I Wanna be Sedated: How Punk Influenced Culture

I Wanna Be Sedated: How Punk Influenced Culture

    Everything is bollocks, and people deserve to have their faces kicked in, power to youth and down with the retched authoritarian minded adults. From the fashion, to the violence that went hand and hand with the punk persona, to the rebellious nature, punk rock has been a major influence on modern culture; its roots were from two punk movements, the New York underground movement and the rough parts of the UK. Punk encouraged a rebellion against authority. Punk had an aggressive influence on racism and mindless violence, and its statement to the public that they just didn’t care. Punk was designed to shock, surprise or frighten people. The drugs, the piercings and even the fashion. The point of punk was to just go wild, and to get a reaction from adults and authority figures. It was all about the rebellion.

     Rebels yell, anarchy in the UK. Punk influenced teen culture to be rebellious and to act against any authority. Songs like “God Save the Queen” by The Sex Pistols, where authority was questioned and insulted, “God save the queen her fascist regime, It made you a moron a potential h bomb!, God save the queen she ain’t no human being, There is no future in England’s dreaming, Don’t be told what you want don’t be told what you need, There’s no future no future no future for you.” Many shots at the figure head are mentioned in this song. Punks were against social order and its authority, and the anarchy symbol was everywhere. Any listeners who were true fans agreed and believed in what many punk bands were talking about. Many punks became a nuisance to society, acting out at police, parents, teachers, and anyone who told them what to do. Rock n roll culture has always been about youth expression. Punks took that to a nastier more violent level, to the point of neo-Nazism and Skinhead.

     I’m gonna smash your face in mate. Unfortunately, punk had the reputation of being violent and incredibly racist. This influenced culture in a bad way, during the late 70’s and early to mid 80’s, people who fell under the category of punk, rocker or skin head associated together, and had a mutual hate, immigrants of different races, Blacks, Muslims, Arabs, and Jews were usually beaten up by the members of the Punk following. Violence didn’t have to be racial, sometimes the violent culture was just represented through music, and their fans acted upon it, such as the song “Somebody is Gonna Get their Head Kicked in tonight” by the Rezillos whose lyrics were very violent by nature. “So everybody is rockin’ and everyone is feelin’ alright – alright. It’s all when the youth and there’s soon gonna be a fight – be a fight. It says someone’s gonna get their head kicked in tonight! Everybody is rockin’ and everyone just wants more – more. So there’s gonna be a pool of blood on the dancin’ floor– floor. Somebody’s gonna get their head kicked in tonight!” This violence wasn’t uncommon either, soon any friends of the groups joined in, and it wasn’t safe to hang around with these culturally twisted individuals. An interesting aside, the roots of punks and skin heads were the same as the rude boys, who associated with Rastafarians, black individuals, heavy into Jamaican music and were culturally diverse. Culture soon realised that this behaviour was inappropriate and soon shunned any members of violent groups such as these. One of the greatest influences on culture was the shocking, public I don’t care statement made by punks to the rest of society.