Punk rock, often shortened to just "punk", is a musical genre and subsequent counterculture movement from the mid 1970s. When many people hear the word punk, they probably think of brightly-colored mohawks, rowdy and rude young adults, and tattered black clothes. But is that really all there is to punk? Let's take a look into the history of the movement; from the beliefs, to the fashion, to the global impact, to the prevalence of punk in the modern day. Is punk dead, or is punk still alive, kicking and screaming and punching Nazis?
The Birth of Punk Music
A common misconception about the origins of punk is that it was born in the United States and managed to sneak its way across the pond to the U.K. However, both developed around roughly the same time as the 60s drew to a close, shaped by the current stressors bearing down on the youth of the 70s. The punk scene in the U.K. emerged in young, working-class London residents whose livelihoods were threatened by the declining economy, while American punk was an evolution of underground garage bands (often called proto-punk), critiquing the alienation and societal expectations of America's then-suburbia ideals. While punks and historians alike will argue about what band was truly the "first" punk rock band, the credit in the U.S. is often split between Detroit-based The Stooges and New York City's The Ramones, while U.K. credit is given to Sex Pistols. Although it would be remiss to not mention other bands often given the credit of birthing punk, such as MC5, New York Dolls, Los Saicos, Kinks, and The Velvet Underground.
A Punk's Take on Politics
Punk is, as it exists today, an inherently left-wing political culture. Punk's core principles are built on anti-establishment, anti-consumerism ideals with a desire for personal freedom. The creation of punk was fueled by anger at societal expectations, at pointless wars, at a disenfranchised working-class populace being suffocated by a gluttonous ruling-class minority, at being perceived as "failures" for not succeeding when and where society thought they ought to. Many punks these days are involved in mutual aid, community organizations, and protests, echoing the beliefs of their predecessors. However, this was not always the sentiment. In its infancy, U.S. punk was surprisingly apolitical, with some key figures in the punk scene even holding conservative views, including Ramones founder and guitarist Johnny Ramone. Some subsects of punk also held views rife with racism and misogyny, brought about by the anxieties of young men facing the somewhat-new draft and growing divorce rates (though this is no excuse for their beliefs). "Does this mean someone can be right wing and punk?" The short answer: no. The long answer: they can try, but the majority of punks don't take kindly to conservatives in their spaces. Some will simply spread word to watch out for a conservative in the scene, and others will take swifter measures, like Ken Casey of Dropkick Murphys getting into a physical altercation with a concert attendee flashing a Nazi salute while on stage with the band. Decisively, one cannot be right-wing and punk.
The Importance of D.I.Y. in Punk Culture
One cannot discuss the history of punk without discussing the enormous role D.I.Y. plays in the scene as a whole. Fashion, fanzines, posters, venues, performances, recordings, do-it-yourself principles are the lifeblood of punk, and they go hand in hand with punk's stance on anti-consumerism and disavowal of over-consumption, and punk's roots in times of economic decline. As is the nature of fledgling countercultures, punk bands were typically not given platforms by established media, save for maybe disparaging remarks in the news about the culture at large. This would lead to the cascading effect of D.I.Y. becoming almost synonymous with punk itself. No established labels or venues? Release your own recordings, plan your own shows. How do I spread the word about my shows? Handmade posters, word-of-mouth to those you know in the scene. What if I want merch of my favorite bands? Make the shirts yourself, cut up old clothes and paint your own patches. How do I get others to listen to these bands? Make fanzines, distribute them to friends and fans alike. Every aspect of the scene has been lovingly crafted by decades of punks who shared one simple thought: "by the fans, for the fans".
Punks Around the World
Up until now, punk has only been described as a U.S. and U.K. phenomenon (save for the briefly aforementioned Los Saicos from Peru). While this is where the scene is argued to have began, it's nowhere near close to where it stayed. Primer Regimen from Colombia, Los Monjo from Mexico, Viagra Boys from Sweden, WITCH from Zambia, Negazione from Italy, Gum Bleed from China, Appäratus from Malaysia, Crystal Axis from Kenya, Guitar Wolf from Japan, the list is seemingly infinite. What has made punk so appealing to the youth of the world? One can safely wager a guess that it's punk's core messages that have made it a global powerhouse. Dissatisfaction with society, your government, the expectations heaped upon you and the expectations of life on a global scale, these feelings are not unique to the United States and United Kingdom. Wherever the desire for freedom lives, punk lives right next door.
Punk is just as alive today as it ever has been. While modern life in the 2020s is a far cry from the day-to-day of the 1970s, some things never quite seem to change. As long as sytems still exist that benefit one group while disenfranchising another, as long as corporate greed still bleeds the masses dry, as long as there are those who feel they'll never quite fit in, punk will go on in one way or another. For some, punk is a lifestyle. For others, a state of mind. For a few, a fad that died off in the 90s. But punk is a belief, an idea. An idea that states , "Hey. I don't have to put up with this. Why don't I do something about this?" And ideas like that can't ever die, not really. Stay wild, stay free, stay punk.
Ambrosch, G. (2015). American Punk: The Relations between Punk Rock, Hardcore, and American Culture. Amerikastudien / American Studies, 60(2/3), 215–233. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44071906
Moran, I. (2010). Punk: The Do-It-Yourself Subculture. Social Sciences Journal, 10(1). https://repository.wcsu.edu/ssj/vol10/iss1/13
Pearson, D. (2022). The Agency of Early 1980s American Punk... and Its Internal Contradictions. Society for U.S. Intellectual History. 2025, https://s-usih.org/2022/08/the-agency-of-early-1980s-american-punk/
Stalcup, S. (2001). Noise Noise Noise: Punk Rock’s History Since 1965. Studies in Popular Culture, 23(3), 51–64. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23414589
Turek, L. (2022). A “Punk Rock World” or a Punk Rock Nation? Society for U.S. Intellectual History. 2025, https://s-usih.org/2022/08/a-punk-rock-world-or-a-punk-rock-nation/