1970s punk newspaper articles

Punk

“Punk was/is a subculture best characterized as being part of youth rebellion, part artistic statement primarily manifested through music.” Roger Sabin ‘Punk Rock so what?’. Punk was the promotion of anarchy and anti-establishment which was most popular 1976-1979. It was primarily a movement through the youth of the time that attracted a lot of attention through the things that it did. This led to a documentary on punk in 1976 on the London Weekend Show this documentary shows regular people such as the presenter trying to understand this ‘latest cult’ but apparently failing to do so through quotes such as “the first thing you notice is punk rock fans look as devastating as the music sounds.” The idea of anarchy within the punk cult links to Hebdige’s theory that media representations of youth are either ‘fun or trouble’ as this clearly shows that the youth involved in punk are wanting to cause trouble in order to gain some kind of reaction.

Key quotes from media texts:

·       “The Mirror goes on tour with Britain’s most outrageous band” (Sunday Mirror 1978 Dick Grayson)

·       “Punk power of the Sex Pistols” (Sunday Mirror 1978 Dick Grayson)

·       One of the reporters called them ‘animals’ (Sunday 1978 Dick Grayson)

·       “Its back to jazz from now on, we can’t play here again…. Not after tonight” (Mark Perry Sniffin Glue 1976)

·       ‘We’re the only mag, who knows what’s happening’ (Telling rival magazines, newspapers that their information is incorrect and this is what truly happened) (Mark Perry Sniffin glue 1976)

·       ‘Their reason for existing is to perform noise with meaning for people to share and benefit from.’ (Siouxsie and the banshees interview NME magazine 1978)

·       ‘They could be the last rock group. The only rock group. They are not a rock group. They are 20^th-century performers’ (Siouxsie and the banshees interview NME magazine 1978)

·       ‘They wore swastikas. There were stiff armed salutes. ‘(Siouxsie and the banshees interview NME magazine 1978)

·       “I want to look like a protest, I want my head to look like a clenched fist” (Hair dye)

·       ‘Some people turn up to the hairdressers after having used domestic bleach in their hair. ‘(Hair dye)

·       “We’ve fuckin spent it, aint we?” “Down the boozer” (1976 Grundy interviewing the Sex Pistols transcript)

·       “Go on be outrageous” (Trying to make them be bad) (1976 Grundy interviewing the Sex Pistols transcript)