An Analysis of Punk Subculture In the Sex Pistols’ Song; God Save the Queen based on Cultural Studies (original) (raw)
Related papers
2022
Resumo A investigación da que da conta este traballo supón un achegamento preliminar ao aspecto poético e literario do fenómeno social e cultural coñecido como Punk no contexto do Reino Unido entre os anos 1976 e 1981. O obxecto desta investigación foi a caracterización do ethos que subxace á poética Punk en termos de estilo a partir dunha primeira análise dos seus elementos en común, reiteracións e estratexias estilísticas en forma de temas, motivos e símbolos. Para o exame seriado creouse unha mostra en forma de corpus de letras de cancións do contexto espacio-temporal definido. A análise efectuada centrouse nos aspectos literarios e sociolingüísticos e no seu contraste con información etnográfica extraída de diversas fontes, académicas e xornalísticas. A metodoloxía empregada ten a intención de establecer un diálogo entre a análise estilística propia da Lingüística e dos Estudos Literarios, e a análise dos estilos “subculturais” propia de Ciencias Sociais como a Socioloxía ou a Antropoloxía Social e Cultural. Os resultados preséntanse a partir da reflexión sobre os elementos comúns e reiterados do corpus e acompáñanse dunhas conclusións nas que se suxire un posterior achegamento holístico en favor da comprensión global do fenómeno social facendo visibles os procesos de homoxeneización e protocolización ao que foi sometido tras a súa hibridación ou apropiación por parte das dinámicas da industria musical. Palabras chave: Punk, Análise estilística, Estudos culturais, Sociolinguistics, Investigación baseada en Corpus Abstract The piece of research reported in this work means a preliminary approach to the poetic and literary aspects of the social phenomenon known as Punk in the context of the United Kingdom between 1976 and 1981. The object of this investigation has been the characterization of the ethos underlying Punk poetics in terms of style through an initial analysis of its common elements, recurrences and stylistic strategies in the form of themes, motifs and symbols. For the serial examination a sample in the form of corpus of song lyrics related to the defined space-time context was created. The implemented analysis has focused in literary and sociolinguistic aspects and in its contrast with ethnographic information extracted from diverse academic and journalistic sources. The employed methodology intends to establish a dialogue between the stylistic analysis of Linguistics and Literary Studies, and the analysis of the "subcultural" styles of Social Sciences such as Sociology or Social and Cultural Anthropology. The results are presented through the reflection on the common and reiterated elements found in the corpus. These are accompanied by some conclusions that suggest a subsequent holistic approach in favour of the global understanding of the social phenomenon, making visible the processes of homogenization and protocolization to which it was subjected after its hybridization or appropriation by the dynamics of the music industry. Keywords: Punk, Stylistics, Cultural Studies, Sociolinguistics, Corpus-based Research
The Punk Discourse: From Subculture To Lifestyle
As a visible entity punk was galvanized into being under its own name in New York and London in the middle seventies during the Cold War. On the one hand it is seen as a manifestation of postmodernism, on the other hand it is about an underground youth culture that expressed its revolutionary attitude mainly through music (the punk rock genre) and an outrageous, collage-like clothing style rebelling against conformity, authority, the establishment, class hierarchy and celebrating the collapse of traditional forms of meaning. However, Birmingham scholars argued that culture industries destroyed the authenticity of the subculture without adequately considering either the ideological underpinnings of the subcultures in question (i.e. punk), nor the concept of authentic identity. Hence, this paper attempts to unmask these ideological underpinnings and their authenticity in relation to punk, its signifying practices and intractably subversive features that can also be linked to its predecessor counterculture movements. This will shed new light on punk as a complex historical and cultural phenomenon and on the evolution and refashioning of the " anarchic " discourse. Besides tracing the punk ideology and aesthetics back to the movers and shakers of the art and literary world of the 20 th century (Dada, Situationists, Beat movement, Andy Warhol), I will also consider how the original punk movement, short-lived and nihilistic, marked the beginning of a phase of ideological struggle within popular music itself. Its broad cultural influence started with the postpunk (1979-1984) trying to built an authentic alternative culture with its own independent infrastructure of labels, distribution and records stores and releasing small magazines and fanzines taking on the role of an alternative media. This do-it-yourself concept i.e. punk ethos proliferated like a virus with the global expansion of electronic music nevertheless finding always new ways to remain detached from the dominant culture. In conclusion, the paper discusses that the punk´s appeal doesn´t lie in Hebdige´s semiotic flux but rather the punk´s formal stability with its clear ideological and formal elements. Perhaps only fragmented, these ideological and formal elements of punk resonate unchanged in current alternative lifestyles permeating the music, theory and art either produced or consumed. These discourses form part of the unconstrained self-expression of punk and it´s oppositional point of view in the world.
