Stay Free: Punk, Politics, and Social Action
It is evident from an examination of the popular, chart topping music of the 1950s that those leading the music industry believed wholesome, safe, clean images and lyrical content delivered by an equally non-threatening performer were the keys to commercial success. This sacchrine, largely artificial spectre of wholesome innocence was not merely a product of conniving record industry executives but rather it was their safest bet. The music business was simply repackaging the wholesome, safe, clean, homogenous, and ultimately conformist attitudes and tendencies that dominated 1950s American society and selling a product reflective of the culture back to a public that, as an intentionally homogenous mass, desired to see its own face smiling in self satisfied approval in the entertainment it consumed. This tendency systematically excluded those who did not fit into the music business' optimized-for-profits framework. Throughout these years and the decade that followed artists who did not fit in for their race, sex, etc... would find ways to work their craft in the face of exploitation as a generation's worth of songs would be adapted and co-opted by the mainstream and appropriated to a friendly and implicitly morally minded upper middle class white face. As examples of this adaptation, Chuck Berry wrote his songs with the mainstream audience in mind while later Motown artists would make important compromises in their image and sound in order to appease the mainstream and find their own success (Covach 72, 232). Punk rock, however, would be the first genre that was expressly constructed as a rejection of this homogeneity and of the conformity that it promoted. To these artists, the flawed practises of the music industry were simply an extension of the operation of a flawed society; To many, fitting into this framework was not nearly so appealing as deconstructing it.
By the 1970s the lyrical subject matter of popular music had evolved beyond the desexualized crushes that composed the repertoire of teen idol performers with manufactured "good boy... ideal boyfriend" personas such as Pat Boone, Frankie Avalon, and countless others (111). Newer rock had a more aggressive edge and a different target demographic than did these teen idol performers and this new rock music's lyrical content reflects this change not generally as a wholesale rejection of the lyrical form of teen idol songs but as an adaptation of it. Groups such as The Beach Boys under the direction of Brian Wilson would become increasingly experimental musically although excepting Brian Wilson's masterpiece Smile, which would remain unreleased in its proper form for decades, their lyrical content was never as adventurous and never far removed from the typical teen idol fare of wooing the neighbourhood girl. Rock's newer, harder edge was represented in the late 1960s and early 70s by bands such as Led Zeppelin, whose lyrics still largely focus on the neighbourhood girl but with a wholehearted embrace of hypersexualization and masculine virility and power and whose music continued the white appropriation of American black music.
In punk, however, "women and sex were not the main focus of song lyrics... [punk would] avoid gender stereotyping in large measure” (Leblanc 44). It is within punk rock that women as performers in rock music were most able to embrace a voice that stood in direct contradiction to the sexual objectification dominant in the popular rock scene. Besides being portrayed as objects in songs performed by shirtless men in poorly fitting pants such as Robert Plant, The 1970s were a time wherein women themselves in mainstream rock music in America were promoted as, "raunchy and ready to rock... a new breed of lady rockers" (O'Brien 186) and largely marketed for their sexuality rather than their artistry. It was a time when female rock artists had grown up in the United Kingdom with, in the words of Lucy O'Brien of the late 70s punk group The Catholic Girls, "a backdrop of tiered flowery skirts, flicks and flares, and the crushing conformity of what it meant to be female in a Britain still tinged by post-war austerity" (186). To girls like Lucy, becoming involved in the punk scene was a natural extension of the burgeoning politics that gave voice to a position that mainstream society and mainstream rock music had been all too ready and willing to suppress. The discovery of this new music was the discovery of an opportunity for real, uncensored self expression of beliefs that ran counter to dominant modes of thought in society and reenforced through entertainment mediums like rock music. In this way, punk mirrored the feelings of this minority in a popular form of entertainment made for and by their peers. O'Brien notes how this corresponds to her life's experience: "I remember being excited by the Sex Pistols' antics, because it was anti-authority...Before we formed the group we'd already done demonstrations. We had a political edge. Since 16 we'd been doing Hunt Saboteurs, Friends of the Earth, CND – and punk reinforced it" (196).
