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Voice of the Proletariat: Hip Hop and Punk as Tools for Radical Social and Political
Change in the United States
Jessica R. Dreistadt
December 8, 2006
Corporate hegemony in the United States has constructed barriers that limit free
expression. Individual choice is often filtered through the demands of work, a lack of
sufficient funds, and exposure to ideas and information that advance capitalist interests.
Collectively, capitalism has led to pandemic wealth and income inequality, environmental
devastation, and the breakdown of community. Isolation, apathy, and anger are common
reactions among those who are distanced from the dogma of this destructive force and
excluded from its control, often leading to inner and external violence.
The music recording and distribution industry is but one casualty of modern
capitalism. Most mainstream music that flows through the airwaves is emotionally
bankrupt and artistically impoverished.
Hope and direction can be found by studying how the phenomena of Hip Hop and
punk transformed culture and society in New York City in the 1970s. Punk and Hip Hop
breathed soul into what had become a monotonous music industry and an uninspiring
sociopolitical environment. Both represented radical social action, calling into question
the relevance of the status quo and the legitimacy of the power structure. Through music,
dance, art, style, and attitude, participants in the new culture asserted their freedom and
created a unique intra-group solidarity.
This paper will explore the similarities between Hip Hop and punk in 1970s New
York City within the context of implicit social, cultural, and political meaning. In
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addition, I will discuss the differences between punk and Hip Hop and their bases in
racial categorization, cultural exclusiveness, and geographic segregation. I will briefly
discuss the meeting of punk and Hip Hop in the early eighties, the effects of each
culture’s transnational growth and the infiltration of outside capitalist interest, and the
division of each group into the reactive and the progressive. I will conclude by projecting
the possibility of Hip Hop and punk culture forming a multicultural coalition that
intentionally directs angst and alienation across generations into a new social movement
with the power to fundamentally transform modern American society.
The Power of Music Transcends the Power of Capital
The political aspect of music can be understood in three ways: directly through
lyrical content or political action/involvement of musicians or indirectly as creating new
sounds and culture to restructure or redirect some aspect of society. Because the latter is
perhaps the most transformative, yet least recognized, aspect of music’s political
potential, and because this characteristic is most relevant to the study of Hip Hop and
punk, this analysis focuses on gaining a deeper understanding of this implicit meaning.
The other areas will also be discussed to provide additional insight into music and
culture’s potential political power.
Music can be used as a tool for social and political change. It is a means of
sharing ideas and feeling within and between groups of people. “Music can serve as a
communicative arena in which members of different communities debate and negotiate
the terms of their mutual relations” (Mattern, 1998:28). Music that represents oppressed
people and their organized social movements both reflects and influences their struggles
and dreams. Such music galvanizes group identity and purpose both in the present and,
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in places where music is recorded and distributed or played live, in the future. Music
can, “inspire new movements by helping to keep the older movements alive in the
collective memory” (Eyerman and Jamison, 1998:12). By playing and listening to music
of the past, we can relive moments of struggle and solidarity, infusing this wisdom and
energy into current political activities.
Writer Tricia Rose explains that music creates, “communal bases of knowledge
about social conditions” and that these, “serve as the cultural glue that fosters communal
resistance” (Rose, 1994:99). Music has the inherent ability to bring people together,
encourage the sharing of ideas and information, and inspire group cohesion. Mark
Mattern describes this dynamic in Acting in Concert: Music, Community, and Political
Action. “The communities that musicians have helped to form and sustain provide the
social basis for political action that would be difficult or impossible among individuals
who are not tied together in this way” (1998:4). The social space created by musicians
and artists creates opportunities for meaningful dialogue, the development of social
capital, and civic engagement.
As art, music paints a picture of the world that either reflects the creator’s beliefs
about reality or presents her or his desires for a different reality. Political economist
Jacques Attali explains, “music is prophesy….it explores, much faster than material
reality can, the entire range of possibilities…it makes audible the new world that will
gradually become visible” (Attali, 1989:11). In the universe of music, anything is
possible. Musicians, and artists whose work complements music, can present individual
and social situations as they would prefer them to be. In this way, music can serve as an
inspiration for social and political change. “Music can …be about the power to dream,
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about creating new structures of hope and momentum, new opportunities for developing
a community of concern” (Heble, 2003:238). Music and art can communicate new ideas
in a way that is interesting, emotive, participatory, and transformational.
Music, and the culture that develops around it, creates rituals and traditions that
ingrain and further its creators’ ideologies. Eyerman and Jamison note, “traditions have
to be constructed…by melding existing cultural materials into a new vision or idea of
some kind” (1998:38). Music creates a forum for the emergence of new modes of action
that are sustained through the replication of particular musical forms. Coupled with
political ideas, music can serve as the driving force of social movements.
