The Essence of Punk

A Reaction to Subculture: The Meaning of Style (Dick Hebdige) by Austin Miller

Dick Hebdige takes on an ambitious project in his attempts to define something which by nature resists definition — a deconstructive art form, a reaction to what the young UK’ers saw as excess.

Hebdige submits that although punk culture is readily identifiable, homogeneous, and unified in many ways, it has a quantifiable value devoid of meaning. What could one possibly be trying to say by stating that a movement contains value without meaning? I believe the author is referring to an inverted parallel of Marx’s thoughts on cultural capital and currency. When Marx speaks of money, he presents the idea of the signifier (paper or coins) as being meaningless — but the signified (physical labor) as the true commodity. However, in the case of punk culture — it is the signifier (the clothes, the pins, the dance, the colors etc.) that contain value, and not the signified (the culture itself.)

It is tempting to want to take a Bhaktinian approach and state that punk culture defiles the sacred and sanctifies the grotesque. However, Hebdige echoes the voices of those in punk culture by repeatedly stating that there is no attempt to sanctify the grotesque, but rather to be grotesque. Instead of stating “Our way is the right way” they merely state “We are all filthy creatures.” In The Meaning of Style, Hebdige tells the story of a girl being interviewed, when asked why punk culture donned the use of the swastika she responded, “Because we love to be hated.” It is as if the punk movement is defiling anything and everything (including themselves) to try and deconstruct society.

Throughout my reading I am left wondering if the movement would have much meaning if it were not for the existence of mainstream society — a certain other to rebel against. Hebdige’s article The Meaning of Style has helped me conclude that the punk movement is best defined as a sensory experience. If LSD is to represent the counterculture of the 60’s — spiritualistic, shamanistic and transcendental; then Cocaine is the only adequate drug to define the punk movement — messy, abrasive and ultimately nihilistic. The essence of punk.