Punks what do they do. Subculture Punk, an informal punk movement

Introduction

1 Who are they Punks?

2 Etymology of the word Punk.

2.1 The word "Punk" in dictionaries referring to people

2.2 The word "Punk" related to music

3 Prerequisites for the emergence of Punk

3.1 English unemployment

3.2 DIY

4 History of the Punk subculture

5 Punk's clothes and hairstyle

6 Punk Today

6.1 Punk as seen by society

6.2 What is punk now

Conclusion

Literature

Application

What I really like about punk is who

No matter what you write about him, it's all wrong!

Anscombe and Blair

INTRODUCTION

Why did I take this topic?
I took this topic because it is quite close to me. After all, punks are mostly young people. And I myself belong to this category. I will try to describe the essence of the Panks, their concepts, the goals they pursue, their aspirations, ideology, etc.
The subculture of punks refers to the general movement of informals, of which there are a great many types (punks, metalheads, hippies, systems specialists, rappers, etc.), these types usually make up a fairly large part of the youth.
In addition, I believe that this topic of "Punks" is very relevant today, it has always been relevant, since punks have always stood out among other informals. Punk associations, in fact, are a whole system, it is a rather peculiar social formation. It cannot be called a group, it is rather a social environment, a social circle, a conglomeration of groups or even their hierarchy. Where there is a clear division into "us" and "them". Simply put, this is a state within a state that requires a very deep study.
My goal is to convey to people all the information that I know about Punks. I am absolutely sure that knowledge about this culture of youth is very scarce and society considers Panks to be garbage, dirty, not washed with terrible hairstyles - Iroquois on their heads. This happened precisely because people's minds are poisoned by disinformation from newspapers and magazines. And it is my duty to correct this lack of information.

PART 1

WHO ARE THE PUNKS?

Punk is an extremely complex cultural phenomenon, the main task of which was the destruction of all kinds of stereotypes and frames. It is not just a musical style - punk rock, but a certain form of civilization that implies a system of values, a type of behavior, an aesthetic program, like most other youth subcultures (metalheads, rappers, etc.), which were formed around a certain musical trend (metal -metal, rappers - rap), developing their ideological platform and lifestyle. Punk culture was constituted as a movement of a protest type, with a pronounced orientation against the dominant culture, against a mass surrogate. Thus, Punk was and is a counterculture.

"I am absolutely convinced that Punk can be a force for social awakening, and possibly change, bringing concrete changes in the lives of many young people. Music and lyrics make you think, choose and, above all, act," says Felix Havok , figure in the modern American punk/hardcore movement. Some may not agree with his words, but it is necessary to listen and appreciate the music that punks create. I am absolutely sure that you will agree with the above belief after listening to this music.

PART 2

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD PUNK

The word "Punk" in dictionaries referring to people

Initially, it had negative connotations. In the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, "punk" means:

- obsolete. street wench (1596);

- Amer. rotten wood or wood mold used dry to start fires; tinder, rotten (1707)16.

In the English-Russian Dictionary of Muller V.K. (M., 2000) the following Russian meanings are given to the word "punk":

- worthless person;

- smth. unnecessary, worthless, nonsense;

-Amer. Punk, "bastard", punks;

-Amer. inexperienced youth, simpleton;

The word "punk" related to music

As far as music is concerned, the term was first applied to the so-called "garage rock"(1964-1967) - a musical youth movement in the United States, inspired by such British groups as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (for example, the Sonics, Seeds, etc.). Later, he was attached to another musical direction that appeared in New York in 1973-74 ("The Ramones", "Television", "New York Dolls", "Patty Smith Group", etc.). And, finally, this name was given to the rebellious English groups of 1976-1978. (most famously "Sex Pistols", "Clash", "Damned", "Alternative TV", "X-Ray Spex") journalists who thought they had discovered key points of similarity between these musicians and New Yorkers.

Thus, initially the word "Punk" in the meaning of "rotten" was used as a metaphor for American bands that touched on taboo topics in their songs and behaved as obscenely as possible. So, Lou Reed, the leader of the legendary New York group "Velvet Underground" during the heyday of hippie culture (1966-1968) and slogans like "non-resistance to evil with violence" sang about sexual perversions, growing drug use, social exclusion, the cruelty of society, complete hopelessness and disappointment in the future among young people. The vocalist of the group "The Stooges", a representative of the New York Punk of the first half of the 1970s, Iggy Pop (real name - James Jewel Osterberg) was furious and outraged on stage: he could safely take off his pants on stage during a concert or spit at the audience by typing more saliva in your mouth.

PART 3

PREREQUISITES FOR THE APPEARANCE OF PUNK.

English unemployment

In the mid-1970s, America did not have the conditions that provoked the counterculture of the 1960s ("new left", hippies, beatniks, yippies17, etc.). In the UK, the 1970s are the time of the greatest youth unemployment, such was only before the war. The global energy crisis, which led to economic difficulties, further worsened the already far from well-being of the youth of Great Britain. This contributed to an atmosphere of social hopelessness and spiritual hopelessness, which, in turn, led to the spread among young people of moods of despair and doom, which could not find expression in the pacifist, non-aggressive hippie subculture. It was this moment, according to Ted Polymus, that became unifying for the punk subculture, despite its social heterogeneity: "Punks were not (as is commonly believed) entirely working-class slum dwellers. Some were, but most were middle-class guys , as well as teenagers from wealthy suburban areas.They all had in common a hatred of hippies, "sluggish, lazy and boring."

DIY- Do it yourself

Another important prerequisite for the emergence of punk was the change in the status of rock, which by the mid-1970s had turned from the music of rebellious children into "music for parents." In other words, rock has largely lost its countercultural qualities and become a product of mass culture. Rock brought huge profits to producers, performers, music corporations. Success and wealth has isolated rock groups from ordinary youth. Now these were inaccessible idols "entertainers" who came to concerts in luxurious limousines under police protection.

The punks made a sharp break with this tradition. Basically, punk CDs were made quickly and cheaply in small recording studios. Punk bands did not enter into contracts with major labels (large record companies) and were distributed by independent companies. Punk opposed commercial music in two ways: firstly, it boycotted the major record companies, and secondly, it changed the process of creating music, proclaiming "everyone can do it!" "Professionalism was considered an external attribute of commercial rock ... The words "star" and "fame" were cursed (anathema) for punks. In other words, a genuine Punk band that crossed the line and became famous instantly lost its fans. This position began to form a whole ideological and aesthetic program and lifestyle based on the DIY principle (abbreviated from the English "Do It Yourself -" Do It Yourself "). Its essence lies in the assertion of an autonomous existence, as independent as possible from commercial and government structures. Thus, punk was a new round of counterculture, opposing itself to the dominant and mass culture, the products of which by the mid-1970s were the protest phenomena of the 1960s.

However, in just a few months, the media managed to reduce the punk style to a stereotype. "Media-Punk" was something of a virus, spread by every newspaper, magazine and TV show rushing to warn the world of the "threat" of punk. However, punk's countercultural core proved so strong that the movement continued to evolve while maintaining its " "anti-systemic" essence. In the 1970s, "real" punk did not become a product of mass culture, because it managed very well without commercial structures, relying on the DIY principle.

PART 4

HISTORY OF THE PUNK SUBCULTURE

It is the first wave of punk in the UK (1976-1978) that is considered the punk era and is considered by most researchers. In my opinion, two main trends can be distinguished in it. First, there was a "core" of punk - an environment in which proclaimed slogans were the center of worldview and social action. This environment can be confidently attributed to the phenomenon of counterculture, to protest education. On the other hand, the idea of ​​punk is used, pseudo-punks appear, using the language of the subculture, its style, but ignoring its ideological content. The purpose of such cultural formations is to make money and vulgarize the concepts of Punk culture. In this case, they can be defined as phenomena of mass culture (goods).

The second trend in the punk subculture emerged at the turn of the 1970s and 80s. Punk is getting more and more politicized. Punk bands play concerts in defense of animal rights, against fascism. Inside the subculture, a new youth movement appears - hardcore. Like other movements, it is formed around a musical style - hard, fast, aggressive and, as a rule, politicized music, where the vocalist often does not sing, but shouts out the lyrics. Hardcore and punk constitute today a single DIY culture (denoted punk / hardcore) and mark the logical transition of the punk movement in the West from complete nihilism to positivism.

Unlike English punk, which arose as a natural reaction to the socio-economic crisis in the West, punk in the USSR appears as a protest against totalitarian thinking. Of course, like many other phenomena of the "Soviet underground", he experienced Western influence, although direct borrowing in the 1980s was virtually impossible.