The receivers of music contribute as much to its meaning as do the musicians
themselves. The audience is what makes music social, rather than individual, creating the
possibility for group dynamics and group action. The interpretation of music and art
influences the traditions and rituals that evolve from the artist’s vision. For example, “the
rock audience is…an active community, using its music as a symbol of solidarity” (Frith,
1981:50). Music provides the language through which audience members develop
common beliefs, determine mutual goals, and create plans of action.
New music can be revolutionary in its production, presentation, or distribution
(Heble, 2003:240). Through innovation and creativity, musicians can assert their
independence from expectations, assumptions, and popular beliefs or practices. Daniel
Fischlin asks, “Could it be that the introjection of new sonic textures, unheard of
instrumentations, unimagined sonic possibilities have anything to do with opening up
spaces of resistance and renewal that have an important connection with emergent rights
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discourses?” (2003:12). Yes, radically new musical styles confront the authority of the
power structure and challenge its orthodoxy.
The Internet has democratized the distribution of music, to some extent, by
providing artists of modest means an avenue to share their music with listeners
worldwide. Computer technology, too, has opened up access to production techniques
that were at one time out of reach for most musicians. Despite these advances, the music
industry in the United States continues to be an oppressive, controlling, and exploitative
oligopoly that degenerates music’s potential to cultivate social and political change.
But The Power of Capital Controls the Power of Music
Music is also used as a tool of the capitalist. Jacques Attali names, “three
strategic uses of music by power…[to] make people forget the general violence…[to]
make people believe in the harmony of the world…[and] by mass producing a deafening,
syncretic kind of music, and censoring all other human noises” (1989:19). The music
industry controls the public agenda by propagating sounds that conform to the mass-
marketable mold it has created to the exclusion of music that is revolutionary in content
or style. The content of music can serve capitalist interests by, “lulling minds and
preventing critical thought” (Boti and Guy, 2003:68). By selecting music that pacifies
the masses, and censoring music that arouses their sensibilities, the music industry
heightens its ability to control and thereby protects its future.
The music industry is controlled by capitalists and its primary purpose is to
generate a profit. Music is caught in a cycle of despondency and dependence; it is a
commodity that fills the emotional and social void that our consumer culture creates.
Attali explains, “in a society where power is so abstract that it can no longer be seized, in
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which the worst threat people feel is solitude and not alienation, conformity to the norm
becomes the pleasure of belonging, and the acceptance of powerlessness takes root in the
comfort of repetition” (1989:125). The nature of a particular music determines its
attraction; radicals typically choose revolutionary sounds that require active participation
while those who identify with convention lean toward prepackaged musical products.
When music is controlled by capitalists, its social and cultural relevance is
diminished as individual or communal beliefs and practices are relegated to those of the
generalized mass market. As domestic markets expanded to incorporate overseas
consumers, “the majors tended to prefer those most likely to attract audiences across
national boundaries” (Laing, 1985:2). The internationalization of the music industry has
furthered popular music’s decomposition.
Modern American music, particularly popular music, is strongly shaped by the
myth of the teenager - a consumer class that, in theory, has ample discretionary income
yet is free from the constraints of capitalist control. This “mythology was spawned from
the matrix of profound economic and social changes in white, middle-class life after
1945” (Osgerby, 1999:157). Adolescents purchase and consume music as a means of
self-expression, or more accurately, a way to demonstrate their affiliation with a specific
social subgroup. Most popular music is marketed to this vulnerable and eager target
audience, as well as to those who wish to recapture their youth. “If youth was the most
desirable social condition and to be young meant to be free from the narrow routines of
maturity, to be sexually vigorous and emotionally unrestrained, then anyone…could be
‘young’” (Frith, 1981:34). The industry that mass produces and markets music defines
freedom as detachment from economic restraint based on ownership in the capitalist
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society, rather independence from it. The product of this philosophy is a sterile music
that perpetuates and expands the illusions of limitless opportunity.
Disco music in the 1970s was particularly hedonistic and excessive; it “embodied
a certain chi-chi quality of shallow glamour and cultivated decadence” (Fernando,
1994:69). This genre emerged at a time when technological innovation met a numbing of
sounds, thought, and feeling in commercial music. It was also a time when the masses
desperately needed reassurance…or a change.
The 1970s: Troubled Times
In the United States, the 1970s was a time of political upheaval, economic
turmoil, religious fundamentalism, and increased individualism. Much like the present
day, conflicts related to a war overseas, political integrity, economic security, and
corporate domination led the public to feel anxious and powerless.
