Monday 13 December 2010

Punks; The Thieves of Youth Culture

Sid Vicious in Leather Jacket

Johnny Rotten in Ted mode
Unlike most youth   cultures, Punk does not have a  set uniform, but still manages to be distinctive. It achieves this by taking the most striking parts of other youth cultures. For example, Brothel 


Creepers from Teds, leather jackets from Rockers, D.M.'s from skinheads. Other sources included Dennis the Menace sweaters, and Mohican hairstyles from Native Americans. They did not do this out of lack of imagination but to mock through irony and to look as threatening as possible as well as to rebel against the status quo.




2 comments:

  1. Anonymous14/5/11

    I personally disagree, Punks didn't "steal" so much as alter. For example a particularly famous punk wore a pink floyd T-shirt, poked out the eyes and scrawled I HATE above it. Punk was all about being new, rebellious. That was what Malcom Mclaren's shop was about. Rubber shirts, Vinyl suits, these were things that had never been seen before. Sure they stole elements from other youth movements but didn't they all? Nothing arrives overnight, they evolve from other ways of dressing. I think the element that truly defines Punk fashion is their individualism. Where else could you go to a club with your tits hanging out? Thats what makes it so hard to define. Punk was new, exiting. Punk was something special. Punk was Scary.

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  2. Don't get me wrong, but the point I was trying to make was that a lot of what was frightening in punk was not all new, some of it was inspired by
    as well as misusing of elements of previous generations.

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