Punk was one of the few musical movements that came to the Soviet Union with minimal delay. In 1976, punk rock appeared in England, and already in 1977 in Leningrad, Moscow, Siberia, young people interested in Western music purchased records from "Sex Pistols", "Clash" and other British punk bands, caught music broadcasts according to the "Voice of America", the BBC with Seva Novgorodtsev, read Soviet magazines and newspapers, which did not fail to respond to the emergence of a new youth trend as "a growth on the rotting body of bourgeois culture" .

If rock music in the USSR was underground, then punk was ": the underground of the underground." It was already a counterculture due to its prohibition and opposed the System, bringing new values, and not rebellion and protest like English punks.

As Alexander Didurov said: “too deep in the thickness of folk life lay, pulsated, grew the root of this tradition (Russian song culture.) of our art, it had shades of thieves and prison folklore, the song motif of homeless children, the factory stream and the courtyard, so and teenage. These "forces" have formed into the power with which they broke through the asphalt and paving stones of our political and economic centers, the fountain of punk rock."

And if at an early stage of the existence of punk behind all this was the idea of ​​self-development, then when punk began to "go down to the masses", democratized, it changed. Punk has turned into a colorful label and has found "fertile ground" for its existence in the face of such a phenomenon as "gopnichestvo".

gopnichestvo- this is a social phenomenon of domestic reality, an unsettled term that in 1980 was synonymous with the word "lubera", "patriotic youth movement", which set itself the goal of fighting informals, rockers. Gopniks are petty hooligans, vocational school students or poor teenagers who have just graduated from school and do not know what to do with themselves, therefore they drink in the yard with friends who are just as unfit and useless (neither the state, nor even their own parents).

Punk, as I said, came to Russia with minimal delay. The first punks appeared in such cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg, but in parallel with the punks from the central cities, Gopniks also appeared in the provinces and distressed cities. Above, I gave the official definition of this social phenomenon, which only partly reflected the truth. In fact, young people, one might say, of hungry cities became Gopniks. She gathered in groups, got into electric trains, trains, went to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and there she arranged beatings of Pankov, while simultaneously engaging in petty hooliganism. These cities were the targets of gopniks for one simple reason. In Soviet times, and even now, in our time, they (Moscow and St. Petersburg) lived a different life. The choice of food products, industrial goods, the level of wages that existed in the capitals was several times higher than in any other cities. The youth of "any other cities" were hurt by this. And so the appearance of the Panks, who put on the Iroquois and threatened the system of socialist values, proclaiming themselves a counterculture, was the last straw that overflowed the cup of patience. Kazan and Nizhne Novgorod were considered especially dangerous groups of Gopniks. But despite this, Punk has evolved more and more.

The Soviet punk culture of the 1980s, initially focusing on the Western trend, organically rethought it, intertwined it with national roots. As a result, absolutely original phenomena arose, generated primarily not by imitation, but by the desire to express oneself and somehow oppose oneself to officialdom. Punk was not so much a musical trend as a social and intellectual one. In the USSR, punk was a counterculture by virtue of its prohibition, so it opposed the System, even if there was no direct political protest in Punk songs. Since 1987, totalitarian mechanisms have begun to actively collapse, and rock music, in my opinion, has made its contribution to this process, albeit a small one, being the bearer of other cultural values. This is where the main contradiction of domestic punk lies: having destroyed the System, he found himself in a difficult situation - what to fight against ("when everything is possible")? After that, punk loses its status as a counterculture with the destruction of prohibition, and the development of modern Western forms of confrontation in Russia is difficult due to the difficult socio-economic and political situation. The existence of the punk movement, as well as other forms of counterculture in the USSR in the form in which they functioned before the perestroika era, lost its meaning at the turn of the 1980s and 90s.

In the 1990s, in Russia there is a transition from a totalitarian regime to a completely different type of civilization, which can contain all the opposing (or trying to resist) cultural phenomena. Western values ​​and the nature of culture (including mass culture) are beginning to actively infiltrate Russian soil. Since the end of the 1980s, Melodiya's monopoly on the production of gramophone records has been crumbling, "homegrown" recording companies are beginning to form, and diverse (including music) radio stations are opening. In 1996, such a form of musical mass culture as MUZ TV appeared, in 1998 - MTV. Thus, if in the 1980s rock culture (and even more so punk) was an "elitist" art - in the sense that it was accessible only to a few throughout the country of many millions (due to its prohibition), then in the 1990s rock music was commercialized. and it begins to be actively replicated, becoming a typical product of mass culture. Music is made for money and forced by advertising and various forms of music media. Thus, in a market economy, a musical composition becomes a product, a commodity that sometimes brings enormous profits.

Here I would like to mention the last, in my opinion, original phenomenon in Russian punk - "coffin mania" (the popularity of the Omsk group "Civil Defense"). The peak of this phenomenon falls on 1992-1996, when the main idols of Russian "punks" were the groups "Civil Defense" and the British "Sex Pistols" and "The Exploited". The social aspect of "coffin mania" was manifested in the fact that teenagers all over Russia listened to the soloist of the Civil Defense "Egorushka" and absorbed his ideas. This, of course, does not apply to all fans of this punk band, but most of them perceived punk as something spiritual (which distinguished it from all other music). They didn't know exactly what punk was. Due to the lack of information, they had nothing to focus on and they created their own image based on the acquired ideas. The basic principle (in their language) was - "I'm a punk, so I don't care!". And not in the sense of an indifferent attitude to everything, but in the sense of freedom, spiritual and "situational". “We could do anything,” my Internet friend Nadia, a student at Moscow State University, recalls about her “punk” life in a village near Moscow in 1994-95. “We felt that we were not like everyone else, we wanted to be not like everyone else." "Civil Defense" was for them a "small life-saving" and a source of new values, it was from "Citizen" that they absorbed the ideas of destroying the System.

Another manifestation of "coffin mania" found expression in music. Under the influence of "Gr.Ob." there is a whole generation of punk bands all over Russia. The ideas of "Siberian punk" were creatively refracted in their songs. They used the main themes of Yegor Letov's texts:

- suicide:

"The coffin is my home, Earth is my bed, Death is my joy, Life is my pain. It hurts me!" (group "Pathology")

- criticism of society:

"All the best - to the children! All the shrines - to the people!

Harmonious people go to work.

Harmonious uncles, harmonious aunts,

Everyone is holy on the outside, but inside you are rotting!"

(group "Growing resistance")

From the mid-1990s, the Russian punk scene began to orient itself towards the corresponding Western ideals, namely Green Day and other Californian pop-punk bands. (Represented by such groups as, for example, Moscow "Cockroaches!" and St. Petersburg "King and the Clown").

In Russian punk rock of the 1990s, there are almost no ideas (whereas in the West, punk is primarily ideological music), and those that were are leveled, i.e. aligned with well-known dogmas. Most of the bands repeat the same stereotypes - "rip off" from the same western model.

PART 5

PUNK HAIR & CLOTHING

Iroquois

Such a hairstyle as a Mohawk appeared a very long time ago. Even the ancient Indians used it for some rituals there to frighten other Indians.

In the world of punk rock, as far as I know, the mohawk was first worn

Lead singer of Exploited. In the early 80s, along with the peak of the group's popularity, the Iroquois were also very popular. It is enough to look at the live recordings of punk bands of those times and it will become clear that this is so. From the beginning to the middle of the 80s, the Iroquois wore Punk groups, and the youth adopted them and also began to “set” them for themselves. Now their popularity has waned. Iroquois are worn only by the most avid punk rockers. Consider the different types of Iroquois:

Classical

I think the most beautiful of all, as well as the classic punk style of clothing. In addition to the already mentioned soloist Exploited, such a Mohawk is worn by members of the Rancid group, in our country this type of Mohawk is worn by a fairly small number of performers, such performers as “Ace” and “Purgen” stand out from them. The essence of this hairstyle is almost completely shaved, with the exception of a narrow strip along the head.

This strip should be a very long strand of hair vertically set in such ways as paraffin or a new trend of Punk culture: Laundry soap + Zhiguli beer. Eyebrows are also completely shaved, but this is not necessary.

Spiked

Such mohawks were worn by members of the Rancid group. They are quite long and hard to put. They are put only with the help of paraffin, and not in any other way. In the west, artificial mohawks such and classic are sold, which are glued to a shaved head.

Mohican

It is the same kind of spikes as a spiked mohawk, but not from the forehead to the back of the head, but all over the head. This hairstyle was worn by the vocalist of GBH. Now she is very fashionable, since it is not at all necessary for her to grow long hair, her hair should be medium for convenience, it is very convenient to put it on and it is not too difficult

garbage can

This hairstyle needs no introduction. Its very easy to make. To do this, you just need to put a trash can on your head, in other words, to ruffle your hair a lot.

