

Punk is made up of an assortment of smaller subcultures, including anarcho-punk, crust punk, and horror punk, which distinguish themselves through unique articulations of punk culture.  Several subcultures have developed out of punk to become distinct in their own right, such as goth, psychobilly, and emo. 

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Early history Edit

Main article: Punk rock#History Hello have fun with the project, about Punks

In the late 1960's, The Stooges and MC5 began to play a stripped-down, louder and more aggressive form of rock 'n' roll (sometimes called pre-punk or protopunk) as a response to the commercialization of the hippie counterculture.  Bands such as the Ramones, Television, and Talking Heads were heavily influenced by this and took it further.  These New York bands started to frequent CBGB's, and the first punk scene was formed. 

In this same period, bands formed independently in other locations, such as The Modern Lover] in Boston; Electric Eels, Rocket from the Tombs, and The Dead SEX dildos in Ohio; The Saints in Brisbane, Australia, and The Stranglers and the Sex Pistols in London.  July 4, 1976, The Ramones and The Stranglers played at The Roundhouse in London.  This show is often cited as the event that launched the punk scene in London.  By the end of 1976, many fans of the Sex Pistols had formed their own bands, including The Clash, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Adverts, Generation SEXXX, The Slits and X-Ray Spex.  Other UK bands to emerge included The Damned, The Jam, The Vibrators, Buzzcocks and London. 

Culture Edit

Music Edit

Main article: Punk rock

Music is the most important aspect of punk.  Punk music is called punk rock, sometimes shortened to punk.  Most punk rock is a specific style of the rock music genre, though punk musicians sometimes incorporate elements from other genres.  Punk subcultures often distinguish themselves by having a unique style of punk rock, though not every style of punk rock has its own associated subculture.  Most punk rock involves simple arrangements, short songs and lyrics that espouse punk values.  Punk rock is usually played in bands, as opposed to solo artists. 

Fashion Edit

Main article: Punk fashion

Punks seek to outrage propriety with the highly theatrical use of clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelry and body modification.  Punk clothing adapts existing objects for aesthetic effect: previously ripped clothes are held together by safety pins or wrapped with tape, written on with marker or defaced with paint; a black bin liner might become a dress, shirt or skirt.  Leather, rubber and vinyl clothing are also common, possibly due to its implied connection with transgressive sexual practices, such as bondage and sado-masochism.  Some punks wear tight "drainpipe" jeans, brothel creeper shoes, T-shirts with risqué images, and possibly leather motorcycle jackets and Converse sneakers. 

Some punks style their hair to stand in spikes, cut it into mohawks or other dramatic shapes, and color it with vibrant, unnatural hues.  Punks will use safety pins and razor blades as jewelry.  Punks tend to show their love for a band or idea by pin-back buttons or patches, which adorn their jackets and other clothing items.  They sometimes flaunt taboo symbols such as the Iron Cross.  Early punks sometimes wore the Nazi swastika for shock-value, but most modern punks are staunchly anti-racist, and will more likely wear a crossed-out swastika symbol. 

Visual art Edit

Main article: Punk visual art

Punk aesthetics determine the type of art punks enjoy, usually with underground, minimalistic, iconoclastic and satirical sensibilities.  Punk artwork graces album covers, flyers for concerts, and punk zines.  Usually straightforward with clear messages, punk art is often concerned with political issues such as social injustice and economic disparity.  The use of images of suffering to shock and create feelings of empathy in the viewer is common.  Alternatively, punk artwork may contain images of selfishness, stupidity, or apathy to provoke contempt in the viewer.  Subculture is a group within a larger society that has values, beliefs and behaviors that go against the larger society. 

