issues of 'representation' are core to the distinction between contemporary and older punk. For Bernhard's generation, punk's main purpose is not to change

The post-subcultures reader, 2003

MA Thesis, 2011

This thesis examines the lives of nine women who were part of the creation of the punk scene in Vancouver, BC and have continued to identify as punks as they get older. By conducting in-depth interviews that cover specific aspects of their life histories, I gather information on how these women’s participation in punk influenced their choices and goals and how they, in turn, influenced the punk scene. Using theoretical concepts from the works of bell hooks and Pierre Bourdieu, I argue that the women were able to exercise a great deal of creative agency despite the many restrictions to which they were subject because of their gender, class, style and life circumstances. They were able to turn limitations into opportunities that enriched their own lives and the community around them in a way that shows how a marginal cultural movement may contribute to greater social change.

Verlag der �sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften eBooks, 2005