More than 30 years have passed since the birth of the Punks culture, but the style of their clothes has not changed much. The clothing style of this subculture cannot be described, it comes down to the exact opposite of normal clothing. That is, no matter what the fashion is and no matter what fashion is invented for the Punks, there will never be a certain style. One thing is for sure, all clothes will be chosen without taste, and possibly under any color of dark tones. If there is a jacket, then on a naked torso, if there are trousers, then tucked into boots. Shoes, as well as in other informal organizations, are special, the main type of shoes worn by Punks is branded shoes from such companies as Grinders, Camelot and others. Its feature is the presence in most models of the iron so-called "glass", which are steel plates that are placed in the toes of the boots and make them durable. They are very well used to break bottles, a seemingly silly but sometimes exciting activity.

In order to understand the external manifestation of this subculture, it is worth getting acquainted with the history of the formation of punk ideology and the emergence of punk.

Punk - this is how prostitutes used to be called in street jargon. In this sense, the word is found in W. Shakespeare's play "Measure for Measure". In America at the beginning of the 20th century, he was already referred to as prisoners - "sixes". Later, the word entered the main lexicon and today is used in the meaning of "dirt", "rotten", "garbage". Punk rock of the 60s is commonly referred to as "garage rock". It appeared in the USA in 1964, where, under the influence of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, a huge number of local ensembles arose. What they played varied considerably depending on the regions, local musical traditions, but mostly it was a mixture of blues, white folk tunes with elements of homegrown skiffle music. The significance of this event can hardly be overestimated - for the first time since the end of the 50s, American youth had "their own" music. Respectable and completely harmless good boys like Bobby Vee or Paul Anka, who were replaced by record companies for rock and roll rebels at the turn of the 60s, fearing that the rock revolution would not go too far, were immediately forgotten. They yielded their positions as youth idols to the dashing pressure of fresh energy, which awakened in young hearts the spirit of freedom of thought and action.

A couple of years later, this powerful all-American movement entered the history of rock music under the aforementioned name of "garage rock". Where did such a strange name come from? Everything is explained very simply: amateur groups rehearsed mainly in garages - they simply had nowhere else to go. "Garage" punks sang for their own pleasure, did not build mercantile plans and were known only among their relatives, friends and neighbors. Their creative searches responded to the demands of not a mass, but a local audience (school, college, district). Among the hundreds of non-professional ensembles of those years, there are hardly two dozen who recorded at least one gramophone record at the studio. But in music they found self-expression, they felt the opportunity to free themselves from the complexes laid down by society and their parents, at least for a while to become themselves, and therefore they put all the accumulated feelings, their whole soul into the works.

Today it is possible to judge "garage rock" only by the few surviving records of those years. Yet the era of 60s punk bands completely ignored by show business was short-lived. This is due to the rapid growth in the number of musical groups and the expansion of the boundaries of rock music, the transition to progressive rock, as well as the search for new styles and directions that unfolded just at that time, which were predetermined by the rapid progress in the field of musical and sound recording technology. By the end of 1967, all punk bands in the United States had either disbanded or were involved in other musical movements. In the future, until the mid-70s, there was no movement ideologically close to garage rock. However, the desire to play simple, aggressive rock music with outrageous elements did not leave individual representatives of the youth subculture, those who liked the amateur uncompromisingness of garage rock. And the grains of this style were generously scattered throughout America.

Seedlings, however, appeared only in places: in New York, Chicago, Detroit, where the bands MC5, Velvet Underground and Iggy and the Stooges appeared in the second half of the 60s. These ensembles eventually became the universally recognized forerunners of 70s punk rock. MC5 (Motor City Five - "Five from the city of motors", that is, Detroit, the center of the US automotive industry) had a loud, hard sound. The violent anti-social mood of the musicians was expressed in the lyrics and the actions of the performers. Their activities in general terms are very similar to the classic version of the later punk band, except for a small detail: MC5 in the spirit of the 60s were convinced that rock and roll could change anything in the world ...

The Velvet Underground elevated ugliness to beauty and were an even more amazing band for their time. During the heyday of the hippie culture and slogans such as "non-resistance to evil by violence", they raised topics in their works that were taboo: sexual perversion, growing drug use, social exclusion, the cruelty of society, complete hopelessness and disappointment in the future among young people. These problems were strenuously treated by everyone, the hippies simply offered to leave them in the world of their own illusions. And in the music and lyrics of the Velvet Underground, the destructive effect of modern civilization was clearly heard, the alarm sounded, as they say.

The Stooges represented the third part of punk rock, the visual. The leader of the ensemble, Iggy Pop, was furious and outrageous on stage: he could easily take off his pants during a concert, or scratch his chest until it bleeds, or spit at the audience, collecting more saliva in his mouth. The first performance of Iggy Pop & the Stooges in 1967 in the city of Err Arbor (Michigan) is described by American critics as follows: "Iggy writhed all over, emitting inarticulate cries, smeared bloody pieces of meat on his naked torso, pretended to cut his skin with a piece glass, then jumped into the auditorium with a running start. The whole action was performed under a primitive and very loud rock ".

Fortunately or unfortunately, but in those years, the charge of hatred, splashed into the euphoric environment of semi-drug addicts, missed the mark. Most of the listeners then did not accept either the music or the ideas of MC5, Velvet Underground and Stooges. The opinion was universally recognized: worse does not happen. However, there were few among the American elite who appreciated the work of these groups. Among them were well-known personalities in the United States: for example, avant-garde artist, pop art artist, film director Andy Warhol, who at first took the Velvet Underground "under his wing". Maybe the bohemian "boys" just got fed up with a luxurious and carefree life and decided to taste something like that? Quite possibly. But there may be something else: the intellectual bohemia was able to be the first to feel the aggravation of the chronic crisis in the developed countries of the world, especially in the USA: the crisis of morality, human and social relationships, the crisis of power. The wave of drug addiction that swept America as a result of the hippie subculture, the realization of the complete failure of the invasion of Vietnam, attempts at detente, which did not lead to a decrease in the confrontation between the two superpowers, since Russia still did not want to part with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe "world revolution", a severe economic crisis, erupted in the early 70s, and, finally, Watergate - these are the milestones of the disillusionment of young people in their own society and in those who govern it. The torch, lit by "garage" and carried through the 60s into the 70s by Iggy Pop, is picked up in 1973-1974 by quite educated young people from New York. They gather in the evenings in two clubs - "CBGB" and "Max" s Kansas City ". New groups become the idol of this youth: Talking Heads, New York Dolls, Ramones, who are now the first punk musicians of the second, real wave of punk rock .

So far, the activities of American punks do not go beyond the boundaries of club parties. They remain within the bounds of decency, practicing mainly in music and avant-garde literature - symbolism, futurism. In general, the intelligentsia is having fun. It's OK. That's what everyone thought until the punk rock storm hit the UK two years later in 1976. The British exactly copied the Americans - and stunned respectable England. What happened in the United States was not very noticeable, raised a storm across the ocean. And the instigator of everything was the not-so-famous owner of the London store of trendy clothes and trinkets, Malcolm McLaren. At the very end of his New York Dolls career, he labored as their manager, subtly caught the main tendencies of New York proto-punk and decided to use this experience in his homeland. The result is stunning. It was called the Sex Pistols. Despite the fact that much in British punk is really perceived with difficulty, it seems wild, unbridled, sometimes some kind of animal impulse, it is seen as a natural phenomenon both in the life of modern society and in the rock music subculture. Punk became the reaction of the "generation without a future" not only to the difficult conditions of life and the impossibility of the full realization of spiritual forces, but at the same time the consumer-petty-bourgeois essence to the intensification of socio-political and information-technological processes. Very quickly it turned into a protest - a form suitable for any clashes on any ground: ideological, social, musical. At first, those in power, frightened, declared the punks to be hooligans. But when hundreds of thousands are hooligans, it is called in a different way - a riot. Moreover, this rebellion arose from the transformed conflict of "fathers and sons." It is amazing: the children were not satisfied with those fathers who once, 20 years ago, quarreled with their own parents. Remember the rise of rock and roll. And now the newly-minted punk rebels of Generation X sang: "I'm trying to get every memory of your generation out of my head. I'll use every opportunity for this. The end justifies the means. Your generation means nothing to me."

