“Anarchy Sounds Good to Me / Then Someone Asks
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“ANARCHY SOUNDS GOOD TO ME / THEN SOMEONE ASKS, ‘WHO’D FIX THE SEWERS?’”: THE DIALECTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUNK ROCK AND THE MAINSTREAM^ by Andrea Palmer B.A., University of Northern British Columbia, 2000 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA September 2005 ©Andrea Palmer, 2005 ' Quoted from the Dead Kennedys song, “Where do ya draw the line?” Library and Bibliothèque et 1^1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-28384-4 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-28384-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada Abstract Punk music and style have coalesced to form an articulated, if dispersed, social and subcultural movement in contemporary society. Are cultural analysis and punk incompatible? Does the anti-authoritarian and purposefully off-putting nature of punk resist a critical assessment of the movement beyond the scope of literary readings of lyrics and musicological notational evaluation of the music? Since the birth of the movement in the mid-nineteen seventies, most modes of inquiry into punk have actually disregarded the movement as form -the music is decidedly lowbrow and technically primitive - and social analysts have tried to fit punk into the narrow, established template of the short-lived, rebellious youth movement.’ Now, thirty years later, punk remains a strong subcultural presence, and has inspired much, including fashion, social behavior, methods of dissent, politics, the independent music industry, et cetera beyond its basic musical roots. This thesis takes a close look at the forming of the punk subculture, how it came to be and what remains. I use literary analysis of modern writing on punk and cite interviews with past and present members of the punk scene to form conclusions about the current state of the movement and how it is involved, unavoidably, in a dialectic relationship with mainstream culture. 11 Table of Contents Abstract Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1 I) Definitions 5 Chapter 1 Literature Review 16 i) The Scholars 16 ii) Fiction and Film 25 iii) The Front Line: Biographies and Interviews 32 Chapter 2 S/M Imagery as Identity in Punk Rock as Represented in Punk Fiction 39 i) Punk S/M Imagery in Culture 41 ii) Punk S/M Imagery in Fiction 49 Chapter 3 “Where the Streets Have No Name”: The subcultural ‘counterpublic’ claiming space and asserting identity in public place and private space 61 i) The Streets 61 ii) Metaphor and Symbolism in Punk Space 67 iii) The use of Clubs as Homebases' in Semi-Public Areas 82 iv) Punk Houses as Safe Home Environments 87 Chapter 4 True ‘till Death: The Ghost of Straight Edge in Modern Punk Literature 94 Chapter 5 Conclusions 114 Works Cited 120 Appendix 1: Informed Consent Form 130 Appendix 2: Interview Questions: - The Participation Experiences of Individuals in Punk or Punk-related Subcultures 131 111 Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the steadfast support and continual Inspiration provided to me by my partner in crime and fellow outlaw, Jonathan. My parents have shown uncommon restraint in their curiosity regarding the length in completion time and subject matter of this thesis. Their love, support and tolerance have been infallible and much appreciated -as have their occasional gifts of cash and edibles. .. An ovenwhelming thank you to my committee. Dr. Karin Beeler, Dr. Stan Beeler and Dr. Michel Bouchard -your influences have added dimension and deeper meaning to my work. A special thank you to Dr. Stan Beeler for his strong supervisory role, his calm support and faith in my abilities. My fellow grad students whose peer support and shared agonies have made the experience one of shared scholarship and joy, thank you. Also thanks to the Geek Group for the extended discussions on theory, interdisciplinarity and insomnia. And finally, I would like to thank the entire professorial and administrative staff (especially Gwen Lew) of the University of Northern British Columbia for your shared knowledge, insight and inspiration, assistance and roles as academic buoys throughout my student tenure. “We rarely hear the inward music, but we’re all dancing to it nevertheless.” -Rumi IV Introduction: From its breakthrough into the mainstream in 1976, punk rock has served and survived its role as a chaotic musical genre and movement. Punk has, in many ways, transcended the role of musical type and become a cultural underground and artistic appellation. Since Its debut in music, punk has influenced almost every art form from painting to print, and from fashion to theatre. Many artists and art forms that emerge now that challenge hegemonic views or confront authority are described as having a punk edge.’ Early punks emerged in London, England in the mid nineteen-seventies in a social and political climate that ill served a young and impatient generation of youths. Dick Hebdidge has argued (1979: 62-70) that punk came out of the working-class experiences of historically changing race relations and of economic pessimism in England. Among the punk groups to emerge at this specific time, those who shaped punk’s origins and continue to influence the modern face of the movement, include Billy Idol (who formed the band Generation X), Siouxsie Sioux (who formed Siouxsie and the Banshees), the Sex Pistols and American-born Chrissie Hynde formed The Pretenders. It was a fertile time and place for restless music. While the sentiment of social and political discontent was indeed expressed in early punk lyrics (as in the song “No Future” by the Sex Pistols), other cultural critics and punk scholars argue with, if not refute this view of punk origins. Simon Frith, who looks towards punk’s American roots in the same era, sees early punk as more of new street culture, one produced by “...a self-conscious, artful lot with a good understanding of both rock tradition and populist cliché; their music no more reflected directly back on conditions in the dole queue than it emerged spontaneously from them” (Grossberg 489). Early examples of American punk include The Patti Smith Band, whose Rimbaud-inspired lyrics informed a new subculture by infusing poetry, mainstream culture and punk rock. ' Punk band The Ramones also helped paint the face of punk, their stripped down style (basic, three- chord, two-minutes catchy songs) created the absolute template of the punk sound. Both construals of punk origin, and each is arguably as valid as the other, continue to influence the modem faces of punk that, Janus-like, reflect different sides and perceptions of ‘being’ punk. The sneering young female singers blaring their image from the television screens in videos and interviews all seem to borrow from the sartorial standards set out by punk in the seventies and early eighties, and all are described in varying degrees of punk^ idiom. The cultural dialogue on whether or not the popularization of punk has damaged or ‘killed’ punk has been ongoing in various forms since the early eighties," and as music, art and culture continue to change, so too does that argument. For some people, punk seems to exist as music only; yet the continued cultural presence of punks, adhering to the old school’ and those who embrace musical and cultural derivatives,'^ seems to indicate the movement is alive and well as a community. That punk has shared its anti-authoritarian and politically motivated roots with mainstream culture becomes evident with a close examination of, among other media, the literature it has spawned. How the dominant culture has influenced punk, other than serving to adulterate its subcultural presence on a mainstream scale -is less apparent. The intent of this thesis is to demonstrate the lived, cultural presence of punk as it takes form in the lifestyle habits, sartorial expressions, and philosophical basis of a unique and global subcultural community. From the place and space punks find, and from the social impact of derivative subcultures (in this work I focus on Straight Edge) I intend to use personally conducted and published interviews (by other researchers), autobiographical sources, scripts and novels and critical theory to establish the role punk plays as a community on its own and also as the kind of instigative force it has become in the mainstream.