This decade witnessed the end of the Vietnam War, the resignation of a scandalous
President, and the inauguration of ineffective leadership. Historian and social activist
Howard Zinn writes, “a citizenry disillusioned with politics…turned its attention (or had
its attention turned) to entertainment, to gossip, to ten thousand schemes for self-help”
(2003:564). At the same time, the public turned away from political participation. This
was an era of, “self-absorption, which implied a lack of social purpose and a
disengagement from public affairs” (Berkowitz, 2006:158).
An economic crisis added to the public’s, “suspicion, even hostility, to the leaders
of government, military, big business” (Zinn, 2003:556). During the 1970s, Americans
experienced an energy crisis, two recessions, stagflation (high inflation along with high
unemployment), the elimination of many high paying manufacturing jobs, a decline in
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real wages, reduced productivity, and increased poverty. “Poor economic performance
eroded the respect that Americans had for their political leaders” (Berkowitz, 2006:53).
At the same time, corporations demonstrated a, “new emphasis on stock profitability”
(Berkowitz, 2006:54) and there was a “rise of the new Christian right” (Berkowitz,
2006:162).
Taken together, these events left a mark on the confidence and trust of the
American public. Many people drew inward as a reaction to these unstable and
uncontrollable surroundings. This led to a breakdown in communities and an increase in
self-interest.
New York City: A Crisis
New York City was profoundly affected by the economic and social changes of
the 1970s. Deindustrialization, suburbanization, and mismanagement led the city to
financial insolvency. “A sense of despair and decay emanated from a poorly run City
Hall, strike and corruption wracked municipal services, and the city was pervaded by the
sense that it…was essentially unlivable” (George, 2002). President Ford denied the city
critically needed financial assistance, echoing the lack of public support for the city felt
throughout the rest of the country.
The South Bronx, in particular, was troubled. A lack of economic opportunity,
decreased funding for public works and education, slum landlords, the drug trade, and
gang warfare devastated the South Bronx community in this decade. Financial
deprivation left, “working-class residents with limited affordable housing, a shrinking job
market and diminishing social services” (Rose, 1994:27). Absentee landlords exploited
the destitution of the community by “refusing to provide heat and water to the tenants,
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withholding property taxes from the city, and finally destroying the buildings for
insurance money” (Chang, 2005:13). Making millions of dollars in insurance money for
the apartment building owners, the fires set in the Bronx during the 1970s led to
widespread homelessness. “Between 1973 and 1977, 30,000 fires were set in the South
Bronx alone” (Chang, 2005:15).
The bleak economic prospects of the community, amplified by its desolate
ambiance, led to the development of an underground economy and the solidification of
gang reign. “In response to poverty and unemployment, an illicit economy emerged as a
primary conduit for economic survival” (Neal, 2004:368). Drug dealing provided
economic opportunity while gang membership provided social cohesion. “Gangs
structured the chaos” (Chang, 2005:49) until a peace treaty in 1974 paved the way for an
alternative means of organizing social networks, celebrating identity, and claiming social
space. “Youthful energies turned from nihilistic implosion to creative explosion” (Chang,
2005:64).
Hip Hop
Hip Hop was born in the Bronx of this era. Tricia Rose writes, “although these
visions of loss and futility became defining characteristics, the youngest generation of the
South Bronx exiles were building creative and aggressive outlets for expression and
identification” (1994, 33). The Bronx youth who created Hip Hop culture transplanted
their dismal surroundings and bleak prospects with a creativity and innovativeness that
would change their community and the world. “Hip-hop is the voice of a generation that
refused to be silenced by urban poverty” (Kurtis Blow Presents).
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Hip Hop was, and is, a revolutionary art form that provided African-American
youth who were oppressed and neglected by society at large the opportunity to speak and
be heard. “In the tradition of defiance…they developed artistic expressions…creating
music from the borrowed beats of soul, funk, disco, reggae, and salsa, overlaid with lyrics
reflecting their alienated reality” (Ards, 2004:312). These musical traditions came
together in a seven-mile area of the Bronx to form what is now known as Hip Hop. The
culture consists of four elements: DJing, MCing, breakdancing, and graffiti.
In the beginning, the DJ was the central figure in Hip Hop acts. The most
prominent pioneers of the time, known as the founding fathers of Hip Hop, are DJ Kool
Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa. Each created celebrations of African
American music, which had been largely ignored by radio stations, bringing together
neighborhood youths to experience and participate in the music and the culture. The
most respected DJs were admired for their ability to procure the obscure; “the most
creative DJs in the Bronx were able to build up strong local reputations as “masters of
records” – the librarians of arcane and unpredictable sounds that few could match” (Toop,
1984:65).
