After the vibrant youth movements of the ’40s and ’60s, there was a subcultural stagnation in America. There was a whole gap between the generations. Society’s internal problems dried up: racial intolerance was gradually eradicated, regional and ethnic issues were resolved peacefully. People were used to constantly shifting movements. And without novelty, there is no sense of urgency necessary for the counterculture.
Young people were stuck in a rut. That is, until England gave the U.S. its burgeoning subculture, and its name was punk.
To understand who punks are, you can think of hippies – and do the opposite. Instead of harmony with the world – aggression and sabotage. Instead of unity with nature, it was urbanism and “dumpy” life. Melodic songs were replaced by amateurish street rock, and the positive and easy style of dress – by black leather suits, spikes, and heavy boots. That’s what punk was like on the fringes of London.
In America, London punk mixed with literary Paris, and a new, alternative subculture emerged. It quickly became elitist, unlike England, where lumpen, lower middle and working class people became punk. In the U.S., the significance of this subculture was to poetize the darker sides of people, nightlife, giving bohemianism to drug addictions. At the heart of the movement was music, which migrated from garages to small clubs.
Television, The Velvet Underground, the Ramones and singer Patti Smith, who emerged from the beatnik scene, became popular in the U.S. and, consequently, around the world.
Punk’s image was sharply conspicuous: T-shirts with screaming slogans, collars, colorful hair styled with sharp spikes, badges and rivets.
Soon the image of punk became so popular that punk bands began to be called out on television, radio, and contracts were being signed with them. The subculture, which had set itself against society and all previous cultures, found itself at the mercy of show business. A new crisis of subcultures had begun.