Much of the earlier artwork was in black and white, because it was distributed in zines reproduced at copy shops.  Punk art also uses the mass production aesthetic of Andy Warhol's Factory studio.  Punk played a hand in the revival of stencil art, spearheaded by Crass.  The situationists also influenced the look of punk art, particularity that of the Sex Pistols.  Punk art often utilizes collage, exemplified by the art of Crass, Jamie Reid, and Winston Smith.  John Holmstrom was a punk cartoonist who created work for the Ramones and Punk Magazine.  The Stuckism art movement had its origin in punk, and titled its first major show The Stuckists Punk Victorian at the Walker Art Gallery during the 2004 Liverpool Biennial.  Charles Thomson, co-founder of the group, described punk as "a major breakthrough" in his art. [ 1]

Dance Edit

Main article: Punk dance

A variety of dances are popular within the punk subculture.  Commonly performed at punk shows, these dances often appear chaotic, or even violent.  The punk subculture and its immediate predecessors originated many of these dance styles from the 1970s onward.  Moshing and the pogo are the types of dance most closely associated with punk.  Stage diving and crowd surfing were originally associated with protopunk bands such as The Stooges, but went on to find a place at punk, metal and rock concerts.  Ska punk promoted the dance style of skanking.  Punk concerts often appear to be more like small-scale riots than rock concerts.  Hardcore dancing is a later development based on all of these styles. 

Literature Edit

Main article: Punk literature

Punk has generated a considerable amount of poetry and prose.  Punk has its own underground press in the form of punk zines, which feature news, gossip, cultural criticism, and interviews.  Some zines take the form of perzines.  Important punk zines include Maximum RocknRoll, Punk Planet, and Cometbus.  Several novels, biographies, autobiographies, and comic books have been written about punk.  Love and Rockets is a notable comic with a plot involving the Los Angeles punk scene. 

Jim Carroll and Patti Smith are two examples of punk poets.  The Medway Poets group included punk musician Billy Childish and had an influence on Tracey Emin.  Jim Carroll's autobiographical works are perhaps the first punk literature.  Punk has inspired the cyberpunk and steampunk genres. 

Film Edit

Many punk movies have been made, and punk rock music videos and punk skate videos are common for some bands.  The use of stock footage typifies punk film.  The No Wave Cinema movement owes much to punk aesthetics.  Derek Jarman and Don Letts were punk filmmakers. 

Lifestyle Edit

Participants in the punk subculture are usually called punks, punk rockers, or, less often, punkers, or punx.  Not everyone who plays a hand in the punk subculture is identified as a punk.  Specific subsets of punk identify with the mainline subculture to varying degrees, and use a number of different terms to distinguish themselves, but these usually involve the use of punk as a suffix. 

Typically, a punk enters the subculture during the first few years of high school.  Many punks continue playing a role in the subculture for several years, and some even make their involvement a lifelong commitment.  Although adolescents are the main age group in punk, there are also many adults who hold to the punk mentality, but do not necessarily dress the part.  Some punks eventually leave the subculture in favour of the status quo, which is sometimes regarded as selling out by those still in the subculture. 

Punks are typically white, male adolescents from working class or middle class backgrounds, although exceptions abound on every count.  Punk is — except for the riot grrrl subculture — largely male-dominated, though punks rarely tolerate overt sexism.  Since its inception, female punks have always played important roles in the punk subculture [2], but, numerically speaking, they are vastly underrepresented.  Compared to some alternative cultures, however, mainline punk is much closer to being gender equalist, at least so far as its dominant ideological view of gender relations goes. 

In comparison to mainstream culture, larger portions of the punk community are homosexual or bisexual, especially in the queercore subculture.  Punks have always been a common fixture of altporn. 

Although the punk subculture is overwhelmingly anti-racist, it is vastly white, especially in Europe and North America, and some fringe punk factions espouse views of white supremacy.  These groups are usually treated with hostility by the rest of the subculture.  Numerous ethnic minorities have taken part in and contributed to the development of the subculture, such as Blacks, Latinos, and Asians.  The documentary film Afro-punk examines the role of African Americans in the punk subculture. 

