Spectral transmissions: All-night television’s role in the formation of first-wave punk aesthetics

In this article, I examine all-night television’s role in the formation of first wave punk aesthetics in Melbourne, Australia. I argue that the confluence of two events – the commencement of all night television transmissions and the emergence of punk – contributed to a Bourdieuian habitas that exerted a hitherto unexamined influence on the music of the time. Drawing on personal experiences, Greil Marcus’ examination of unknown connections between ‘punk’ practitioners, and the work of Pierre Bourdieu, I conclude that all-night television transmissions played an important and as yet unacknowledged role in shaping the Melbourne music scene of today. In addition to this, I suggest that all night television is a lens through which further examination of punk in other areas – both geographically and philosophically – can usefully be explored.