Youth in the South Bronx created their own way of creating and sharing music
because they were excluded from clubs due to their age, race, or economic status. “The
teenagers of the South Bronx and Harlem didn’t have the money to pay for admission to
the expensive midtown and downtown clubs, so they had their own parties.” (Kurtis
Blow Presents). Necessity is the mother of invention, and this void created an
opportunity for youth to experiment with music and art to create something unique and
exciting.
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DJ Kool Herc invented the phenomenon of Hip Hop almost by accident. A
Jamaican immigrant, Herc was familiar with the dub of his homeland and combined this
mixing technique with American music. He also had a powerful stereo system. Knowing
this, his sister asked him if he would DJ a party at the community room in their Bronx
apartment building to raise money for her new school wardrobe (Chang, 2005:67). Herc
became well known throughout the community for his talent. After being stabbed at a
party, he dissipated from the scene.
Grandmaster Flash was an immigrant from Barbados. His fascination with
electronics and equipment led him to tinker with existing sound systems to create new
cutting and mixing techniques. “Hip hop artists,” like Flash, “transformed obsolete
vocational skills from marginal occupations into the raw materials for creativity and
resistance” (Rose, 1994:34). Despite his uncertainty about transferring raw Hip Hop to
vinyl, he would later record a mutated version of his music with the Furious Five and the
group would popularize a new message rap genre.
Afrika Bambaataa, a former Black Spade gang leader, had a vision of bringing
together divergent factions in the community through Hip Hop culture. While a gang
leader he, “made his rep by being unafraid to cross turfs to forge relationships with other
gangs” (Chang, 2005:95). The gang culture deteriorated and he redirected his energy into
the Universal Zulu Nation. “Bambaataa was trying to guide black street kids through the
gang phase toward a sense of collective solidarity and a more constructive attitude”
(Hebridge, 2005:226).
Bambaataa realized the potential that Hip Hop held for individual and community
transformation. “Bambaataa’s dream is that a sense of community can be created within
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the community rather than being imposed by people coming from the outside…through
organizations like the Zulu Nation the people at the bottom of society will learn how to
help themselves and each other” (Hebridge, 2004:225). With his passion for breaking
down boundaries and forging new alliances, Bambaataa would take Hip Hop culture out
of the Bronx to share it with the downtown art scene. Africa Bambaataa married the
ideals of self-determination and cross-cultural cooperation through music and dance that
honored African-American heritage yet positioned itself within modern American society.
The MC replaced the DJ as the centerpiece of Hip Hop crews before its eventual
commercialization in the late 70s. “In the parks, especially, vocal entertainment was
often necessary for crowd control to soothe any tensions that might lead to violence”
(Fernando, 1994:10). Rapping over records grew from a diversion or accessory to the
main attraction. Rap music, as promoted by capitalist interests today, often deflates the
role of the DJ. Both DJs and MCs have contributed greatly, along with graffiti artists and
breakdancers, to the development of Hip Hop culture.
Audience participation was also an important component. Rather than passively
take in the sights and sounds of a performance, the audience participated through dance,
call and response, and even by jumping on the mic. “Hip hop clearly began as dance
music to be appreciated through movement, not mere listening” (Shusterman, 2004:461).
The artform’s transparency created an environment that invited new practitioners to
emerge.
Hip Hop culture articulated the art of defiance by creating a mélange of unique
sounds using new production techniques, bypassing legal and artistic tradition, and
serving as a vehicle for the self-determination of African-American youth at a time when
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cultural homogenization and exclusion of minorities from meaningful participation in the
economic system were the norm. In addition, the culture confronted race and class
privilege by opening up a new community infrastructure and by illuminating what Imani
Perry refers to as a, “radical commitment to otherness” (2004:47). S. H. Fernando
describes rap as, “rebel music, made by people who have been cast as the outsider”
(1994:xix). This self-awareness and defiant stance is revealed through lyrics, cultural
elements, the reoccupation of public space, and the reclamation of African-American
music.
Jeff Chang describes the impact of Hip Hop in relation to South Bronx youth’s
socioeconomic situation in his book, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop:
“they shared a revolutionary aesthetic…unleashing youth style as an expression of
the soul, unmediated by corporate money, unauthorized by the powerful, protected and
enclosed by almost monastic rites, codes, and orders. They sprung from kids who had been born into the shadows of the baby boom generation, who never grew up expecting
the whole world to be watching. What TV camera would ever capture their struggles and
dreams? They were invisible. But invisibility was its own kind of reward; it meant youhad to answer to no one except the others who shared your condition. It meant you
became obsessed with showing and proving, distinguishing yourself and your originality
above the crowd. It put you on a relentless quest to prove to them that you were bigger,wilder, and bolder than circumstances dictated you should ever be, to try to generate
something from nothing, something no one else had, until everyone around you had to
admit that you had something they might never have.” (2005:111)
The youth of the South Bronx acted out their collective conscience by expressing their
individual talent and aspirations within a shared cultural and economic context. They
didn’t ask for permission, they didn’t weigh their acts against the expectations of
outsiders, and they didn’t expect redemption from any authority figure. Hip Hop was a
communal phenomenon that defied social convention and redefined the position of
African American youth.