These women did not accept the cookie cutter approach of hypersexualizing and objectifying female artists and instead chose to be authors of their own image on their own terms, attempting to flourish without the need for restraint or compromise. They represent the spirit of the punk movement as express by Richard Hell of the Voivoids, "One thing I wanted to bring back to rock n’ roll was the knowledge that you invent yourself. That’s why I changed my name, why I did all the clothing style things, haircut, everything. So naturally, if you invent yourself, you love yourself" (Bangs 265). The feminists of punk rock define this precept best and an early and effective example is found in the 1977 song "Oh Bondage, Up Yours!" written and performed by X-Ray Spex, an inter-gender band formed a year earlier. The song is marked by the aggressive, screeching vocals of female singer Poly Styrene – dressed in braces and loose outfits – and the blaring saxaphone of Lora Logic. The song begins with solitary spoken vocals of, "Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard" (X-Ray Spex) before blasting into the first verse of a simple three verse structure: "Bind me tie me / Chain me to the wall / I wanna be a slave / To you all / Oh bondage, up yours! / Oh bondage, no more!" (Oh Bondage, Up Yours!) and is typical of the strong, uncompromising feminist voice that thrived within the punk rock subculture. Although X-Ray Spex existed as a band for merely three years between 1977 and 1979 and released but one full length album, their five singles stand as prototypical of the female punk rock song and have been critically regarded as “not only riveting examples of high-energy punk, but contained provocative, thoughtful lyrics berating the urban synthetic fashions of the 70s and urging individual expression” (Larkin 503).
From this perspective it is easy to imagine the punk movement as representative of not only an aggressive form of feminism espousing true egalitarianism but as a platform for voicing reaction against the perceived oppression, docility, or injustice of dominant modes of culture, be they consumerism, government authority, or sexual dominance. Especially politically-minded acts in punk rock have found ways to embrace this platform even to the point of elevating the ability of the music to communicate and motivate above the importance of the music itself: This sentiment is expressed explicitly on the first track of the 1983 Crass album "Yes Sir, I Will", with lyrics stating, "We didn't expect to find ourselves playing this part / We were concerned with ideas, not rock and roll / But we can't avoid that arena / It's become a part of us even if we don't understand it" (Yes Sir, I Will). The album itself is lyrically an extended poem and an attack on the government of Margaret Thatcher in the aftermath of the Falklands War and a condemnation of prevalent British lifestyles and attitudes while musically it is essentially chaotic, semi-random feedback and distorted noise over 4/4 rhythms which are unremarkable in every aspect except for their aggression. More recently, during the G.W. Bush presidency, music became but one aspect of a multi-headed multimedia attack: West coast American punk rock veterans NOFX released two LP's, "The War on Errorism", and "Wolves in Wolves' Clothing" as attacks against the administration and the perceived weakening of constitutional rights and expansion of government powers under the Bush government's controversial Patriot Act. Proceeds were used to begin the "Punk Voter.Org" web campaign and to fund voter registration drives and concert tours in swing states in order to mobilize youth under the "Rock Against Bush" slogan while distributing anti-Bush documentaries and comedy videos through independent record label "Fat Wreck Chords". Both of these examples showcase the tendency for punk rock artists to blur the line between musicians and activists. While it would be unfair and incorrect to call the music an afterthought, the music itself is clearly in service of the delivery of a message. While these examples rally against different right wing governments rather than gender discrimination they share the call for self determination and individuality and the staunchly anti-authoritarian and sometimes altogether anti-government beliefs that stand out among the spectrum of themes in punk as some of the most dominant. Commentator Michael Sirc summarizes: “Punk forms a permanent theatre of tension—the dominant culture vs. the dormant one; the mainstream and the underground... [Punk] was music you listened to in order to take further action, records to play en route to the ultimate rejection of records, in favour of making one’s own music” (123 HelpMe). The form serves as an outlet for personal expression and also as a catalyst for political, social, and ultimately personal action.
