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The History of Punk

 

            The term "punk" was derived in 16th century Europe as a way to address a prostitute or harlot. Centuries later, the word became commonly used prisons, used when a male prisoner was perceived to be the property of another male prisoner; forced to acquiesce to dehumanizing demands put upon him, including submission to homosexual assaults and torture. .
             In the 1970's the word "punk" became synonymous with unconventional behaviors which were considered socially unacceptable, disrespectful of standard conservative values, and shocking and appalling to the mainstream society of the time. Intolerant, bigoted authoritarians who were familiar with prison colloquialisms labeled them as punks. Delighted performers taunted these puritanical autocrats by gleefully embracing what was meant as an insulting, derogatory epithet, and the name "Punk " rock was born.
             Where punk started is another disputed controversy. One contention is that the punk rock genre has (its) origins in the United States, The United Kingdom, and Australia, between 1974 and 1978. (Punk) Most of the original fans, enthusiasts and performers were predominantly young, rebellious kids from working class families who created and lived by their own standard, on the fringes of society. Young people who were frustrated and bored, dissatisfied with they perceived as an idealist hippie culture, the corruption and prejudiced authority of police, the government, the church, the education system, the social welfare system, and pretty much every system, invented a new, entirely original scene of dissidence, angst, and rebellious philosophy. The punk of the UK was born out of an anarchistic approach to an expression of frustration with, and objection to the government and the economic depression of the 1970's. Bands like "Nasty Nasty," "999," "Rudimentary Peni," and "Throbbing Gristle," started as individual performance artists with a wide range of statements from a fundamental dissatisfaction and angst against authority and government, to boredom and a celebration of creative nihilism.


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