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By providing a forum to articulate individual interests and ideas amid collective
hardship, Hip Hop would, “open up spaces to challenge the hegemonic structures of
understanding and meaning propagated by the dominant culture of white supremacy”
(Perry, 2004:45). Within the community, however, the territorial and dominative aspects
of gang life persisted. “The territories were tentatively claimed through the ongoing
cultural practices …a transition from gang-oriented affiliations…to music and break
dance affiliation that maintained…the important structuring systems of territoriality”
(Forman, 2004:203). The structure created through Hip Hop culture reinforced systems
of control within the group and rejected such restrictions from the outside.
Sampling, which means extracting specific components of music and repeating
them or combining them with other pieces of music to create new compositions, calls into
question the validity of commercial music as art and the legal rights of its creators. “To
reuse portions of copyrighted material without permission undermines legal and capital
market authority” (Rose, 1994:90). This process acknowledges the beauty of art and
music while rejecting the notion that art can be owned, bought, or sold. It, “implies that
an artwork’s integrity as object should never outweigh the possibilities for continuing
creation through the use of that object…art is essentially more process than finished
product – a welcome message in our culture, where the tendency [is] to reify and
commodify all artistic expression” (Shusterman, 2004:462).
Hip Hop expanded and broke through cultural and artistic boundaries. This new
music and culture seemed foreign and grotesque to many white people and middle class
blacks; “their ways of hearing and seeing one again represented the potent and tangible
shock of the new” (George, 2002). As with many other new forms of expression, social
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and political conservatives –as well as many liberals - rejected this new culture and
refused to recognize its artistic merit.
The youth of the South Bronx used Hip Hop music, art, and dance to solidify and
expose their individual and collective identity while enjoying the freedom of expression
under the rule of oppression. Many people did not want to see or hear the uncomfortable
realities of urban life that Hip Hop presented as the culture expanded beyond the confines
of its six-mile radius of origin.
In the 1970s, Hip Hop was a living art that was, “largely unrecorded and
undocumented” (Dimitriadis, 2004:421). Rap, graffiti, and breakdancing were all
performed in the moment and, while sometimes photographed or recorded on tape, were
not initially molded to fit the concept of a packaged commercial product. “Until 1979
the sole documentation of Bronx hip hop was cassette tapes” (Toop, 1984:78). DJs and
MCs played live at parties in parks and community centers with the goal of creating an
experience for the community rather than one of creating a product that would sell on the
mainstream market. “Hip Hop’s pioneers in the 70s either hadn’t the connections or the
wherewithal to make records. More importantly, it seems that they hadn’t even
considered the possibility” (Fricke and Ahearn, 2002:177).
Hip Hop culture matured as its founders grew up. “The DJs themselves wanted
more. It was no longer about rocking the block party and establishing a rep. They
wanted to make a living” (Chang, 2005:129). Oddly enough, the first popular rap
recording artists were not those who had worked the circuit in the South Bronx; this
genre was pioneered by a 40-something music industry veteran and three relatively
unknown MCs from New Jersey.
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The first record companies to produce and promote rap music were black owned.
Sylvia Robinson, founder of Sugar Hill Records, rounded up three disparate rappers to
form the Sugar Hill Gang. Together, they put out “Rapper’s Delight,” the second Hip
Hop record and the first to be a commercial success. After incorporating the
technological techniques of disco, rap “exploded commercially” (Perkins, 1996:10).
Although those who commercialized Hip Hop were inside the African American
community, their outsider status with the core group of early innovators significantly
changed the social and economic context of the genre:
“ “Rapper’s Delight” clearly ruptured the art form’s sense of community as a live practice known to all its “in group” members…The decentralized face-to-face social
dynamic which marked early hip hop was thus given way to a different dynamic, onemediated by way of commodity forms such as vinyl, video and CD. These configurations
have separated hip hop’s vocal discourse (i.e. “rap”) from its early contexts of communal
production, encouraging closed narrative forms over flexible word-play and promoting
individualized listening over community dance.” (Dimitriadis, 2004:421)
The major labels soon recognized the probability of profit in this new industry.
“Once a smidgen of commercial viability was established the major labels attempted to
dominate production and distribution.” (Rose, 1994:6). In 1980, Kurtis Blow recorded an
album with Mercury Records. He, “was the first to combine hip hop with a ‘70s concept
of production and marketing” (Toop, 1984:93). The interest of the majors further
deteriorated the communal aspect and artistic innovativeness of Hip Hop.
