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- Volume 12, Issue 2, 2023
Punk & Post-Punk - Volume 12, Issue 2, 2023
Volume 12, Issue 2, 2023
- Editorial
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Editorial
By Russ BestleyPunk & Post-Punk questions, critiques and problematizes our expanded field of research and practice. This issue reflects on notions of punk agency, temporality and the rhetoric of punk chronotypes, decolonial thinking, punk stereotypes in film and the intersections between punk, art history and (sub)cultural commentary.
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- Articles
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The afterlife of punk: Evental sites of punk 771
More LessBuilding on the argument of my previous article ‘Autonomy and agency: The event of punk 77’, this article defends the continuing political relevance of punk. Rejecting the dominant story that punk was a utopian, short-lived revolution, over before it had a chance to effect any social change, I argue that punk survives through people who, radicalized by its vision of cultural agency, motivate revolutionary ‘ways of being’ committed to realizing and transmitting that vision to others. The subjects of 77 are heir to a revolutionary tradition, choosing to ‘keep’ punk ‘alive’ through fidelity to its inaugural event; a fidelity that involves renewed acknowledgement of the ‘subversive’ dimension of the event’s original ‘epochal rupture’. Two case studies are offered in support of this argument. An account of the eruption of a punk scene in the provincial town of Drogheda in Ireland in the early 1980s is followed by discussion of the specific way punk engaged young women, a case study based on interviews with Gina Birch, founding member of first-generation all-female punk band the Raincoats. I conclude by recasting the legacy of punk as a tradition of revolutionary inheritance.
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Presentism, dystopia, negative solution: Three forms of the punk chronotype ‘no future’
By Justus GrebeIn recent years, the slogan ‘no future’ has been used to illustrate punk ideology, focusing on notions of nihilism, pessimism and anxiety against the backdrop of various crises. It has also been interpreted as emblematic of a certain temporality typical of the years after the post-war boom. However, the meaning of ‘no future’ in and for punk cultures is rarely explored in detail – a gap this article seeks to address. It conceptualizes ‘no future’ as a central chronotype of punk, manifesting in various forms. Providing close readings of the exemplary punk songs ‘Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue’ by the Ramones, ‘London Calling’ by the Clash, and ‘Deutschland’ by Slime, the article explores three such forms: presentism, choosing the present over the future; dystopia, detailing a negative future; and negative solution, calling for the negation of a certain aspect of the present. In doing so, the article shows the plurality of meanings of ‘no future’ in punk and points to further research to be conducted on the time culture of punk.
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Punk and decolonial thinking in Bogota, Colombia
More LessThis article gathers the work carried out with three punk bands of Bogota to talk about decoloniality regarding race, class and gender. To analyse the latter the theoretical framework we proposed was decolonial aesthetics and liberating music praxis. The results from the research were two-fold: on the one hand, through a quantitative methodology, Bogota’s punk scene composition regarding race, class and gender; and on the other hand, through a qualitative methodology, a discursive analysis of the workshops, the in-depth interviews and the lyrics of the songs. We sought to answer the question: how does punk connect with decoloniality and become a music genre that supports the narration of oppressions?
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Young, loud and snotty: Punk, rebellion and the movies
More LessThis article seeks to investigate the ways punk and representations of juvenile delinquency interact in cinema and to explore the aesthetic, narrative and ideological quality of those depictions of youthful rebellion positioned as in dialogue with punk culture. By initially considering portrayals of delinquency in cinema existent outside of and/or predating the punk movement, this article will think through the specific ways punk is used to signify and fortify acts of rebellion. Beginning in the 1950s and with the reinvigoration of the term ‘juvenile delinquent’ in the post-war period, this article examines cinematic responses to the moral issue of ‘youth-crime’ in the context of a supposedly evaporating family unit. From here it considers the ‘skate-film’ of the 1980s and 1990s and its relationship to punk to explore the way other subcultural expressions of juvenile delinquency manifest on film. Subsequently, it moves to consider films that use, in different ways, the ethos and aesthetic of punk rock as a constitutive element in the depiction of adolescent rebellion. It argues that these films work to articulate the role punk plays in expressions of rebellion on-screen – utilizing both its violent and anarchic potential but also its inherent irony to express an oppositional philosophical framework with its own idiosyncratic ideology that is ultimately geared towards social change.