However, things were much more complicated now. Old dreams collapsed - no one believed the new ones. The time has come for despair, complete rejection of the surrounding world and nihilism. With an abundance of material wealth, neither society nor the youth in conflict with it turned out to have strong enough moral qualities to use them for the benefit of themselves and all of humanity. This, too, was the cause of the punk riot. At the beginning of 1976, it seemed to respectable British that the British youth had gone crazy. The streets were filled with crowds of disgusting-looking teenagers. In leather jackets and deliberately torn knee-length jeans, with studs in their ears and nose rings, shaven heads or bristling with multi-colored hair, with painted faces and toilet chains thrown over their shoulders like a scarf, they occupied the gateways, local pubs and cafes. They were hooligans in cinemas, defiantly behaved towards the police and bullied passers-by. In this way they hastened to express their protest against the world in which they were born and raised. The philosophy of the punks was the philosophy of the "lost generation", simple to the limit: in a pigsty it is better to be pigs yourself. They finally decided that it was impossible to change the world for the better, and therefore an end was put to life and career in the old sense of the word.

The world has lost its meaning. Life has lost its meaning. The future is gone. For example, the Sex Pistols sang about this: "God save the queen! This is a fascist regime. He made a fool out of you - a potential hydrogen bomb. God save the queen! After all, she is not a living being. And there is no future in the dreams of the British. There is no future, no, for you. We are the flowers in the dustbin. We are the poison of humanity. We are the future. Your future."

The decisive factor was the disregard for others and ourselves, the attitude to always do only what you want right now. Morality turned out to be turned 180 degrees: everything that was considered immoral by normal people, on the street became an external manifestation of "morality". This was clearly expressed by the Slits in the song "Enemy number 1": "If you like white, I will be black. If you love black, I will be yellow. If you value everything reasonable, I will be reckless. If you value reason, I will crazy. If you love peace and flowers, I'll bring knives and chains."

A sort of spirit of contradiction arises behind these lines. To ridicule everything familiar and established, to destroy what has been created for centuries, since it is not for the benefit of everyone, but only for those who are in diamonds - this is how the ideology of punks made its way - the ideology of resisting evil by violence ... over oneself and others. But it is important to note here, and this will be discussed below, that the punk rebellion brought new things to the youth rock protest in comparison with previous years and even the "first rock revolution". The blow was struck not only and not so much at the familiar "targets" - religion and the so-called bourgeois morality, which usually resulted in the promotion of sex and free love, but also at the main social foundations in general - the establishment, militarism, the royal family, etc. This , for example, sounds from Clash. Here are the words from the song "White Rebellion": "All power belongs to those who are able to buy it. We walk the streets like chickens ... And everyone does what they are told. I want people with white skin to rise The white rebellion is my rebellion."

So, the prehistory of punk rock is over. On November 6, 1975, the second rock revolution began. On this day in London at St. Martin's College of Art, the first public performance of the ensemble with the defiant name Sex Pistols took place. The band performed only five self-composed songs, after which a frightened college employee turned off the electricity. The concert lasted 10 minutes. Despite the setbacks, the Sex Pistols were talked about. Mainly due to the scandals that accompanied the appearance of musicians in any place. They were scolded and boned, as no one else has been scolded and boned in rock music. Melody Maker, the leading English weekly, attacked them with a devastating review. Recording Corporation executive Dave Dee, in an interview, gave them this assessment: "Musically, it's just not musical. There is no discipline in what they perform - so I can't wake up love for them. I don't think There is at least some future for this area. And the great worker of rock music Phil Collins casually dismissed: "Yes, they simply do not have talent." Of course! And even more: they not only had no talent - they knew how to play musical instruments somehow. That was the idea behind punk rock! They played their songs not for music, or entertainment, or money, but for street boys and girls like themselves. They dressed the same way, thought the same way, acted (read: hooligans) the same way. Flesh from flesh - the street (by the way, this is how many rock fighters started: the Beatles went on stage with toilet seats around their necks, the Who broke expensive equipment every evening, the Rolling Stones were kicked out of restaurants and hotels for their appearance - they were heroes of their generation. They dressed the same as everyone else, were close and available.This conquered the youth.Equality and brotherhood - naive and a little romantic, but perhaps it was so.And who else could become the head of the youth, which had only one the slogan: "Fight against everything"? The non-conformity of rock and roll has long been forgotten. Rock ensembles are bogged down in tons of electric instruments and other equipment, their opuses at home could not be reproduced, as once the songs of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones 70s rock musicians from Yes, Genesis, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd turned into businessmen and lived in mansions, drove around in limousines under the protection of bodyguards.They no longer had points of contact with the youth, the 12th minute guitar solos or disco dances to a backing track had nothing to do with street teenagers or young unemployed people.

That is why punk offered to create its own alternative world of rock music, which does not require tens of thousands of dollars to buy expensive equipment, does not need contracts with reputable record companies, and is not interested in selling records in millions of copies. All this amateur performance requires is a couple of cheap guitars and a drum kit: anyone with minimal musical ability (although this is not necessary) can organize an ensemble under the roof of their own house. A milestone in the development of British punk rock was the festival, held on 20/21 September 1976 at London's 100 Club. By this time, the leader of the Sex Pistols, Johnny Lydon, had already taken on the pseudonym Johnny Rotten (eng. Rotten - rotten) and turned into "public enemy number 1", becoming at the same time the leader of the "lost generation".

The very first song of the Sex Pistols to become famous became the standard for all imitators: "Anarchy in the United Kingdom". At a wild pace, Rotten seemed to spit out the words: "I'm the antichrist, I'm an anarchist! I don't know what I want, but I know how to achieve it. I want to destroy passers-by because I want to be anarchy itself!"

The hatred for the social order was torn out of him. He said: "I would like to blow up this whole world. Dirty, disgusting world ..." Speaking on national television, the Sex Pistols musicians used foul language during interviews, said vile things. Respectable, stiff England was shocked.

At the festival, the atmosphere was familiar. All the major bands that have been born in the last six months under the influence of the Sex Pistols performed: Clash, Subway Sect, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Damned, Vibrators, Buzzcocks. Stinky Toys specially arrived from France. These ensembles had similar music and lyrics in many respects. The songs, as a rule, did not last more than two minutes, were performed at a very fast rock and roll pace with a monotonous bass line, emphasizing the rhythm. Many tried to sound deliberately harsh, non-melodious, the singers wheezed, choked, yelled, squealed into the microphone. Often the songs gave the impression of raw, unfinished material. And yet this did not stop the famous and very popular rock guitarist Chris Spelling of those years from saying: “They looked and sounded good. Most bands are boring, but punk is not. They came at the right time. I don’t understand why some criticize them ... Obviously, they are hard of hearing."

Of the ensembles that performed at the festival, the Sex Pistols were the most successful. Of the other bands, Clash and Damned looked the best. Subway Sect had nothing of their own. Claiming: "We say what we want," the musicians repeated the Sex Pistols in everything. They didn't have their own equipment or space to rehearse, so they followed the Clash and as soon as they put their guitars aside, the Subwaycists immediately seized the moment and started rehearsing. True, the lack of equipment is a common misfortune of "underground groups": their members were, as a rule, very poor. In this regard, one symbolic story took place at the festival, which needs to be mentioned. Siouxsie & the Banshees needed a drum kit and guitars to perform. Agreed with the good-natured Clash that they would give them theirs. But when the "Clashers" saw how Siouksi put a bandage with a swastika on her arm, they immediately denied her group the equipment. "I don't think she really understands what she's doing," said Clash manager Bernard Rodz. "We don't want to have anything to do with THIS." Among the songs that sounded two evenings in the club "100", there were all sorts. But the general mood can be imagined by the names: "Boredom", "London on fire", "I fought the law ..."

The punks sang about themselves: about poverty and unemployment lines, about juvenile delinquency and the inexorable rise in the cost of living, about violence in the streets and about drug addiction, chaos and anarchy, about existence instead of life, about unwillingness to obey someone else's will and thirst to be free. Their songs were filled with vague discontent, deprivation and complete hopelessness. Crushing nihilism shone through everything, as if the punks were sick of their own lives. In the first year, a lot was written about punk rock and talked about as the music of the unemployed, thoughts were expressed about attacking the system. But even among the punks themselves, there were no special illusions on this score. Joe Stammer of the Clash said: "Rock and roll is completely useless. None of us will change anything. A few years will pass and everyone will, as before, delve into shit, and in their spare time they will go and buy the Clash's fourth or fifth, maybe by that time the sixth album by the Clash.Rock can't change a thing.But after I said it - and I only said it so that you understand that I don't have any special illusions - I still want to try to change something. The main thing I'm fighting for is personal freedom. For the right to choose." In 1977, in the UK, punk bands were already counting in the thousands. A new so-called "independent" system of the rock industry was quickly created. Small private record labels appeared - indies ("independent labels"), self-published magazines - fanzines - began to appear with information about punk rock. But that's all, even the thought of possible competition did not bother the "big" world. He was afraid of the punk revolution itself and was afraid only of its political outcome. It was important to bring it to zero. The task was to extinguish its social, or rather, anti-social charge in punk and let off steam for nothing. They resorted to a tried and tested tool - the pop industry. They made a lucrative business out of punk. At first, the famous record companies rejected him: in November 1976, EMI signed a contract with the Sex Pistols for 40,000 pounds, but in January of the following year showed them the door. In March, A&M offered £150,000 but canceled the deal the following week. And in May they were picked up by the company "Virgin", now finally.

