Informative Essay: Punk Rock

Punk music is usually defined by power chords, raw vocals and high energy performance. Punk rock is the best music ever created. It is, in short, a thinking man's rock music. And to some, it's like God himself ordained punk rock as His preferred music of choice. Why? Because it's just that good. Hundreds of faithful teens and twenty-something adults pack themselves into basements shows like sardines in a tin, just to have their holy gospel delivered to them by guys with names like "Johnny Rotten," "Justin Sane" or "Davey Havok." Punk rock is the best musical style for numerous reasons. The reasons might seem simple, but the difference between punk and mainstream music is that punk is just better. It's clever, thoughtful and passionate. On the other hand, Brittany Spears and the rest of the MTV pop brigade are just dull, witless morons trying to see who can be the biggest whore on television.

Punk is written with a purpose. A message is behind every heartfelt yelp and strain of the vocal chords. Lyrically, it is about more than just a high school romance. It deals with real issues in an honest fashion. The punk movement began in England as a medium for overly zealous political patrons to preach their messages of anti-conformity and anti-government to the faithful gathered at their shows each night. In their first single, "God Save The Queen," The Sex Pistols were telling the youth of England that the Queen was a fascist and inhuman. The Sex Pistols also reacted to the stark social conditions that infected Great Britain in the late seventies: rising unemployment, a hard-line, conservative government, and a depressed post-industrial economy. With a hopeless future at the horizon, the restless youth in Britain had plenty of things to get angry about.

03

The Sex Pistols embodied the anger and restless ambition. The Ramones, The Clash, The Dead Kennedys and the other punk bands of the late 1960s were all making their political claims. As time went on, there have always been punk bands to carry the torch. In recent years, bands like Angelic Upstarts, Drop Kick Murphy, Flogging Molly and Anti-flag have all had political messages. There is no shrinking to the sidelines to croon love songs and high school graduation themes. That certainly does not mean that all punk rock is political. It just means that punk rock has always been thoughtful and fully aware of what goes on in society, and that awareness has been reflected in the music.

Anti-conformity has always been a prominent thread running through punk.