Originally, most punks came from working class, inner-city backgrounds, but these demographics have since shifted, so that now many punks come from middle class, suburban homes.  Punks often hold minimum wage jobs or are unemployed.  A number of punks are homeless, and some rely on squatting, dumpster diving, or shoplifting to survive.  There is a tension within the punk community between the refusal of gainful employment and a disdain for dropping out.  Gutter punks and squeegee punks vary in their actual involvement with the punk subculture. 

Several major figures in the punk community have died from drug overdose or suicide.  Substance abuse is somewhat common in the punk scene, with the exception of the straight edge faction.  The original punk movement was largely fueled by heroin, methamphetamine, and alcohol.  Methamphetamine and alcohol continue to find wide use in the subculture, though heroin usage has declined since the early 1980s.  The punk subculture also has an association with the abuse of inhalants. 

Community Edit

Punks mostly interact with one another in their local area, forming a local punk scene.  In dozens of countries worldwide, almost all major cities, many medium-sized cities, and a few small towns have such scenes.  Several local punk scenes with close ties to one another form a regional scene.  The worldwide punk community may sometimes be called the punk scene. 

Punk scenes, both local and regional, are concentrated in North America, Europe, and Japan.  There are also scenes in Central America, South America and Australia.  The more cosmopolitan cities of mainland Asia, and the Middle East also play host to scenes.  In Africa, punk scenes are mostly limited to South Africa.  On the whole, punk scenes are most prominent in global cities. 

The way punks express their culture varies not from scene to scene, and there may be vast differences between regional scenes.  The global punk subculture contains speakers of many languages, citizens of dozens of states, and members of a variety of nationalities and ethnicities.  This wide variety of backgrounds ensures that punks create a vast range of culture that reflects the unique conditions of their local or regional scenes. 

Local punk scenes cannot be as small as half a dozen punks, or can encompass thousands of members.  A local scene usually has a small group of dedicated punks surrounded by a more casual periphery.  On the outer fringes of a punk scene are the poseurs and wannabes, whom the core members do not consider to be participants in the subculture at all. 

A typical punk scene is made up of: several bands who perform music at shows and record albums; fans who attend these shows and purchase these albums; independent record labels which produce these albums; zine makers who document the activity of the bands, fans and labels; visual artists who create artwork for these shows, albums, labels and zines; and fashion designers who create clothing and accessories.  A punk may perform any number of these functions in his or her local scene, and it is not uncommon for a single punk to perform all of them. 

Punk culture is exchanged within the punk community in a number of ways.  Punk rock can be played in concert at either venues or basement shows, aired on radio stations, or recorded to albums or bootlegs for dissemination by the punk wing of the cassette culture.  Parties also serve as an important component of a punk scene, providing an event to exchange music and reinforce scene solidarity.  Punk zines are sometimes exchanged at zine distros catering specifically to the subculture. 

Squats play a major role in the punk community, providing shelter and other forms of support.  Punk squats and other punk houses often provide a place to stay for touring bands.  These houses are usually found in low income urban areas in or around skid row.  There are some punk communes, such as the Dial House. 

In recent years, the Internet has been playing an increasingly larger role in punk [3], specifically in the form of virtual communities and file sharing programs.  There have also been several formal organizations based around uniting punks, but these have largely disappeared. 

Some punks and groups of punks, especially punk rock bands, gain notoriety within their local scene, regional scene, or the punk subculture as a whole, and some go on to become (in)famous in the mainstream as well.  Well-known punks include Joey Ramone, John Lydon, Sid Vicious, Nancy Spungen, Jello Biafra, Joe Strummer, Billy Idol, Siouxsie Sioux, and Vivian Westwood.  The punk subculture sometimes treats these figures as folk heroes, although some punks reject this as a form of idol worship. 

Subcultures within punk Edit

Punk is made up of a diverse assortment of smaller subgroups, each with its own take on punk styles.  These groups distinguish themselves from one another through differences in attitude, music and dress.  Some of these groups are antagonistic towards one another, and there is widespread disagreement within punk whether or not some are even part of the larger subculture.  Some factions are tied to particular regional or local scenes.  Others, such as hardcore, are prevalent throughout the entire subculture.  A single punk may identify with any number of these factions, or none in particular. 