These young people turned out to be made of the same dough as the entire consumer society: as soon as big money and profits dawned on the horizon, punk died. Those who a year ago shook their fists with hatred at rock stars driving around in limousines, now they themselves dreamed of underground garages. Punk style attributes came into fashion and were produced on the assembly line. Indies received a separate column in the charts of the leading music publications in the UK. The processing of public opinion went in the direction that, they say, there is nothing good in any system until it is opposed by an anti-system. This threat is simply necessary to prove the viability of the system itself and its correct development path. Punk is such an anti-system. And if the system was bad, punk would have swept it away. If he did not succeed, then the system is beautiful. The youth is our salvation, something like a guard dog. The punk was knocked down by the fact that he was allowed and taken out of the underground. No one else banned the Sex Pistols tour, canceled their concerts, arrested the circulation of finished records. Punk was allowed on television and pop stages of any halls, waving bundles of banknotes in front of their noses. From here began the New Wave - the "new wave". Punk rock began to deform, change, dismember in a variety of musical, political, aesthetic directions. Dozens of new styles have appeared with their own concepts, new artistic thinking, vision of the world, and other goals. Punk has shattered like progressive rock in its time...

PUNK ROCK (PUNK ROCK) In the musical environment, there is a fairly abundant number of hypotheses that explain the appearance of the word "pann". All of them have varying degrees of credibility. The classic version is the baptism of punk thanks to the fanzine PUNK, which emerged in New York at the end of the 75th year, highlighting the life of the local alternative rock scene. The term was introduced into wide use by British journalists who wanted to prick or dirtyly curse the rising horde of unknown rock and roll monsters - Sex Pistols, Clash, Vibrators, Buzzcocks, etc. But those with unexpected favor accepted this stigma.

OH! (Oi!) A term coined in 1981 by famed British journalist Gary Bushel of Sounds magazine. He promoted and promoted young punk bands in every possible way (however, there were no old ones then), including some of the most radical ones. After Gary got acquainted with the second Cockney Rejects album, on the tracks of which the composition "Oi! Oi! Oi!" Sham 69 and Skrewdriver are generally recognized as the prototypes of the genre. Since the mid-80s, Oops! has become not so much a designation of a musical style as a term generalizing a huge mass of skinhead (both right and left) bands with punk rock roots, but often completely different music - from ska to heavy metal.

GRUNGE Stretchy, nasal, dirty and disgustingly depressing alternative rock, originating in punk rock, but completely opposite to it in ideology. The founders of grunge are certainly Husker Du, who, slowing down and getting psyched out every year, turned from a hardcore band into a heavy, evil and gloomy embodiment of punk-rock depression. Thus, the first grunge disc can be called their double album "Zen Arcade" (1984). Husker Du's sound was picked up on the Atlantic coast of the USA, where the notorious grunge scene arose - Green River, Melvins, Helmet and, finally, Nirvana. There is not a drop of real rebellion left in these grunge bands, and therefore, unlike the classics like Husker Du or Meat Puppets, "true" punk rockers feel nothing but understandable disgust towards them.

POP-PUNK (POP-PUNK) Soft, fun form of punk rock. It is easy to listen to and cheers up on the beach, at parties, in the bathhouse, in the LTP, in the bullpen or, at worst, in the KVD. Pop-punk is often very fast and not at all pop, but nevertheless it is designed specifically for an audience that loves to listen to good rock and roll or just have fun. In order to grasp the essence of the genre without too much hassle, just listen to three key samples: Ramones "Leave Home", Buzzcocks Another Music In A Different Kitchen, Green Day "Dookie".

POST-PUNK (POST-PUNK) As a rule, post-punk has very little resemblance to punk rock. Despite the prefix "post", it appeared almost simultaneously with real punk. Its origins were American new wave bands (Talking Heads, Television, Blondie, Devo), British punk bands, which eventually decided to create in a more lightweight genre (Clash, Buzzcocks , Damned), and British bands that rode the wave of the punk revolution, but did not belong to it themselves - Stranglers, Police, etc. Oldies Iggy Pop and Lou Reed have put the most bricks into the foundation of this highly heterogeneous genre. The most characteristic representatives of post-punk can be called The Fall, Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division, Jesus And Mary Chain, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, early U2, Biliy Idol, Birthday Party and an armada of others (after all, in the early 80s- x post-paik in England supplanted almost everything else).

SKA (SKA) Folk Caribbean music, which later, when merged with rhythm and blues, gave rise to reggae. Ska has a simpler and more danceable rhythm than reggae, and it is much easier for whites to adapt this to their musical needs (large and small). This was taken advantage of by many punks who began stuffing their music with ska elements, as NOFX do, and often based almost all of their rhythms on ska - like Operation tvy or the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Initially, ska came into punk rock thanks to the efforts of Clash.

HARDCORE Hardcore American punk rock, born primarily from the efforts of Black Flag. The main signs: short songs, deliberate two-chord, unlimited speed, complete disregard for major recording companies. The first hardcore album was "Group Sex" by Circle Jerks (1980). In the mid-80s, hardcore bands began to often climb into the metal camp, and vice versa - many metalheads began to go deeper into the hardcore jungle. From here came the popular, but still erroneous opinion that hardcore is metalized punk. It should be noted that metallized punk is called a crossover (after the 1987 D.R.I. album "Crossover"). Even later, the label "hardcore" began to be applied to metal-rap bands of the Biohazard class, Pro-Pain, Dog Eat Dog, etc., but their rabid screams and waving tattooed muscles have nothing to do with real hardcore.

Various areas of youth subcultures began to actively attract the attention of the public - the older generation, politicians, psychologists - in the second half of the twentieth century. Punks have become precisely the culture that has clearly defined its individuality, declaring its “otherness” to the world. But how anti-social is this culture really? It was with this question that we began to study the punk movement in the modern world.

The modern idea of ​​punks is so distorted that it is almost impossible to find a person in today's Russia who would clearly imagine what a real punk movement is. This is what determines the relevance of this study.

Punk (Punk) - as women of easy virtue used to be called in street jargon. In this sense, the word is found in W. Shakespeare's play "Measure for Measure". In America at the beginning of the 20th century, he was already referred to as prisoners - “sixes”. Later, the word entered the main lexicon and today is used in the meaning of "dirt", "rotten", "garbage".

In the mid 1970s. in the UK, during a time of severe unemployment and apathy, a vibrant youth culture suddenly appears, called “punk” by journalists, which means “rotten”. Most researchers saw in it a new youth subculture, like mods or rockers, differing only in defining its social base.

Punk was originally a counterculture, then developed into a countercultural movement. The main differences between the counterculture and the youth subculture are the predominance of political forms of confrontation over symbolic ones and the denial of dominant values ​​instead of belonging to a class or tradition.

But above all, punk is music, loud, heavy and very fast, the main task of which was to make people see the protest, think about life, about the future. Punk rock of the 60s is commonly referred to as "garage rock". Where did such a strange name come from? Everything is explained very simply: amateur groups rehearsed mainly in garages - they simply had nowhere else to go. "Garage" punks sang for their own pleasure, did not build mercantile plans and were known only among their relatives, friends and neighbors. Their creative searches responded to the demands of not a mass, but a local audience (school, college, district).

In 1973-1974, quite educated young people from New York picked up the torch, lit by the "garagemen". They gather in the evenings in expensive clubs. New groups become the idol of this youth: "Talking Heads", "New York Dolls" "Ramones", which are now presented as the first punk musicians of the second, real wave of punk rock. The first real punk band is considered to be the New York Ramones.