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- Interviews
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Seeing what they want to see: An interview with Michael Bracewell
More LessWriter, novelist and cultural commentator Michael Bracewell was born in London in 1958 and educated at the University of Nottingham. He has written several novels and many works of non-fiction, including books about artists Gilbert & George and Richard Hamilton, and bands such as Roxy Music. England Is Mine: Pop Life in Albion from Wilde to Goldie (1997) and When Surface Was Depth: Death by Cappuccino and Other Reflections on Music and Culture in the 1990s (2002) were much more ambitious and wide-ranging volumes that roamed popular music, culture and society, whilst his 2021 title Souvenir: London, 1979–1986 was a more reflective book which intrigued by the way Bracewell wrote around music, without engaging directly with it. It was in response to Souvenir that I interviewed the author, although since my questions were sent to him he has not only helped bring the new Gilbert & George Centre in East London to completion, but also published a new novel, Unfinished Business.
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Totally inspired by punk: An interview with Martin Bowes and Alan Rider
More LessThis interview contextualizes the music of two bands, Stress and Attrition, their relationship to time and place (Coventry in the early 1980s) and the zines produced at the time by both interviewees. Bowes and Rider consider DIY zine and tape culture, their bands’ relationship to punk, post-punk and indie labels, other contemporaneous music which was often the focus of the music press’ interest in the city, as well as their current music and publishing activities.
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- Book Reviews
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Gee Vaucher: Beyond Punk, Feminism and the Avant-Garde, Rebecca Binns (2022)
By Emily OwensReview of: Gee Vaucher: Beyond Punk, Feminism and the Avant-Garde, Rebecca Binns (2022)
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 216 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-52614-789-9, p/bk, £20
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69 Exhibition Road: Twelve True-Life Tales from the Fag End of Punk, Porn & Performance, Dorothy Max Prior (2022)
By Peter JonesReview of: 69 Exhibition Road: Twelve True-Life Tales from the Fag End of Punk, Porn & Performance, Dorothy Max Prior (2022)
London: Strange Attractor Press, 328 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-91368-963-6, p/bk, £18.99
The Horror Show! A Twisted Tale of Modern Britain, Faye Dowling (Ed.) (2022)
London: Somerset House Trust, 128 pp.,
ISBN 987-1-99961-549-9, p/bk, £16.50
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Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth, Cathi Unsworth (2023)
By Paul HollinsReview of: Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth, Cathi Unsworth (2023)
London: Nine Eight Books, 496 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-78870-624-7, h/bk, £22
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Punk Rock and Philosophy: Research and Destroy, Joshua Heter and Richard Greene (eds) (2022)
By Grace HealyReview of: Punk Rock and Philosophy: Research and Destroy, Joshua Heter and Richard Greene (eds) (2022)
Chicago, IL: Open Universe, 346 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-63770-022-8, p/bk, $24.95
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DIY House Shows and Music Venues in the US: Ethnographic Explorations of Place and Community, David Verbuč (2022)
By Mike DinesReview of: DIY House Shows and Music Venues in the US: Ethnographic Explorations of Place and Community, David Verbuč (2022)
London: Routledge, 270 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-03204-917-5, h/bk, £130
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We Can Be the New Wind, Alexandros Anesiadis (2022)
By Russ BestleyReview of: We Can Be the New Wind, Alexandros Anesiadis (2022)
Ticehurst: Earth Island Books, 822 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-83835-676-7, p/bk, £29.99
A Hardcore Heart: Adventures in a DIY Scene, David Gamage (2022)
Ticehurst: Earth Island Books, 654 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-73964-773-5, p/bk, £24.99
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Freak Scenes: American Indie Cinema and Indie Music Culture, Jamie Sexton (2023)
More LessReview of: Freak Scenes: American Indie Cinema and Indie Music Culture, Jamie Sexton (2023)
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 200 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-47441-406-7, h/bk, £85
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You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico, Jennifer Otter Bickerdike (2022)
By Paul HollinsReview of: You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico, Jennifer Otter Bickerdike (2022)
London: Faber and Faber, 393 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-57135-001-8, h/bk, £20
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Adventures in Wonderland, Paul Charles (2023)
More LessReview of: Adventures in Wonderland, Paul Charles (2023)
Dublin: Hot Press Books, 320 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-95761-149-8, p/bk, £13.99
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