Punk Rock And The Civil Rights Movement

Punk rock is either one of the best or worst movements in society depending on how you look at it. Rebellion itself can be very scary to a country or very liberating for its people. It takes sacrifices from groups of people who are looking to make things better. A perfect example is the Civil Right protests that took place in the early 60’s. The cultural influence that punk carried still has values that can be observed today. However, with the mainstream rush that it’s bands have made, it has changed the original meaning and reasons for punk rock. It was created when a group of people got together and all agreed that the direction of the early 1970’s U. K. society was not one that they were pleased with. The punk movement is highlighted by

The early bands at the forefront of this movement were bands like Sex Pistols, The Clash, New York Dolls, Ramones, Misfits, and several more. Punk rock is an imperative part of history that motivated people to express their feelings of desolation towards American and U. K. society. This is seen in their ideologies, clothing, and their reactions to societal situations.

One of the biggest parts of the punk rebellion was the rebellion itself. The ideologies carried by not only the bands of the time but the die hard fans were anti authoritarian and drove the filth, music, and clothing styles. One of the big moves that punk made to separate itself from prior forms of rock was to have songs that were often less than two and a half minutes long. Minutemen released an album called Double Nickels On The Dime with 45 tracks and the longest song on it was two minutes and fifty seven seconds. Punk bands liked to do this to step away from the original rock songs that

The meaning of punk in the mid to early 70’s was a group of people in a subculture that divided themselves from the mainstream due to unfulfillment from society. As time carried on to the 90’s this meaning and punk itself was tarnished and no longer focused on progression. Youth found themselves taking part in a more sophisticated rebellion says Susan Hopkins in her article “20 Years Of Punk”. The tension between punks and the government had ceased for the most part, but there was still rebellion for the sake of rebellion. In the early stages of punk the response was to a social economic crisis. Also it had a point to make conflicts with the establishments that didn’t align with their views. In “20 Years Of Punk” Susan Hopkins also says “70s punk sought head-on confrontation with a disdainful "outside”. John Lydon besides calling himself the antichrist in Anarchy In The U. K. Says “I want to be anarchy” and tells listeners to “get pissed/destroy”. Also the main demographic of early punk was poor, lower class, white youth which had several nazi youth within it also. The reason this appealed to them was because punk stood for a lack of oppression from a government that several people felt dug too deep into their lives. Fascism was a theme for both early punk and the nazi point of view. Swastikas for the most part were not used to show the personal opinion or racism of any of these fans but to show their rebellion with a more visible symbol that was more offensive than, for