Even a glance at some of the most enduring and successful acts within punk rock expose the music as a political platform and as an agent for rallying around ideas of change: Canada's D.O.A was formed by a frustrated prospective civil rights lawyer who took up the moniker of Joey Shithead; in the UK bands such as Crass began an anarcho-punk movement promoting anarchic pacifism through music and utilizing music performance as a means to stage political events such as organized mass squattings in West London (Glasper 25). Even the Sex Pistols -- represented in British press as chaotic, violent and brainless – released a rallying cry for lower class, disillusioned British youth in God Save The Queen: "God save the queen / she ain’t no human being / there is no future / and England’s dreaming" (God Save The Queen). This political stance expressed through music served to unite not only those who identified with Lydon's stance but those who were firmly against it: "Johnny Rotten [John Lydon] and Paul Cook (the drummer of the band) were both violently assaulted for their heretical views towards the beloved queen. Rotten and Cook could thereby be said to have willingly endured the pain of their commitment". Within two years, on the west coast of the United States, The Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra led a mayoral campaign in San Francisco which saw him place fourth of ten candidates and news media claim that, "his most effective campaign tool was his rock concerts" (California News). His band's song, "California Über Alles" served as official campaign song and meshed politics and performance into one with a scathing and personal attack on then governor Jerry Brown: "Die on organic poison gas / Serpent's egg's already hatched /You will croak, you little clown
/ When you mess with President Brown" (California Uber Alles).
Not all such action in punk rock is so overt. For instance, in 1979 the Clash made the ironic decision to release "Lost in the Supermarket", a song about the emptiness of consumerism, as a commercial single. Even the relatively apolitical Ramones moved beyond such beginnings as "Blitzkrieg Bop" to embrace the confrontational leanings of their genre with "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)", a condemnation of President Reagan's visiting a graveyard in Germany where SS soldiers had been buried. Other songs target the music business itself as having become stale and predictable: "Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio?" and later, "We Want the Airwaves", which lyrically was a direct attack on rock radio, its disc jockeys, and its policy makers and in that way closely resembles the sentiment of feminist punk rock. "We Want the Airwaves" was nonetheless chosen by the band to be released as a single for radio, certainly destined for commercial failure.
As with many artistic movements, the mainstream society punk rallied against essentially absorbed and co opted the subculture: today elementary school children are seen sporting mohawks and women in popular music have probably never been more sexualized than currently. However, "there is a part of the punk tradition that was never fully co-opted, which did develop an agenda, and which is still thriving today" (Sabin 4). X Ray Spex have long disbanded but served to inspire the Riot Grrl manifesto of 1991 and bands such as Bikini Kill who continued the feminist tradition in punk, "because we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak" (Hanna). Emerging from San Francisco area punk influences and currently entrenched deeply in the mainstream, Green Day have managed to release a political rock opera to the popular landscape entitled, "American Idiot" to great commercial, if mixed critical, success. Punk's successes are inconsistent and debatable, but its position as a political platform, as a mechanism of pure expression and as a catalyst designed to drive social change is certain.
Bangs, Lester. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung. New York: Vantage, 1988.
Covach, John. What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and its History. Westford, MA: Norton & Co, 2009.
Glasper, Ian. The Day The Country Died: A History of Anarcho Punk 1980-1984. London: Cherry Red Books, 2006.
Larkin, Colin. Virgin Encyclopedia of 70s Music. London: Virgin Books, 2002.
Leblanc, Lauraine. Pretty in Punk: Girls’ Gender Resistance in a Boys’ Subculture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Malcolm, William. "Art for Politics' Sake: The Sardonic Principle of James Lesli Mitchell. To Hell With Culture. Wales: U of Wales Press, 2005.
O'Brien, Lucy. "The Woman Punk Made Me". Punk Rock: So What?. ed. Sabin. London: Routledge, 1999.
Sabin, Roger. Punk Rock: So What?. Ed. Sabin. London: Routledge, 1999.
Hannah, Kathleen. "The Riot Grrrl Manifesto". Bikini Kill Zine #2. Washington: Independently published, 1991. <http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/riotgrrrlmanifesto.html>
"Does Punk Belong in the Composition Classroom?." 123HelpMe.com. 16 Mar 2011
<http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=38378>
California Uber Alles. The Dead Kennedys/Jello Biafra (Eric Boucher). 1979. Video.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iNh6BVZgJ0 >
God Save The Queen. The Sex Pistols/Johnny Rotten (John Lydon). 1977. Video.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeP220xx7Bs >
Oh Bondage, Up Yours! X Ray Spex/Poly Styrene (Marianne Elliot). 1977. Video.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAL_j-f8gmA >
Yes Sir, I Will. Crass/Steve Ignorant (Steve Williams). 1984. Video.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EadDmlI0SwE>
San Francisco News Report: Jello Biafra Mayoral Campaign. 1979. Video.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baZG1L414y4&feature=player_embedded#at=79>
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