Definition of Punk

Punk

A definition of punk in a reference will typically read like the following, "rock music marked by extreme and often deliberately offensive expressions of alienation and social discontent" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). The problem with this definition is that it can be used to describe many of today's more aggressive music genres. It's played using guitar, bass, and drums. Its songs are usually under three minutes in length, use a changing, but fast, tempo and strong vocals. To the unfamiliar there isn't much to differentiate punk from other common forms of rock music.

What's missing from the definition, that helps distinguish punk from other forms of music, is mention of punk's attitude about creating music. Punk starts with an attitude, an attitude driven from politics, dissatisfaction, and a call for non-violent direct action. Punk is a volatile, work in progress that is created in the spur of the moment. It's about the moments when somebody does something that points out how screwed up the world is, but makes it funny, noble, and moving. It was when this attitude met the circumstances of the mid to late 1970s that punk was born.

With the late 1970s a generation of kids threw on black leather jackets, cut their hair short and spiky, picked up instruments they could barely play, and went to war on a bloated music industry establishment. Tired of having their musical choices decided by an industry that had become self-indulgent and complacent, they decided to deal with the problem themselves, and changed the path of rock 'n' roll. Punk's "Do It Yourself/Anyone Can Do It" credo is a key and defining characteristic of the music, remove it and it's no longer punk.

To get a better appreciation for punk's attitude you need to be aware of its history. Exactly when punk began can be debated, because everyone defines punk a little differently and also because punk's roots are found in several places. But if you focus on the attitude behind punk, it's appreciation of raw and unbridled expression, and anti-establishment politics, you can see punk's roots being traced back to the 1950s and the folk music scene that sprung from the Beat generation. The Beat Generation, sometimes referred to as the beat movement, were a group of American writers who first seen in the 1950s. The beat generation demonstrated a carefree, at times reckless and a fresh approach to literature as well as a strong social stance toward what was sometimes referred to as "The Establishment". Without the Beat Generation and its rejection of materialism, its idealizing of unrestricted expression and its anti-establishment stance punk would never have come about.

After the incredibly creative and vital 1960s, which saw rock 'n' roll transform from a teenybopper fad into a respected art form, the mid-1970s