As the focus of Hip Hop shifted from artistic expression to capitalist domination,
the revolutionary nature of the culture was stifled. Hip Hop assimilated into the system
that it had rebelled against. “The integration of hip hop into the mainstream means that
such ideas become virtually indistinguishable from celebrations of the American
capitalist practices integral to the economic devastation of black communities and the
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enormous wealth disparities in US society that disproportionately affect black people.”
(Perry, 2004:196)
The culture further changed as its audience and market base grew. When
contained in the six-mile radius, Hip Hop culture reflected the struggles and ideas of its
community. S. Craig Watkins explains:
“The music’s ability to travel would not only expose it to more people; it also
made it easier to learn, imitate, and even modify the genuinely creative flourishes that
flower throughout the movement. Later, the wider circulation of hip hop in the form of albums, radio, music video, and even fashion transformed the culture by subjecting it to a
variety of regional, economic, and political interests that have simultaneously broadened
and baffled the culture’s identity; its sense of community and purpose.” (2005:14)
Yet, Hip Hop still has the potential to be revolutionary. “Given hip-hop’s social
origins and infectious appeal, there’s long been a hope that it could help effect social
change” (Ards, 2004:313). Like Afrika Bambaataa demonstrated, Hip Hop can serve as a
vessel through which the creative energies and angst of the dispossessed can be
channeled. And like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, along with many other
message rappers have shown, rap can be used as a tool to communicate information about
urban challenges and ideas about possible solutions. “Rap’s capacity as a form of
testimony, as an articulation of a young black urban critical voice of social protest has
profound potential as a basis for a language of liberation.” (Rose, 1994:144)
Punk
Punk’s early iterations are more diverse than those of Hip Hop. Punk is, “a
contrived and superficial category, it blurs across a diversity of genres and sub-genres”
(Osgersby, 1999:156). Its founders were mostly young white men; however, they
represented various social classes. Punk consists of those bands that rejected the
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homogeneity of the commercial music industry. They expressed a, “sense of outrage
which pervaded their stage appearance and behavior…[and the] oppositional position
they occupied in relation to the musical establishment” (Laing, 1985:23). Early artists
were musical pioneers who created new kinds of music, presented the music in unique
ways, and explored taboo subject matter through their lyrics.
This new musical genre was finally named ‘punk’ upon the publication of a zine
of the same name in 1976. Punk connected all of the bands involved in the underground
rock scene along with the underlying beliefs and assumptions directing their behavior.
This magazine, “pulled together the disparate elements of the CBGBs scene into a
powerful fantasy” (Savage, 2001:132). This publication and others both reflected and
directed the current of the culture.
A handful of clubs welcomed the early punk bands. The Mercer Arts Center and
Max’s Kansas City served as venues for punk until CBGBs became the premier club for
punk bands when it opened in 1974. It, “provided an intimate, affordable space which
allowed freedom of movement of the audience; close proximity to and interactions with
the performers; and a place that the new movement could call home.” (Henry, 1989:53).
The availability of this space provided the environmental conditions necessary for the
punk scene to gel and grow.
There were three waves of early New York City punk: art rock, glitter rock, and
underground rock. Art rock bands, such as the Velvet Underground, Suicide, and the Patti
Smith Group, were avant-garde ensembles who enlivened subversive poetry and simple
music through the creation of a daunting ambiance. The New York Dolls influenced
punk more than any other glitter rock band. Glitter rock challenged the prevailing music
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scene by, “confusing traditional images of gender distinction and incorporating subject
matter deemed offensive to the general public” (Henry, 1989:31). Underground rock
bands, such as the Ramones and Television, combined a hard appearance with simple, yet
energized, music. Some UK bands, such as the Sex Pistols and the Clash, were also
instrumental to the development of punk both in their homeland and in the United States.
The Velvet Underground was an art-rock band formed in the 1960s who heavily
influenced the punk movement both in sound and style. They, “predicted the punk style:
the choice of subject matter commonly deemed offensive to the middle class…the
deliberately amateurish quality of the music, and the generally pessimistic attitude
towards the future” (Henry, 1989:x). Artist Andy Warhol nurtured the growth of the
Velvets by financing their projects, promoting their work, and instructing their artistic and
business choices.
Suicide broke from the expectations of musical performers by having only two
people in the band, so that the sound and presentation of their music differed from the
norm, by writing controversial lyrical content, and by confronting audiences with
shocking behavior. Suicide’s music was austere; it was, “a self-conscious attempt to
develop the notions of repetition, monotony, and dissonance first introduced into the rock
arena by the Velvets” (Heylin, 1993:68). Their music was initially intended only to be
performed live; “it would have been impossible to conceive of Suicide on vinyl” (Heylin,
1993:69). However, they did finally record their first album in 1977.
