Punk? What’s that?

Written by:
Agnes Sherly Rosasenja
08 1214 110


I believe that music is a part of human life. I love music and my friends too, I know you love too, who else? If the deaf people could hear music, they surely love it. The conclusion is that everybody loves music. The difference is only the genre of music that you usually hear. Well, there are a lot of genres of music available such as pop, rock, classic, dangdut, keroncong, pbi choir(?), and many more, it will take the whole day to mention one by one. The question is that, you have heard ‘punk’ music, haven’t you? It is spelt P.U.N.K, punk, punk music. Some of you may say ‘yes’ and I can hear some of you say ‘what?’ Hold up! This is gonna be my turn to tell you what punk music is and why it is called a special genre. But I think, it is better to introduce what punk is and show the punk scene first, and after that you will be easily understand about the punk music.

Punk is not a Fairy Tale.
I will not start this paragraph with ‘once upon a time…”, because it is not a fairy tale, it is a serious science writing. So, I will start it with the serious words. Here it is.
A long time in the past, in the late 60’s and early 70’s, punk was born in three big countries; UK, US, and Australia. Firstly, it was a music genre because the band called the Stooges and the MC5 appeared with the new feel of music. They played the music rudely, crude, and often political. They brought freedom spirit on the lyric of their song, as in the lyric of a song belongs to MXPX:
“…responsibility? what's that? i don't want to think about it; we'd be better off without it…” [Responsibility by MXPX]
Unconsciously, they had made a new genre that is punk. But then, punk extends, and if you type the word ‘punk’ on a very popular Internet search engine, you will find that punk are also ideology, fashion, and a subculture. It happens because of the spirit of freedom that they bring. The people who are looking for freedom then make their own environment which freedom can be found anywhere, and they call it punk scene. I have told you, it is serious.

Punk Scene: Punk is FREEDOM
When you are walking down the road then you find a bunch of young people with the shocking-colored-hair, mohawk or spike, piercings, chains, studs, and they are not barking, so you may think that they are punkers. Their costume shows that they want to be different from other (anti-mainstream), but I do not know why it is similar to the shabby instead. The difference is that punkers are not absent-minded. They are smart and critical. That is why we may not judge a book by its cover; do not see what a mess they are, but you have to see the world from their eyes, from their ideology.
The most well-known ideology that punk has is DIY which stands for Do-It-Yourself. With DIY movement, to be a punk means to be different and independent; there is no wall or rule, only a person with his own live. The idea of punk is that “Be your self”, do not ever be any others, because you are free in punk scene. Punk is freedom. However, if we are talking about punk, so it is always talking about DIY and freedom, and it is good to learn from that ideology.

Punk is Not Dead!
Do I talk too much? I know you are starving for knowing about the music of punk. If you have known their ideology, so you can guest the music. Punk genre is also known as punk rock. The punk rock band usually started their career with own record, make their own CD’s and t-shirts, and make their own shows. Punk rocker believes that music punk is independent and simple. What they need is not a popularity but they need is only a confession from the people that music punk is really exist. Punk is not dead!
If you hear the song from the punk genre, you will hear that it is simple. The lyric is short and the beat is fast enough. It is not difficult to make a band with punk genre, because three members are enough. In punk band, we only need a vocalist, a guitarist, a basis, and a drummer. The vocalist could take double position as the guitarist or basis. You do not need the high skill of music to play music punk; sometimes they do not care about the harmony of music. They only play and enjoy the music, this is what can make you feel free.
Now, there are a lot of punk musicians which can show you how good punk music is. You can start from Green Day or Blink 182 if you would like to listen to the punk music for the first time, and after that you can continue with Nofx or the Used. I swear you will love punk as much as you love eating.









References:
Hannerz, Erik. (2004). Hierarchy through Anarchy: performing punk and the outline to a theory of scene. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from the Lunds Universitet: http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=download File&recordOId=1333746&fileOId=1366481.pdf.

Cooper, Ryan. The History of Punk Rock: A Brief History of Punk. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from the About: http://punkmusic.about.com/od/ punk101/a/history2.htm.

Punk Subculture. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from: http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Punk_subculture.htm.