Anarcho-punk is as old as the punk movement itself, and has supplied the punk subculture with many elements of its dominant ideology.  It consists of groups, bands and individuals promoting anarchist ideas such as animal rights, feminism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-war, anti-capitalism, and anti-racism.  Anarcho-punk bands include Crass, Conflict, Flux of Pink Indians, and the Subhumans.  Anarcho-punk fashion ranges across the entire spectrum of punk fashion. 

Celtic punk which began in the early 1980s, fuses punk with the traditional cultures of Scotland, Ireland, and the Irish diaspora.  Celtic punk music combines the rock beats and electric guitars of punk with traditional celtic melodies and instruments, such as the bagpipes. 

Christian punk is affiliated with Christianity, instead of the secularism of the main punk subculture.  Christian punk grew out of the 1980s American hardcore scene.  Christian punk fashion is similar to that of typical punk fashion, and often incorporates Christian symbolism such as the cross, the crown of thorns, the Ichthys, the Labarum, and the newly-created "Alpha is Omega" symbol. 

Crust punk is a more extreme version of the anarcho-punk subculture.  Members of this faction are sometimes called crusties.  Crust punk music fuses elements of anarcho-punk and heavy metal with the harshest aspects of hardcore, often sounding similar to grindcore, and using elements of d-beat.  Crust punk fashion is based strongly on ethics — always D.I.Y., and often anti-social, nihilistic and anti-consumerist.  Crust punk ideology follows in the same vein as anarcho-punk. 

Conservative punk is a group within punk which holds conservative political values. 

Cowpunk, fused stylistic elements of punk with country and rockabilly music, fashions, and dance.  Cowpunk originated in southern California during the early 1980s. 

Deathrock distinguishes itself by its adoption of the cultural sensibilities of horror films.  Deathrock focuses on "dark" culture, such as occultism, and death.  It was originated by musicians such as Rozz Williams, Eva O and Dinah Cancer in California during the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

Glam punk and art punk were the first punk-like subcultures to arise, though they are usually seen as distinct from the movement they helped inspire. 

Sometime around the beginning of the 1980s, punk underwent a renaissance in the form of the hardcore punk subculture in North America.  Hardcore music is a faster and heavier version of punk rock, usually characterized by short, loud, and passionate songs.  Major bands include Bad Brains, Black Flag and Minor Threat.  Hardcore fashion differs in several ways from that of the original punk subculture.  The UK equivalent of American hardcore is UK 82. 

Horror punk is essentially a more hardcore version of deathrock. 

Punk metal and crossover thrash, fuse the punk and heavy metal subcultures. 

Nazi Punk espouses neo-Nazism and white supremacy.  It grew out of the original UK punk movement in the late 1970s, and later spread to the USA and other countries.  The music played by Nazi punk bands is called Rock Against Communism, hatecore or simply Nazi punk.  Skrewdriver, the archetypical Nazi punk band, is largely responsible for creating this faction.  Skrewdriver was considered to be one of the original Oi!  bands, and started out as apolitical.  The now-defunct Punk Front was a notorious Nazi punk organization in the UK during the late 1970s.  Nazi punks often wear swastikas, or other symbols of hate in combination with more typical punk dress. 

The Oi!  and streetpunk genres identify strongly with punk's working class sensibilities, though they carry no specific political ideology other than a rough quasi-socialist populism.  However, there have been Oi!  bands from the entire political spectrum, from left to right.  Having its origins in the original UK punk subculture, Oi!  seeks to align punk with a working class, street-level following, often associating with football hooliganism.  Oi!  punk ideology promotes unity between punks, skinheads and other working class youths.  Major bands include Cock Sparrer, the Cockney Rejects, Angelic Upstarts, and Sham 69.  With close ties to the Oi!  punk subculture, though without placing the same importance on football rivalries, streetpunk is a working class, inner-city punk subculture.  Some anarcho-punks and crust punks have problems with Oi!  punks for their lack of radical political ideals, their emphasis on work, and other views exspressed in Oi!  music. 