Patti Smith was a poet who later incorporated music into her act. She gave poetry
a, “disarming relevance by placing it in this unfamiliar context” (Heylin, 1993:129). Patti
Smith contrasted with the popular music scene by fusing radical feminist poetry with
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rock & roll. Nonetheless, the Patti Smith Group was one of the first New York punk
bands to record and receive critical acclaim and find commercial success. Her crossover
from poet to musician began in 1973 she opened for the New York Dolls at the Mercer
Arts Center (Heylin, 1993:112).
Unlike the art rock bands, the New York Dolls were flashy and flamboyant. They
wore makeup and dressed in women’s clothing, presenting a, “sexually ambiguous
appearance” (Henry, 1989:37). And unlike most people on the punk scene, who were
middle class, the Dolls were, “from working-class backgrounds and all, with the
exception of Sylvain, high-school dropouts” (Henry, 1989:43). The New York Dolls also
played simple music, although it sounded more like traditional rock & roll than the Velvet
Underground or Suicide. Rock photographer Bob Gruen recalls, “when people saw them
they said, ‘Well, I can do that.’ It didn’t seem so hard anymore. I think they inspired a
lot of people” (in Colegrave and Sullivan, 2005:61). They exemplified the do it yourself
ethos has become a prevalent value in the punk scene. The New York Dolls also strongly
influenced Malcolm McLaren, serving as a “blueprint” for the Sex Pistols (Colegrave and
Sullivan, 2005:19).
Blondie does not neatly fit into the aforementioned categories; their music
incorporated punk, rock, pop, disco, and rap sounds. Their charming lead singer, Debbie
Harry, distinguished herself from her contemporaries by revealing an aching vulnerability
and brazen femininity amidst her tenacious and rebellious spirit. Because of their
musical diversity and visual appeal, Blondie was among one of the first punk bands to
cross over to the mainstream. “Blondie…had to play the game of accepting their New
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Wave status in England and resisting it in the US where, throughout the late seventies,
punk was treated as some kind of malignancy in modern music” (Heylin, 1993:309).
Television combined the tough appearance of the art rock bands with the more
traditional musical style of the glam rockers. Their residency at CBGBs, “cemented a
relationship between the art-rock crowd…and...rock & roll crowd” and this “alliance had
a major effect on the development of New York’s new…scene” (Heylin, 1993:133).
Many punk historians believe that Television’s attitude and style was instrumental to the
development of the genre (for example see Savage, 2001:89 and Henry 1989:55).
Like Television, the Ramones exuded a tough appearance and attitude. However,
their music was faster, more raw, and more intense – what could be described as a
“primitive buzzsaw sound” (Heylin, 1993:166). Their lyrics, like many other early punk
bands, explored forbidden territory. They recorded their first album in 1976.
The Sex Pistols were a controversial British band intentionally constructed by
entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren. McLaren worked with the New York Dolls in New
York and London, studying their music and, for a short time, designing their wardrobe.
Intrigued with the market potential of punk, he recruited local teenagers in London to
form the Sex Pistols. In 1975, “McLaren would be playing Dolls records for the Sex
Pistols, just as two decades before Sam Phillips had played old blues records for his new
rockabilly singers” (Marcus, 1989:49). They were the first punk band to consistently
incorporate strong political messages into their music. The Sex Pistols toured the US in
1978, but the northern half of their tour, including New York City, had to be cancelled
because their visas were delayed (Savage, 2001:430). By the end of the decade, many
British punk musicians, including former Sex Pistols, visited and moved to New York and
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immersed into the local scene. Despite the strong American foundations of punk, and the
intentional construction of their band, the Sex Pistols are often given credit for starting
the punk movement.
Punk music, style, and attitude represented a deliberate schism from the recording
industry and mainstream society. Punk was anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and
nonconformist. It “emerged and continues to exist as a response to a politically and
socially conservative capitalist, white-supremacist ruling-class” (Malott and Pena,
2004:68). Punk defied the prevalent conventional wisdom that consumption and wealth
constituted the American Dream. Punk bands “sent-up (even subverted) many of the
mythologies of unabashed consumption and confident affluence that had been at the heart
of Nixon’s 1959 suburban fantasy” (Osgerby, 1999:166).
Punk represented a ”collective of individual free spirits” (Colegrave and Sullivan,
2005:12). Autonomy and individual responsibility were paramount to the punk lifestyle.
Its participants were connected by this belief; a consistent social position or political
ideology was not present. “There was no grand plan or unified manifesto…nobody ever
claimed to be part of a movement” (Colegrave and Sullivan, 2005:382).