Proceedings of the Punk Scholars Network First International Postgraduate Conference
‘Post-punk’ has been defined in a variety of ways. Some commentators view it primarily as a reaction to punk, with distinct musical features. Others debate whether its organizing principle can even be found in a stylistic unity. Ryan Moore has described how punk responded to a ‘condition of postmodernity.’ In his view, post-modernism represented an ‘exhaustion of totalizing metanarratives.’ Within this context punk used bricolage to ‘turn signs and spectacles against themselves, as a means of waging war on society.’ For the purposes of this piece post-punk is considered a response to punk’s response to postmodernism. This article addresses how manifestos came to be used in post-punk. Using as a starting point Julia Downes’ description of musical manifestos in riot grrl as a ‘key way to define…ideological, aesthetic and political goals.’ A series of chronological case studies investigate the key components and aesthetics of the post-punk manifesto, which include the use of lists, itemisation and direct, second-person address.
Punk Music: Political Formation in the life
This paper presents the final results of the research developed during my Master’s degree in Musicology at the Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. It aims to understand how punk music could influence the political training of individuals who later become members of anarchist or libertarian organizations that intend to transform the social reality. The main theoretical framework used is Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of production of subjectivity. This work has an ethnographic framework based on a case study in Casa Viva, a libertarian social space in Oporto, Portugal, which is the setting of many cultural activities, including punk concerts. The fieldwork has two main aims and techniques: a) the participant observation in punk concerts, where methods such as field notes and audiovisual recordings are used in order to understand the social relations and the performative places where punk music is created; b) the dialogical methodology of knowledge building, proposed by Samuel Araújo and the group Musicultura, which I participated in 2006 and 2007 as a junior researcher. The latter aims to organize a group of discussion in Casa Viva, through which I intend to open the floor for promote the building of the collective knowledge.
2012
All over Former Yugoslavia the eighties were marked by an appearance of a great number of new alternative culture movements, while at the same time significant new ideas were introduced in the field of philosophy and theory in general. The proposed paper focuses on a particular example of dialogue between theory and culture in this period: on the three special issues of the journal Problemi in 1981, 1982 and 1983 that were dedicated to the punk movement, i.e. the so-called Punk Problemi. It begins by analyzing the editorial to the first of these three issues, and its alleged “agreement” with the thesis that punk should be viewed as a symptom. The discrepancy between the critics of punk and the viewpoint of the editorship of the Problemi and their contributors is further explored through the analysis of the articles published in the three special editions. Finally the Punk Problemi are juxtaposed to developments in theory in the early eighties, especially the works on the theory of i...
Revolution_in_Punk_Poetics.pdf
The paper uses Julia Kristeva's essay Revolution in Poetic Language to discuss punk-rock poetics of women musicians. It is included in a collection Women, Music, Creativity: from Hildegard to Cosey Fanni Tutti, published by Lambert Academic Publishing in 2017.
Punk Anarchism and the British Society
International Review of Humanities Studies, 2018
Society associates “Punk” with a music genre, backed with a very distinctive look, recognizable from the hair style, make-up and overall outfit. Other than their outward ‘fashion’ appearance, many also associate “Punk” with a group of young people who do not characteristically blend with their social surrounding. All of these factors tend to have them portrayed as an aggressive circle, and being associated with ‘anarchy’ has driven people to be weary of them. With a compact study through the history of “Punk” and the society in which it emerged, this journal will dig into Punk’s origins and unveil if society’s idea of Punk movement and society’s weariness against them is justified and fairly grounded. It will also attempt to uncover if Punk has any other social significance besides the aggressive genre of music that the public has known it to be.