At first, the activities of American punks did not go beyond the boundaries of club parties. They remained within the bounds of decency, practicing mainly in music and avant-garde literature - symbolism, futurism. In general, as the American media put it, "the intelligentsia is having fun, it's okay." That's what everyone thought until the punk rock storm hit the UK in 1976. The British exactly copied the Americans - and stunned respectable England. What happened in the United States was not very noticeable, raised a storm across the ocean, it was called - "Sex Pistols".

At first, the frightened authorities declared the punks to be hooligans. But when hundreds of thousands are hooligans, it is called in a different way - a riot. Moreover, this rebellion arose from the transformed conflict of "fathers and sons."

Old dreams collapsed - no one believed the new ones. The time has come for despair, complete rejection of the surrounding world and nihilism. With an abundance of material wealth, neither society nor the youth in conflict with it turned out to have strong enough moral qualities to use them for the benefit of themselves and all of humanity. This, too, was the cause of the punk riot. At the beginning of 1976, it seemed to respectable British that the British youth had gone crazy. The streets were filled with crowds of disgusting-looking teenagers.

Punk style attributes came into fashion and were produced on the assembly line. The processing of public opinion went in the direction that, they say, there is nothing good in any system until it is opposed by an anti-system. This threat is simply necessary to prove the viability of the system itself and its correct development path. Punk is such an anti-system. And if the system was bad, punk would have swept it away. If he did not succeed, then the system is beautiful.

The first punk bands (such as "Sex Pistols", "Clash", "Jam", etc.) expressed anarchism, apocalypticism, denial for the sake of denial, shocking, dissatisfaction with everything in their songs and behavior. Most of these groups quickly self-destructed, avoiding the fate of the counterculture of the 1960s and not becoming part of the system. Punk's success in show business (as a part of popular culture) "successfully" failed.

But punk "has not died", the so-called second, politicized, wave of European punk appears (1980-1984), represented by the groups "Crass", "Conflict", "Discharge" in the UK, "BGK" in Holland, etc. For a quarter of a century of existence, punk managed to form a whole system that was opposed to show business. He contrasted small independent labels - multinational music concerns, fanzines photocopied using cheap recycled paper and soy ink - expensive glossy magazines, distribution systems that distribute punk music and punk ideas through the mail or directly at concerts or festivals. - shopping in expensive supermarkets, etc.

On the other hand, the punks managed to create an alternative socio-cultural and partly economic space, in which the main values ​​are not money and competition, but friendship and cooperation.

Today it is customary to say that, unlike English punk, which arose as a natural reaction to the socio-economic crisis in the West, punk in the USSR appears as a protest against totalitarian thinking. Of course, like many other phenomena of the "Soviet underground", he experienced Western influence, although direct borrowing in the 1980s was virtually impossible.

Punk was one of the few musical movements that came to the Soviet Union with minimal delay. In 1976, punk rock appeared in England, and already in 1977 in Leningrad, Moscow, Siberia. Young people interested in Western music bought records from Sex Pistols, Clash and other British punk bands from marketers, caught music broadcasts on the Voice of America, BBC with Seva Novgorodtsev, read Soviet magazines and newspapers, which did not fail to respond on the emergence of a new youth movement as a "growth on the rotting body of bourgeois culture."

What were the first punks in the USSR and what was their opposition to the Soviet regime? Let's single out three main areas where punk has received the greatest development, different from other regions - these are Leningrad, Moscow and Siberia (Omsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen), and, in accordance with this, we will try to answer the questions posed.

The first Leningrad punks were teenagers 15-17 years old, music lovers, record collectors. They met most often at the “record push”, got together, drank, listened to music. They tried to live the way they liked, but this was a serious contradiction not only to the dominant ideology, but also to Soviet laws (for example, the law on parasitism). Many wanted to go abroad, to be where their favorite punk bands were. For the Leningrad punks, punk rock was not an expression of political protest, calls for the destruction of the system. It was rather a spontaneous internal rejection of officially accepted norms and values, the deviation from which in the Soviet state could be regarded in the spectrum from petty hooliganism and up to betrayal of the Motherland. According to the official version, rock music was an invention of Western propaganda designed to distract Soviet youth from building communism, and Western democratic youth from the fight against capitalism.

The Siberian area of ​​punk rock is represented mainly by three cities - Omsk, Novosibirsk and Tyumen. The so-called Siberian punk rock was the most politicized and openly directed against the totalitarian system. This found expression both in the lyrics (for example, the Kooperativ Nishtyak group, at the height of the repression of rock musicians, sang: “A ghost is wandering around Europe, cut off his legs”), and in the reaction of the authorities to their work. Members of Siberian punk bands were put in psychiatric hospitals, sent to the army, but they remained "ice under the feet of the major."

The Soviet punk culture of the 1980s, initially focusing on the Western trend, organically rethought it, intertwined it with national roots. As a result, absolutely original phenomena arose, generated, first of all, not by imitation, but by the desire to express oneself and somehow oppose oneself to officialdom.

In the USSR, punk was a counterculture already because of its prohibition, so it opposed the system. Since 1987, totalitarian mechanisms have begun to actively collapse, and rock music, in my opinion, has made its contribution to this process, albeit a small one, being the bearer of other cultural values. This is where the main contradiction of domestic punk lies: having taken part in the destruction of the system, he found himself in a difficult situation - what to fight against now, when everything is possible? After that, punk loses its status as a counterculture with the destruction of prohibition, and the development of modern Western forms of confrontation in Russia is difficult due to the difficult socio-economic and political situation. The existence of the punk movement, as well as other forms of counterculture in the USSR in the form in which they functioned before the perestroika era, lost its meaning at the turn of the 1980s and 90s.

The concept of punk music in Russia has changed and evolved.

In the USSR, Punk was a subculture, as it seems to us, only in the period from the 80s to the 90s. It was during this period that a systemic crisis took place in the country, 70% of young people fell below the poverty line, the collapse of ideology and a centralized distribution system of goods: all this created fertile ground for the development of such a subculture as punk.

After the 90s, punk began to decompose, it commercialized, lost the idea, lost itself, but along with this, punk did not disappear completely, it was divided into other social phenomena. Thus, in the Soviet Union, playing rock, and even more so punk, was a confrontation. It was forbidden, and people who played rock music and did not fit into the standard image of a “simple Soviet person” often ran a serious risk not only of being beaten at the police station or by “combatants”, but also of losing their freedom. The state authorities tried to suppress any deviations from the official ideology: they expelled them from work and from institutions, sent them to the army and psychiatric hospitals for compulsory treatment, poisoned them through the press (revealing articles), etc. On the other hand, what could punks oppose to the state machine ? The confrontation took place, first of all, at the level of lifestyle and worldview, which was manifested in behavior, appearance, and system of values. The rejection of Soviet ideology and a standardized society was not necessarily expressed in criticism and struggle.

Chapter 2. Punks as a subculture

Today, punk is presented to us most often in a dirty, bad-smelling, and drunk way. If you turn to the older generation with the question "Who is a punk?", in 9 out of 10 cases you can hear something not very pleasant.

Today, most of the teenagers who call themselves punks do not even know the elementary facts from the section on the history of the punk movement. Some "punks" are so far from reality that they are simply ridiculous. The second chapter of the work and the study itself are closely connected with this.

2. 1. Behavior in society. political position.

Punk Self-Esteem

Punk always has an opinion and is not afraid to express it. He doesn't care what they think of him. It is what it is and will not change anything. It is traditionally believed that the behavior of a punk in all cases is a struggle, a struggle against the system. Against which, the punk decides. The system means, first of all, the rules. Rules mean obeying. To submit means to surrender. This is the most important point in punk politics.

The decisive factor was the disregard for others and ourselves, the attitude to always do only what you want right now. Morality turned out to be changed by 180 degrees: everything that was considered immoral by normal people, on the street became an external manifestation of “morality”.

Punk culture meant complete freedom of action. Punks hooliganized in cinemas, defiantly behaved towards the police and bullied passers-by. In this way they hastened to express their protest against the world in which they were born and raised. The philosophy of the punks was the philosophy of the "lost generation", simple to the limit: in a pigsty it is better to be pigs yourself. They finally decided that it was impossible to change the world for the better, and therefore an end was put to life and career in the old sense of the word.

The punks themselves evaluate both the punk movement and themselves in this culture in different ways. Here are some excerpts from one of the punk forums:

“I'm a punk because I feel like it. Punk is not necessarily wallowing in the mud, but sleeping in the trash for initiation. and put the mohawk on beer mixed with urine. And definitely a state of mind.” (The spelling and style of the statements are preserved in the original - approx. V.S.).