The now-extinct positive punk subculture, so-called because it lacked the violence that characterizes the rest of punk, began in late 1970s in the London punk scene around the Batcave nightclub, and quickly developed into the goth subculture. 

Queercore is a branch of hardcore punk that developed alongside riot grrrl, based on the experiences of lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals.  Queercore music, exemplified by bands like Pansy Division, Tribe 8 and Mukilteo Fairies is similar to hardcore, and its lyrics often deal with issues surrounding marginalized sexuality.  Likewise, queercore fashion is similar to hardcore dress, though it incorporates some elements from sexuality and gender identity-based subcultures. 

Riot grrrl is an offshoot of hardcore punk that places strong emphasis on feminism.  This segment seeks to create a girl-friendly space within the subculture, accomplishing this task with feminist zines and all-woman bands.  Riot grrrl arose from the Seattle, Olympia, and Washington, D.C. hardcore scenes around 1991, and shared significant cultural cross-pollination with the developing grunge subculture.  Bratmobile and Bikini Kill are two prime examples of riot grrrl bands. 

Scum punk, a subgenre with some ties to hardcore, is known for its disregard of safety, morals, and hygiene.  It is more of a philisophical subgenre of punk than truly a musical one, much like the straight edge scene, though opposite in views.  Songs in the scum punk subgenre are usually sexual or violent in nature and contain tabboo subject matter (including incest, rape, pedophilia, bestiality, and drug use).  Concerts by scum punk bands usually engage in some sort of trangsgressive act.  The name itself is derived from GG Allin and one of his many backing bands, the Scumfucs.  Many of GG Allin's songs also used the word "scum" in them including Bite it You Scum, Scum Fuck Tradition, and Outlaw Scumfuc.  Today, scum punk is seen as an underground scene with a small following. 

The skate punk subculture began in the 1980s in Venice Beach, California as a fusion of punk and the subcultures associated with skateboarding and surfboarding.  This faction was largely created by a skateboarding team called the Z-boys.  Musically, skate punk music emerged from hardcore punk. 

Ska punk and Two tone combine punk with the Jamaican rudie culture.  It's closely related subculture which places emphasis on inter-racial unity.  The ska punk musical style, which combines punk rock and ska, sometimes features wind instruments, distinguishing it from most other punk music.  Ska punk popularized a dance step called skanking.  The UK saw the rise of ska punk shortly after the genesis of punk.  This faction has since spread to North America, where it gained considerable mainstream attention during the early 1990s. 

Cultural relations Edit

Punk has unique relationships with other subcultures and popular culture as a whole. 

Subcultures which developed out of punk Edit

The goth subculture began in the gothic rock scene, a music genre that developed from punk rock and post-punk in the late 1970s.  The subculture is noted for its macabre outlook and fascination with dark subjects and fashion. 

Psychobilly incorporates the music and fashions of the rockabilly subculture with horror themes.  Psychobilly music is generally played with an upright bass instead of an electric bass.  Cowpunk and punkabilly are related subcultures. 

New Wave Music and its attendant subculture arose along with the earliest punk groups; indeed punk and the new wave were originally interchangeable terms.  Combining elements of early punk music and fashion with a far more pop oriented and less "dangerous" style, new wave became one of the most popular music movements of the early 1980s before essentially dying out in the middle of the decade. 

Emo developed from the Washington, D.C. punk scene in the late 1980s.  Punk and emo have a sometimes antagonistic relationship, since emo as a movement has become increasingly mainstream, and punks generally reject any form of music or subculture that has "sold out". 

