What Was Once Considered Poetry Punk Rock Has Changed A lot..
Punk Rock is a new art form that has recently been created and has been growing in popularity ever since. Punk rock music brought a whole new different sound of music that people have never heard of and gave people as stage to outcast how they really felt and to show what kind of music that punk music really entails. one of Punk Rocks newest forms is a form of protest and the band Pussy Riot from Russia exemplifies that. Punk Rock was originally created as a rebellious form of art and music, for people who did not fit into social norms to express themselves. while punk rock has always had a foundation of raw energy, being raunchy, electrified and rebellious and forming a protest, which can be found in the melodic range and the number of layers as well as the distorted timbres and faster tempos.
My project has been on the subculture of Punk Rock, but what I have learned from researching it as much as I have is that it covers a lot more than what I originally thought, and it’s been going on a lot longer than I thought. Also, Punk Rock takes many forms and uses many kinds of outlets to get its genre across. Punk was started in a bar in New York City in December of nineteen seventy-three. Bar was founded by ex-marine Sargent Hilly Kristal. The bar was call CBGB-OMFUG which stands for country, blue-grass, blues and other music for uplifting gormandizers. In this bar, punk was born, but a man by the name Terry Ork must do a lot with why Punk even started, he was the mediator of the Punk generation. Before terry help create the punk scene, he was the manager for famous Painter Andy Warhol and he helped to create the punk scene by reaching out to his artist friends who were into theater, film and art to start coming to the bar to see the shows and that was what Punk Rock had as its original fanbase. Punk Rock has always been a genre for misfits, since the beginning of when it starts till now, the genre is for people who do not fit into to social norms. Nineteen seventy- three was a time of, for lack of a better word conformity, a lot of people did not stray away from social norms, and society was a lot stricter than it is now. For example, the original audience to Punk Rock was Terry Ork, and people he invited who were artist, theater and film, but back then they would have been labeled as misfits and outcast because that was not a social norm back then, so punk rock gave those type of people an outlet that they can relate to. Also, the artist of Punk Rock has had the same problem as the listeners did, they were all outcast who just could not fit in. Patti Smith from the Patti Smith group, who was one of the kind of the creators of Punk Rock and helped Punk Rock gain its popularity and was famous for combing poetry and Rock into one has been noted saying that Punk music was a place for fuck ups ( Her words not mine) and outcast to belong somewhere. Punk sounds the way it does because of these reasons, how would you feel if you felt outcasted your whole life and no matter where you went you just could not fit in? The way they took it out was in Punk Music, that is why Punk music has and electric guitar, drums and that rebellious feel. Punk music gave outcast a voice and they used it and this is exemplified by the band the Ramones who have been labeled raunchy and raw energy because that is what they are they are loud, rebellious people who have never fit in anywhere and Punk music gives them a way to express themselves (Szatmary).
Punk Rock was originally a place for people who did not fit into the world and social norms as way to express themselves and that is shown by how loud, rebellious, rambunctious and energetic the music has been, but a lot has changed since the original Punk Rock days. I am not saying that Punk Rock music does not entail all of what I just listed because it still does, but throughout the years and the more its popularity started to grow the more different it got. New York is where Punk Rock originally started, but has it gain popularity it spread throughout the world and one of the places it was popular was in California. The California Punk scene has created what is in my opinion the epitome of Punk Rock, if you ask someone most people have heard one of the two bands and they are Green Day and Blink 182. both bands came shortly after the creation of Punk Rock and they still create new music today, over twenty plus years. When these bands originally started, they were the same as their predecessors like the Ramones, they were raunchy, raw energy, but they brought a new image as well. While the Ramones brought leather, these bands wore eyeliner and mascara because it goes back to the point that punk is a place for outcast. As Punk grew with more popularity it pushed itself into a social norm, and when that happened I felt like at least these bands began to become more political because now they had a voice that would be globally heard and my opinion protest Punk Rock is the biggest subculture under punk rock and I feel is the direction that punk music has been going in because of what is wrong with this world. One of the most famous band who can exemplify this is a 11-group girl punk band from Russia. These girls use the punk scene as a way of speaking against social norms and gives these outcasts a voice, they talk about oppression and lack of freedom of speech in Russia as well as discrimination of LBTQ community. What in my opinion what made the band as famous as they are there protest that they hold outside of preforming and the song “Make America Great Again”, this song explains the wrong doings and injustices and as an overall bad leader Trump is as they belittle him throughout the entire song about immigration, abortion and more. No matter where in the world it Punk rock is has that foundation as being a place for outcast, rebels, and people who do not fit in and it is shown in their style and music. People in punk get labeled as goth, but they are really not they are just different and they use punk as a way to express that and that is why the music is loud and electrified and the vocalist may scream because they are mad about what they are protesting about they are mad that they have not fit in anywhere and this goes throughout the whole timeline of Punk Rock and many people listen to it because they feel the same way (Rourke).
Punk has changed a lot from what it once was, for instance, punk started out as a small group, but as it evolved is became more into bands. Punk music has become more band orientated and became less revolved around just the main singer and incorporation the entire band mostly because of the advancement in technology. The advancement in technology comes from the electric guitar, what is known as punk today has very specific elements that require a band and require more than just the lead singer to be heard. Punk music incorporates a consistent pulse which is the drums in the background of the songs, while also having and electric guitar that has a screech for it and is what is said to be one of the most important things that describes the way punk is rebellious is the way the guitar sounds. With the electric guitar, also comes the bass guitar, which is almost always playing underneath the electric guitar while one has six strings and the other having only four. That is having at least four people including the lead singer all playing an important part in each song which has revolutionized into what is now mostly bands. For the instruments, as it became electrified and new into the scene as well as punk becoming it into a new subculture for rock, much of that type of sound has not been heard ever before and it became almost a new demand of people wanting to listen to this new subculture of sound. Many people outside of what it was originally intended for, outcasts, became to really like the music and that was mostly because of the instruments and the way they were used. They were used in a way were they can be shown off in a way because Punk rock became one of the first genres to ever have solos like that, which is a huge jump in the evolution of rock because in today’s music you see it everywhere.
in conclusion, the punk rock culture has revolutionized a bunch from where it started in an old raggedy bar in New York, it has became one of the biggest subcultures of rock music today and that has a lot to do with a bunch of people looking for an outlet of expression and as well as Terry Ork stepping in when he did. Punk Rock always had a foundation of raw energy, being raunchy, electrified and rebellious and forming a protest because they wanted to be heard so when you finally get that chance and you have never fit in before you are going to make sure you are heard. in result the melodic range and the number of layers as well as the distorted timbres and faster tempos and it can easily be heard when your comparing punk rock to another genre or you know what to look for because punk rock has a sound that no other genre sounds like and has that rebellious feel that none other have like and that is why punk rock is so popular and has grown over the years.
Works Cited
Szatmary, David P. Rockin’ in Time: A Social History of Rock-and-Roll. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print.
Rourke, Brian, and Andrew Wiget. “Pussy Riot, Putin and the Politics of Embodiment.” Cultural Studies, vol. 30, no. 2, Mar. 2016, pp. 234–260. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/09502386.2014.974644.