“First, I'll tell you what punk isn't: it's not fashion, it's not a certain style of dress, it's not a knee-deep rebellion against parents, it's not the newest 'cool' movement or a particular style of music. In fact, it is the Idea that guides and builds your life. Think for yourself, be yourself, don't just accept what society gives you - make your own rules, live your own life!" .

“I am a punk because I am AGAINST. Punk is a state of mind, a way of thinking, no matter how it manifests itself outwardly. Punk is inside. I hate those who think punk is just a fashion paraphernalia!”

“Any movement is, first of all, an idea, not clothes and window dressing. The main thing is always what is inside, and not what is yelled at at every intersection. In the same way as anarchy was turned into freedom to thump and lawlessness, although its meaning is much deeper.

We see that most of those people who consider themselves punks agree that punk is first of all an idea, a way of life and thoughts, and only then is it an external paraphernalia! It is the ideology of the punk movement that has not changed since the 70s, but the punks themselves note that a very small number of young people who identify themselves with punk culture are familiar with the idea of ​​punk. Thus, it turns out that the punk movement "degenerates". Turning from "Idea" into "Fashion"

2. 2. Public evaluation of punk

Sociologists of the Internet site Info_Mania, conducting a sociological survey among different segments of the population of Moscow (sample - 100 people), often received such characteristics of punks as "a schizophrenic category", "maybe with their own convictions, but mentally ill people", "ill-mannered, frivolous folk" and punk as a "youth shift in phase". Some respondents noted "scallops" as a distinctive feature of punks.

Here are some common opinions of ordinary people about the punk movement:

“In my understanding, punk is, in any case, a hoodie, bastards, a tuft for show-off and a patch with anarchy. In any case, punk should go to concerts instead of rallies, because you can get drunk there, and if, God forbid, he doesn’t get drunk, he will see the world with sober eyes, be horrified and accidentally start thinking with his own head, and not with other people's ideas and stereotypes. Punk is, first of all, a protest, and against what, how, why, and why - it's not important anymore. Punk is a state of mind."

In order to obtain data on the issues of public assessment of punks and punk culture, students of Gymnasium No. 8 were offered two questionnaires, on the basis of which we were able to come to the following conclusions:

1) More than half of the high school students we surveyed have a general idea of ​​punk.

2) The idea of ​​punk is based mainly on external paraphernalia - clothes, shoes, hairstyles.

3) The behavior of a punk is perceived by most students as antisocial - smoking, alcohol, aggression.

One gets the impression that most ordinary people in Moscow (according to the Info_Mania poll), as well as ordinary Russian cities (students from the city of Angarsk) do not understand the nuances of youth subcultures and for them punks are almost no different from metalheads or hippies. The attitude towards punks in society is quite negative - “aggressive, drug addicts, alcoholics”. This image of punk created by the media is actively confirmed by the punks themselves ("pioneers"), who draw their "aesthetics and ideas" from the mass media.

We will try to systematize the most common beliefs about punks among the inhabitants, and give our comments on them. The results of a study by the Info_Mania agency were taken as the basis for these statements. We conducted a similar survey among the students of our gymnasium and came to certain conclusions, which we presented in the form of comments.

Statement 1. All punks are stupid, limited "poultry" and losers (in general, people of a low intellectual level of development).

Comment: the statement is very common among the townsfolk. 34% of the students surveyed at Gymnasium No. 8 agreed with the correctness of this statement. However, the majority of respondents (49%) did not agree with this opinion of the Russians, noting that people who are unfamiliar with punks and have never communicated with them say this about punks. Yes, of course, among the punks there are "birdies", and in general very stupid people, but there are not so many of them and they make up only a small percentage of all punks. The percentage of university students is much higher among the followers of the punk movement.

Statement 2: Punk is a purely youth trend, a teenage protest that passes with age. You can be a punk from 12 to 18, maximum 20 years old, and then you need to grow up.

Comment: On this statement, the opinions of high school students were divided approximately equally: 45% of the respondents agreed that the punk movement is of a youth nature, and 43% refuted this opinion. This is quite consistent with the data that we have, doing the study of punk.

Indeed, most punks start "punking" in adolescence or adolescence, but this does not mean that punk is a purely youth trend. Some move away from punk with age, but for the most part these are people for whom the opinion of the majority, the crowd, is more important than their own opinion. Among the former punks there are those who are simply disappointed in the ideas of this movement. However, there are punks 30 years and older, and although not all of them adhere to the external trappings of punk, they still share most of the "punk" ideas. And in general, in the statement “You can be a punk in the period from 12 to 18, maximum 20 years, and then you need to grow up”, the word grow up is actually usually used by the townsfolk in the meaning of “to become like everyone else, to accept the ideas common in society ". Compare with the meaning of the word "grow up" in the explanatory dictionary. Being a non-conformist (and punks are non-conformists, because they adhere to ideas that are not common in society today) does not mean not being an adult.

Statement 3: Punks are always dirty and never wash, they constantly smell bad.

In the vastness of our vast homeland and beyond, there are a huge number of informal movements that defy explanation for an ordinary average person. Namely, the conversation will be about a subculture called PUNK(Punk). I think we all know young people, in leather jackets, heavy shoes at any time of the year, in T-shirts with a large letter "A" on the back and with long Mohawks, playing music in the passages or just gathering separate parties anywhere in the city center.

This is what they are. The guys often adhere to certain worldviews, have a strong point of view about their political, life and anti-social views. More specifically, the punk movement is directly related to the denial of any authority, laws, social needs and guarantees. In general, anarchy is complete lawlessness. Also, punks often abuse alcohol, drugs and are distinguished by rather vulgar behavior, unlike other subcultures. In principle, the word punk (punk) was originally translated as - garbage, pig, punks, or other abusive words. Remembering the history of the emergence of this movement, there are many different stories that are true to one degree or another. We will consider the main and more likely version.

In the distant 70s, under the influence of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, many teams were formed playing simple “4 chords” with a fairly simple but catchy melody. Bands such as the Sex Pistols are formed, The Exploited of which can be called the founders of punk rock in general. It is worth noting that the main idea and the idea of ​​anarchy, many punk bands expressed it through music. The symbolism of anarchy appears, a black and red flag. Young people arrange brawls, bully passers-by, often being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, thereby showing protest against the authorities, and showing their independence and freedom. Basically, these were the children of workers who did not want to work for a penny, thereby showing their independence from the state. Yes, indeed, just as Tsoi made a breakthrough and demanded changes in Russia and the countries of the USSR, so in general the whole world lacked that real, free revolution. While many bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd drove around in limousines and had their own planes, the Sex Pistols and Exploited were more accessible and outrageous personalities who spoke the language of freedom, periodically wreaking havoc on stage. Of course, the authorities were worried about the current situation, because the number of groups formed at that time, according to general estimates, was reduced to thousands, and the number of young people supporting the punk movement could not be counted at all. At first, of course, the authorities limited themselves to detentions, arrests, bans on group performances, but when it became clear that the growing snowball could no longer be stopped, they let go of the situation.

As for the development of punk in the USSR, initially the informals of the post-Soviet space opposed totalitarianism, but the struggle was not long, in the early 90s the system gradually began to crack, and eventually completely collapsed. Many groups that were released underground, first saw the light and received general publicity. However, the topics of such groups as Civil Defense (Gr.Ob.), Chudo-Yudo, the Object of ridicule, were still prohibited. And in the end, in the mid-80s and early 90s, the question of the existence of punk culture became an edge, what is there to fight against?

The further development of punk began a new round around 2000. Many bands have their own sound, their own style and their behavior on stage. At the very beginning, of course, everything existed on a voluntary basis, but later it all began to smell like commerce, in order to make money. Although it is worth paying tribute to such a development of events. Many groups like Korol and Jester, Pilot, Kukryniksy are really talented guys. Starting their creative career, with only their talent and desire to create good music behind them, they never dreamed of such success. And of course, without investing funds, we might not have heard many masterpieces of Russian punk rock.
Summing up, I would like to note that the goals of the initially developing punk and the present are very different. Of course, much has been forgotten, much already seems wild, but however, the existence of such a subculture as punk still exists and slowly but continues to develop. True in other directions.

About the musical component punk subculture My colleague described in sufficient detail in a previous article. I would like to elaborate on the non-musical side of the matter. So, where does this peculiar subculture originate from? The first punks appeared in the late 1960s in the UK. Their appearance is inextricably linked with the emergence of a new musical style at that time - punk rock. Some resources claim that punks appeared in general in the 1930s in the same UK. They listened to jazz, came from low-income working-class families, often did not work and used all sorts of rubbish. However, under such a definition, you can bring any group of socially disadvantaged youth in any country in any era and say that they were punks. Another thing is that it was in the UK that such young people were called punks, but the word “punk” was then simply abusive and in translation meant “worthless”, “lost person”, “tramp”, etc. Punk as a subculture appeared at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s with the advent of punk rock.

