by PIBarrington

Created on: March 05, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

For those who are desirous of the demise of the current Punk' style of music,
I can only quote my one of my sisters who has worked professionally in the music industry since the early 1980's: "When Punk originated it meant something. Now, Punk' is just a fashion statement."
Unfortunately, that is the sad truth about the state of punk' today. For those who were not alive at the time of the original Punk social, political and musical revolution and rebellion, let someone who was around then and worked in music give you a little history.

The birth of the original incarnation of "Punk" music and counter-culture was the result of the struggles of the youth of Great Britain who saw no future' literally in the horrible economic situation that existed there in the late 1970's into the early 1980's. These frustrated, angry young people (and the elder generation who surprisingly supported them-it was the middle-aged population that was the greatest opponent of the Punk movement) embraced the philosophy of "Anarchy" because they felt, most likely correctly, they had nothing left to lose and needed to tear down and restructure the entire social and economic strata in Britain. Even so, many of the prominent musicians of Punk' music dealt with their harsh living conditions and financial survival struggles by using heroin which led to various deaths within the music scene, most notably Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy. The original punks were not concerned with the beauty of their appearance. Life was ugly and so were they. Their clothing was whatever they could find and afford, much of which came from used paramilitary clothing and boots.
They used glue (among other things) to stiffen their Mohawk' hairstyles and wore real, sharp, potentially dangerous metal spikes on their leather bracelets (I had one or two myself, used for protection), instead of today's flat head metal studs. They used real safety pins to pierce their flesh, not the tongue, eyebrow, etc., piercing done today which I have been informed is usually to enhance sexual pleasure, not make any type of deep intellectual statement. Male punks rarely used pretty, expensive eye make-up, usually deriding those who did as poseurs'. It is understandable many of you feel frustration at what appears to a new entire generation of poseurs'!

I personally take a broader view of the current Punk scene. I may snicker under my breath on occasion, but I realize that most of these young people were not alive and cannot possibly

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