An outgrowth of hardcore punk, straight edge is based around a lifestyle of abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drug use.  The movement was kickstarted by Washington, D.C.'s Minor Threat in the 1980s.  The lead singer of Minor Threat, Ian McKaye, is credited with coining the term in their song "Straight Edge".  He has since disowned the movement.  Someone who is "straight edge" follows the punk lifestyle, but doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs.  Some straight edgers avoid promiscuous sex, and many modern straight edgers are vegetarian or vegan.  Straight edge was a reaction to the self-destructive nature of the scene and it's drug use.  One sign that a person is "edge" is a black "X" written with marker on the person's hand.  This comes from the practice of marking an "X" on the hand of underage youths at shows so the bar tender would know not to serve them alcohol.  Hardline is a social movement which originated in the straight edge punk subculture.  Hardline is based around extreme politics, mostly derived from the doctrines of deep ecology.  It is controversial, even within straight edge for it's militant stance against drug use.  Hardliners will sometimes attack strangers who are drinking, smoking or doing drugs.  Some people have been killed as a result of these actions.  The most well-known hardline band is the now-defunct Vegan Reich. 

The indie scene is an offshoot of punk that carries on punk's DIY ethic, though indie music is sonically more diverse.  Characterized by independent labels, regional diversity, and grassroots fanbases, the indie scene encompasses a wide variety of underground music genres, most notably alternative rock and particularly its subgenres such as indie rock, indie pop, and indietronica.  A prime example is the Seattle grunge scene that developed in the late 1980s.  Grunge had considerable mainstream success in the early 1990s, during which the media placed an emphasis on the bands' working class clothing and indie ethics along with other alternative rock-related tropes such as Lollapalooza in an attempt to define it as a supposed "alternative culture" for Generation X.

Subcultures with origins separate from punk Edit

Punk has ties to the skinhead subculture, a working class youth subculture which originated in the UK in the 1960s.  The original skinhead movement had largely died out by 1972, but in the late 1970s it underwent a revival, partly as a reaction against the commercialization of punk.  Punks and skinheads have had both antagonistic and friendly relationships, depending on the circumstances.  Also in the late 1970s, punk influenced skinhead fashion, leading to the punk-skinheads code of dress. 

Punk and hip hop emerged around the same time in New York City, and there has been a surprising amount of interaction between the two subcultures.  Some of the first hip hop MCs called themselves punk rockers, and some punk fashions have found their way into hip hop dress.  The Beastie Boys originally started out as a hardcore band.  Malcolm McLaren (the manager of the Sex Pistols) played roles in introducing both punk and hip hop to the United Kingdom.  Recently, hip hop has influenced several punk bands, including The Transplants and Refused, and punk themes, such as disenchantment with the urban-industrial landscape, have been expressed in the lyrics of many hip hop artists. 

The industrial subculture has several ties to punk. 

Additionally, punk and the heavy metal subculture have shared similarities since punk's inception, and the early 1970s metal scene was instrumental in the development of protopunk.  Glam rockers The New York Dolls, massively influential on early punk fashion, also influenced the look of glam metal.  Alice Cooper was a forerunner of the fashion and music of both the punk and metal subcultures.  Motörhead, since their first album release in 1977, have had continued popularity in the punk scene.  Hardcore was a primary influence on thrash metal bands such as Metallica and Slayer and, by proxy, an influence on death metal and black metal.  Conversely, punk subgenres like metalcore, grindcore, punk metal and crossover thrash were greatly influenced by heavy metal.  As a result, many punks are fans of heavy metal, and many metalheads find punk rock an acceptable musical style.  The grunge subculture resulted in large part from the fusion of punk and metal styles in the late 1980s.  However, there have long been tensions between the two groups.  In particular, metal's mainstream incarnations have proven anathema to punk.  Hardcore and grunge developed in part as reactions against metal music popular during the 1980s. 

Punks were once known for fighting Teddy Boys and sometimes Greaser/Bikers.  Many older British punks also recall Skinheads at shows/gigs firstly beating anybody with long hair, then beating up the punks and then beating up each other.  In punk's original heyday, punks faced harassment and even violent attacks, particularly in the U.K., where brawls with Teddy Boys or fans of rockabilly were often reported.  In the U.S. punks sometimes faced abuse from rednecks and other right-wing groups such as the Nazi-Skinheads.  In Sweden it was raggare that attacked punks. 

