Analysis Of ' Cherry Bomb '

“He [Pearson’s father] would freak out when he read the song titles to the cassettes that my friends and I would shoplift from the mall…He was certain that I’d become a Junkie if I listened to that kind of music. But with an alcoholic wife-beater father who didn’t give a shit about his son I was bound to avoid the cliched, nihilist aspects of punk culture” (Pearson 12).

Upon reading the article “The Future is Unwritten,” written by Kenneth J. Bindas, it was my understanding that there was a connection between the anger and angst in punk music and the economic difficulties of the 1970s. There are two main reasons for this idea. The first reason being the fact that there was a larger percentage of adolescents that had just graduated high school, but now found themselves without a job, without a visible future, with large amount of anger, angst, and finally with a whole lot of time on their hands. Thus, because many of the members of the punk movement “came from the working class they were scornful of the scant material rewards of welfare capitalism,” (Bindas, 70) meaning that they were upset with the fact that

Masseduction opens with “Hang On Me”, with a pulsating beat, soft violins & bells and Clark’s airy, unearthly voice singing what sounds like a drunken

“In the beginning, rock ‘n’ roll was perceived as a threat to the established order, and of course that is exactly what it was. Sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly, rock ‘n’ roll tested limits and questioned authority” (Fornatale, 1). This quote from Pete Fornatale in his book, “The Story of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” states how rebellious rock music is. Through the years, rock music has been a thriving genre of music. Rock is known for its rhythm, influence, and lyrics spanning from politics to depression. Starting from the classic rock ‘n’ roll to heavy metal, rock’s many genres can satisfy anybody’s tastes in music. In this essay, we will discuss rock history, rock genres, and my taste in the genre.

When the Punk Movement emerged in the mid-1970s in both the United States and United Kingdom, it spanned into such areas as fashion, music, as well as youth mentality and thus became its own type of subculture. However, this movement can also be considered a form of social deviance when viewed through the lens of Robert Merton’s theory of anomie. This deviance stems from the anti-social and anti-conventional nature of the movement’s members in response to lower and middle class socio-economic strain. Therefore, the Punk Movement can be categorized as a combination of two of Merton’s types of adaptation to strain, including retreatism and rebellion, due to the subculture’s rejection of capitalist values, withdrawal from the workforce and

Marker Amerika expands on this theme in remixthebook (potentialism). In his piece Cranked Up Real High: Genre Theory and Punk Rock, Stewart Home demonstrates the effects of remixing and the punk rock age. Through experimentalism, Pierre Christin and Enki Bilal demonstrates the characteristics of the punk.

Punk is a subculture that has changed over time and continues to change today. It emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s and evolved into a variety of different types during this time. These four types of punk include hardcore, straightedge, Riot Grrrl, and emo. Each of them is very different from one another and brings many different characteristics to the punk community in general. When looking at information in the book Goths, Gamers, and Grrrls, the film Between Resistance and Community, and prior knowledge from class, there are several different aspects to be compared within the punk subculture. Evaluating these three things help to bring about a better understanding of what values are demonstrated in the film, the evolution of punk,

Punk rock music has been used for decades to express dissatisfaction with society, government, or any idea common in mainstream media. Yet punk rock is not simply a tangent of the mainstream, it is a dynamic and fluid genre with many distinct songs. Don Letts, a mainstay in the London punk scene during the 70’s and 80’s, went as far to say that hip-hop was essentially “black” punk. While punk and hip-hop music are stylistically different, the fundamental tone of the two genres is the same. Even throughout the decades, hip-hop has sang the same issues as punk, including the plight of the lower class, police brutality, and gang violence.

With the economic decline and availability of jobs with upward movement, a culture of youths formed in Britain that challenged the ideals and cultural norms of the generations that came before them. A consistent movement from traditional society through youth subcultures brings light through the eyes of the musicians that describe their generation’s feelings of homelessness in an era filled with unemployment, low wages, and violence. The insurgence of the counterculture movement, poor economic conditions, and the commercialization of previous Rock and Roll music in Britain directly led to the punk subculture because it allowed youths to speak up about their conditions and frustrations through an easily understood and accessible medium while maintaining a different stance than their predecessors.

Despite the internal turmoil in the punk movement, punk rock made several things clear to international audiences. Punk Rock, in its subculture, managed to break down many barriers of expression and language. It made an indentation in the commercial music industry. It provided a fresh alternative to a boring, stagnant music scene. But most of all, punk's legacy lies in its introduction of self employment and activism, most essential to Britain at the time. It illustrated that anyone can do it themselves, without reliance on the commercial media or the luxury of having financial abundance. Against the backdrop of mass consumer conformity, the punk rock movement made a statement of individuality that was heard worldwide. Through the words

Out of the shackles of an oppressing environment came an emerging voice known as the punk rock scene. Punk music has an identity of its own

In the mid-1970s, a new genre of rock music called punk rock emerged. Rarely appreciated by anyone over the age of 30, the music shocked and offended most if not everyone with its very aggressive and provocative nature. It was less commercial than the popular music at the time, in fact the genre seemed to actively avoid becoming a part of the mainstream. The punk rock genre started in New York City in the mid-1970s and spread across the country and also into Great Britain. In this paper, I will be dealing with the punk rock that existed in America in the mid and late 1970s, not the punk music afterwards nor any of the punk rock that existed in Great Britain. I will also be focusing specifically on the music and ideology of

Popular music is often one of the best lenses we have through which to view our own cultural orientation. Many of the artistic and experimental shifts in popular music have mirrored changes in our own society. For instance, the emergence of Elvis Presley as a public figure would signal the start of a sexual revolution and the growth in visibility of a rebellious youth culture. Similarly, the folk and psychedelic music of the 1960s was closely entangled with the Civil Rights, anti-war and social protest movements. In this regard, we can view popular music as an artifact through which to better understand the time and place in which it is produced. In light of this, the state of popular music today may suggest troubling things about our society.

Most of the original rebellion was directed towards the British class structure. They wanted to express their disapproval of the structure that governed their country. In The Jam’s “Eton Rifles”, the band sarcastically attacks the upper class, calling them arrogant and preaching to them that rugby is the only thing making them strong (Punk 68). The Sex Pistols’ album “God Save The Queen” portrays the Queen of England with a safety pin through her nose on their cover. The reaction to this outburst of shocking rebellion from the mainstream society was a strong, displeased one. American writer Greil Marcus defined punk as, “…refusing the future society has planned for you.” Thousands of social misfits attempted just that. Through the many causes for this rebellious political expression: communism, anarchy, feminism, etc., the punks of England had a focus and a reason. It was this that made the “punk” a valid, yet undesired member of society, and the British public got to see this sociological change first hand (Chamberlain par.8). Although this movement was short lived, its impact was a phenomenon, and its effects were long- lasting, which distinguished this group from previous generations.

The punk subculture was one of the influential revolutions on the 20th century, which originated in in the 1970s and spread across countries that included the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Australia. This subculture was based on a loud, aggressive genre of music called punk rock, and it intended to gain individual freedom for the working class. This essay explains the journey from the evolution and widespread of the punk subculture in the UK in 1980s. As the title suggests, punk fashion has been ruptured, tweaked and re interpreted by individuals and fashion designers over and over again, and its style has been re adapted to juxtapose on contemporary trends.