The ideology of punks is protest. Cultural protest - the punks of the 1970s were unhappy with the commercialization of the then rock scene. They did not like the neatly trimmed Beatles and The Rolling Stones, dissecting on expensive cars. Punks demanded more drive and hooliganism. They expressed their dissatisfaction with all their appearance - unimaginable hairstyles of bright colors, torn clothes in pins and chains. The social protest of the punks was expressed (and is expressed) in the neglect of generally accepted norms of morality and aesthetics. Punks also protested against mass culture and mass production. The main value in life is freedom, and no one has the right to limit it, so everyone can behave as they want and do what they want. The punks did just that, without limiting themselves in anything. The majority of representatives of the punk environment consider themselves anarchists, although it is unlikely that many of this majority have a clear understanding of the principles of anarchism. Among other ideological directions in punk subculture there are HC-punks, sXe-punks and vegetarian punks. Such punks believe that a healthy lifestyle is also a protest against a society where the vast majority smokes, uses alcohol and drugs.
It is important to note that punk eventually became not only a musical style, but also penetrated into other areas of art. In painting, one of the brightest representatives of punk is Andy Warhol, one of the most popular and paid artists of our time. Punk also spread in literature. Prominent representatives of punk literature: Patti Smith, John Clark and Jim Carroll. Under the influence of punk, such genres as cyberpunk and steampunk appeared in literature. A lot of films have been made about punks, both documentaries and fiction, some literary works are devoted to punks.
The punk subculture has given a lot to modern culture. Many subcultures and musical styles originate from punk. The Goth subculture, like gothic rock, emerged from the punk environment. Modern Goths still shave their whiskey, just like the punks almost half a century ago. The hippie subculture took a lot from punk anarchism, ennobling it a little. The idea of ​​unlimited freedom is borrowed from the punks. With the advent of the hippie movement, many punks joined it, as they also supported the ideas of non-violence, multiculturalism and freedom. Music styles such as hardcore (and other cores), Oi!, grindcore, glam rock, grunge, alternative rock, new-wave, and so on. And how much more skate-punk, pop-punk, post-punk, ska-punk... Based on the foregoing, it can be seen that the contribution of the punk subculture to, so to speak, the world's informal heritage is invaluable.
The fascination of young people with punk continues to this day. In many cities of the world you can meet young people with Iroquois, in torn clothes, abundantly studded with piercings in the most interesting places. Punk evolves, transforms, has ups and downs, but never goes away. Its sharp social orientation, the eternal spirit of protest against everyone and everything will continue to attract the youth of all countries. Punk will flourish as long as there is something to protest against, which is, apparently, for a very, very long time.

In the new section "Subcultures" we will talk about famous and unknown subcultures of the past and present, about their colossal influence on culture and how they manage to create iconic images.

Who are they

Punks are one of the most famous subcultures of the 20th century; even a school teacher can recognize its representative on the street. A summary of the Wikipedia articles "Punk" and "Punk Rock" goes something like this:

1. The subculture arose in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.
2. Foundation - music, aggressive, scandalous, uncomplicated in terms of melody and not particularly burdened with meaning, but fervent and thoroughly imbued with the spirit of protest.
3. The first real punk rock band is considered to be New York The Ramones.
4. The ideological basis is nihilism and non-conformism in all spheres of life.

Classic punk is a rebel, a cynic and a gouge who rejects social values, does not favor political power and defends the rights of sexual minorities (the heyday of the subculture fell on the sexual revolution). His religion is outrageous.

The most outrageous representative is Sid Vicious, a member of the famous Sex Pistols group, who became famous thanks to the accusation of the murder of his girlfriend Nancy. What happened on the night of October 11-12, 1978, no one knows, but the story spread around the world and made Sid the most recognizable and even pop figure in punk culture, despite the fact that, according to many contemporaries, he had no musical talent . He was made even more famous by Gary Oldman, who played the musician in the Alex Cox film Sid and Nancy.

What were they wearing

The first punks wore dirty, tattered junk, drank heavily, abused drugs, hated Thatcher, and smelled bad. Punk today is much more a fashionista than a person who spit on others and their opinion about his appearance. Considering how popular punk culture has become, this result can be called natural. Be that as it may, punks created an original style, original and symbolic, loved, copied and interpreted in different ways by millions of inhabitants and people of art. Even Andy Warhol was inspired by punk culture. Malcolm McLaren, musician and producer of the Sex Pistols, has a very accurate statement: “We made ugliness beautiful. That's what punk is."

Significant attributes of punk culture are:

Leather jackets

They were loved by the firstborn Ramones, the British Sex Pistols, and continue to be loved by all followers of the genre. The more metal rivets, chains and spikes, and not necessarily on clothes or shoes, the better.

Dr. Martens boots are the favorite footwear of representatives of many subcultures that emerged in the second half of the 20th century. Among punks, as well as among skinheads, goths, rockers, football hooligans and grunge fans, the brand has gained popularity due to its massiveness, brutality and unprecedented comfort to wear. The irony of the situation is that the original target audience of the company were elderly ladies and gardeners.

Cage and leopard

The cage was originally worn exclusively by the English aristocracy. With the advent of punks, the situation changed dramatically, and decent drawing began to correlate with brawlers and anarchists no less than with lords and ladies. The leopard, on the contrary, has been considered an adherent of vulgarity from time immemorial. The skill of provocation is in the details.

Union Jack

Despite the fact that the punk subculture originated simultaneously in the UK, USA, Australia and Canada, it is associated exclusively with foggy Albion. Therefore, the English flag flickers on punk T-shirts much more often than the star-striped pattern and the maple leaf.

torn clothes

Scrupulousness, these guys, as already mentioned, did not differ.

Sid Vicious

Black fishnet tights

Girls, as a rule, did not lag behind the guys in terms of scandalousness. The grid is still considered vulgar, and in the 1970s it even caused widespread outrage.

Iroquois

If the mesh, ripped jeans, rough boots and an abundance of metal could still be tolerated, then the mohawk became a real challenge to society. The avant-garde hairstyle shocked everyone. And, I must say, they are still not used to it.

Rebellion Festival. Photo: daypic.ru

The emergence of punk culture caused a stir and widespread imitation, not because it occurred to the first trendsetters that the Mohawk is a great reason to stand out from the crowd. Punks broadcast their principles not only through appearance, but also through the philosophy of consumption in general. Instead of buying things invented and manufactured within the framework of factory production, they either made them themselves or changed them beyond recognition. It doesn't matter what the end result was. The protest against capitalism found expression not in words, but in a way of life. That is why the symbols they created have gained meaning. Putting on leather jackets and rough platform boots, getting pierced and stuffed with tattoos, in the 21st century we are trying to convey to others what the punks talked about forty years ago: it is impossible to exist in a world where the main value is economic profit.

High-fashion

Vivienne Westwood is traditionally considered the representative of punks in the world of haute couture. A former teacher, she was the first to embrace the spirit of liberalism and the desire for freedom of expression. This was partly due to her marriage to Malcolm McLaren. The union broke up, but interest in the culture of punks remained. The fundamental difference between Westwood and other designers inspired by punk is that Vivien embodies this style not only in collections, but also in her own image.

In addition to Vivienne Westwood, punk aesthetics were used to varying degrees in their work by such brands and designers as Alexander McQueen (late collections), Sandra Rhodes, Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace, Givenchy, Any Old Iron, Zana Bayne. You don't have to look far to confirm the colossal degree of influence of this subculture on high fashion: in the summer of 2013, the exhibition "PUNK: Chaos to Couture" was held at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Punk today

For punk culture, the 21st century turned out to be much less fruitful than the 20th, and one can hardly expect the same break in patterns that occurred in the 1970s. Punk, as it was known in the previous century, is dead, but its symbols will still flicker in collections, cinema, literature and on the streets for a long time to come. And all because the spirit of rebellion will live forever.

Bershka men's T-shirt, 599 rubles, Topshop women's jacket, 20,500 rubles (premium collection), Roberto Cavalli women's leopard trousers, 38,400 rubles (FarFetch), Any Old Iron men's striped trousers, 8,700 rubles, Alexander McQueen clutch, 61,400 rubles (FarFetch), Dr. Martens boots, 4500 rubles

Look:

• Engel and Joe Klass 1984

Listen:

• Ramones
• Misfits
• Sex Pistols
• clash
• Johnny Thunders
• Crass
• The Stooges
• anti-flag