There was considerable enmity between positive punks and the New Romantics. 

Other subcultures have had relationships to punk including Beatniks, Hippie, Yippie, Mods, Rockers, and Cybe. 

Mainstream and popular culture Edit

Nowadays it is relatively acceptable to present oneself as a punk, and doing so is often merely a fashion statement among youth.  Bryn Chamberlain writes, "By the mid 1980's the punk became publicly acceptable.  The punk became intelligent, artistic and fun.  This became the constructed punk: a sterilized figure, a shadow of his mindless adolescent ancestor." [ 4] Thus, some maintain that the punk scene has lost the very heart of its former nature as one of explosive creativity, rebellion, anger, and individualism, and that it has become a mere caricature of what once was.  Others suggest that little has changed except the popularity of the genre.  Disillusioned ex-punks see punk as outdated and obsolescent, especially as mass acceptance means that punk is now even influencing boy bands, albeit in a sanitised form. 

Punk has influenced and has been influenced by popular culture in a number of ways.  Since the beginning of the subculture, major label record labels, haute couture, and the mass media have attempted to use punk for profit.  For the most part, punk has met this cultural appropriation with resistance because of the punk ethic of musical integrity which punks often feel is threatened by profit motivation.  Many members of the original punk subculture, as well as some of the modern adherents, find the commercialization of punk disillusioning.  They argue that punk is by definition unpopular (seeing "pop punk" as a contradiction in terms) and should remain that way because it provides a needed challenge to mainstream culture. 

References Edit

Bibliography Edit

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad

by Michael Azerrad Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs, ISBN 0679720456

by Lester Bangs, ISBN 0679720456 American Hardcore: A Tribal History by Steven Blush

by Steven Blush The Boy Looked At Johnny: The Obituary of Rock and Roll by Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, 1978, Pluto Press, UK, ISBN 0861040309X

by Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, 1978, Pluto Press, UK, ISBN 0861040309X Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution by Stephen Colegrave

by Stephen Colegrave Burning Britain - A History Of UK Punk 1980 to 1984 by Ian Glasper, Cherry Red Books, ISBN 1901447243

by Ian Glasper, Cherry Red Books, ISBN 1901447243 A Punk Manifesto by Greg Graffin, Bad Times, 12/98

by Greg Graffin, Bad Times, 12/98 Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain Stuart Hall, ISBN 0415099161

Stuart Hall, ISBN 0415099161 Subculture: The Meaning of Style D. Hebdige, ISBN 0415039495

D. Hebdige, ISBN 0415039495 From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World by Clinton Heylin, Penguin Books, ISBN 0140179704

by Clinton Heylin, Penguin Books, ISBN 0140179704 From the Velvets to the Voidoids: The Birth of American Punk Rock by Clinton Heylin

by Clinton Heylin Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, 1997, Penguin Books, ISBN 0140266909

by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, 1997, Penguin Books, ISBN 0140266909 The Philosophy of Punk by Craig O'Hara

by Craig O'Hara Punk Rock: So What?:  The Cultural Legacy of Punk by Roger Sabin

by Roger Sabin England's Dreaming : Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond by Jon Savage, 1991, Faber and Faber, UK, ISBN 0312069634

by Jon Savage, 1991, Faber and Faber, UK, ISBN 0312069634 We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet, the Collected Interviews by Daniel Sinker. 

by Daniel Sinker.  Make The Music Go Bang!:  The Early L.A. Punk Scene by Don Snowden

by Don Snowden We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Marc Spitz

Zines Edit

MaximumRocknRoll The flagship zine of the punk subculture. 

Punk Planet Online A popular zine which covers the culture and community of punk. 

Punk Magazine A zine largely responsible for forming the American punk scene. 

Punk Zine Russian punk zine. 

Histories Edit

General Edit

Main article: Punk rock

Main article: Punk fashion

Main article: Punk visual art

Main article: Punk dance

Main article: Punk literature