Punk opened up new lines of communication and facilitated new opportunities for
social interaction, cohesion, and action. It created, “vehicles through which
counterhegemonic ideas are articulated and countercultural spaces are created” (Malott
and Pena, 2004:62). It also was a means for youth empowerment. “Unlike nearly every
other youth subculture…punk began as music and punks themselves began as music fans
and performers. In every other case the youth subculture adopted an already existing
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type of music” (Laing, 1985:xi). The do it yourself nature of many of the early punk
bands further solidified the centrality of youth’s involvement in the movement.
As art, punk opened up new means of composition, performance, and production.
Its simplicity encouraged new bands to join in; “punk demystified the production process
itself – its message was that anyone could do it” (Frith, 1981:159). Audience
participation was a very important component of early punk shows; “the impossible
dream was to first abolish the distance, and then the difference, between performer and
audience” (Laing, 1985:82).
Punk questioned the contrived and polished disco-era music industry. It was “a
reaction against established theories and techniques of art, as well as against the society
which produces them” (Henry, 1989:1). Punk diverged from the mainstream by creating
new sounds, redefining the skills needed to perform, and highlighting subjects or ideas
that most people ignored or neglected.
Punk lyrics, musical style, and fashion shocked and alienated outsiders, both
deliberately and incidentally. “The older generation…could find nothing redeeming or
understandable about punk” (Colegrave and Sullivan, 2005:382). Punk even caught the
attention of the President. “Carter said during a jazz concert or similar on the White
House lawn that he wanted to stop Punk” (Country Joe MacDonald in Savage, 2001:435).
Punk interpreted social and political realities in a way that made sense to, and was
constructive for, those who were active in the movement. “It would shape a glossary in
which the passive neologisms of the 1970s human-potential and self-improvement
therapies…were translated back into active English (“Fuck off and die”)” (Marcus,
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1989:89). Punk exemplified a certain realism and many did not want to acknowledge the
medium or the message.
The media shaped most Americans’ perception of punk. “The effect of
mainstream media exposure was to frighten and alienate the general public and afford the
punk a sinister notoriety which underscored and amplified their rebellious intentions”
(Henry, 1989:viii). As a tool of capitalist, the media demonstrated support for music and
cultural norms that were comfortable for their advertiser’s middle class consumers and
therefore profitable for their sponsors.
Despite its revolutionary beginnings, this burgeoning musical genre was targeted
by the record companies when its commercial potential was realized. This change
influenced the music and style of the original punk bands. “The Ramones, Blondie,
Talking Heads…Television – all secured recording deals between January 1976 and the
winter of 1976-7” (Heylin, 1993:249). By the end of the decade, the early innovators of
the movement were firmly incorporated into the benign. “1978 was the most successful
year for punk in commercial terms…Big record companies with big marketing budgets
had assimilated the anti-establishment and enlisted its support in the battle for record
sales” (Colegrave and Sullivan, 2005:290).
Hip Hop and Punk As Sisters in the Struggle
The beginnings of punk more diffuse than those of Hip Hop; this makes cross-
analysis a bit untidy. Its start can therefore not be precisely pinpointed, though it was
first named with the publication of an American zine called Punk in 1976. And although
this subculture took root in New York City, some of punk’s most influential forebears
were from Detroit, Cleveland, and other cities. This analysis is further complicated by
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the fact that most published research about punk focuses on the London scene, despite its
American origins. Nonetheless, this section will attempt to identify similarities in the
beginnings of Hip Hop and Punk.
When Pennsylvania punk Craig O’Hara explains the social situation of punk, it
can apply to Hip Hop as well:
“Repeatedly…a group of the alienated will recognize what is happening to
themselves. This realization can be based on an active rejection either of or by the
mainstream society. These groups can either reject the alienation they see before them or can be unwillingly alienated from the mainstream…some out-groups greatly desire to be
a part of the mainstream while others do not…These subcultures appear to have members
who are much less alienated from their own being and are often seen trying to reclaim
their subjective powers. Members of subcultures, regardless of how oppressed, haveoften succeeded in finding a solidarity and understanding amongst themselves that is
lacking in mainstream society. Members seem to regain a sense of themselves and eachother that had been previously lost, forgotten, or stolen.” (1999:22-3)
Those who created and participated in punk and Hip Hop culture in the early days
expressed a deeply rooted class-consciousness. Punks usually rejected their middle-class
backgrounds while Hip Hop heads celebrated the outsider class status proscribed to
African Americans in the United States. Both clearly stood in opposition to the ruling
class of capitalists and the values and limitations espoused through its dominative
presence in society. Specifically, punk and Hip Hop were a reaction to two effects of
capitalism: economic oppression and homogenized, highly-technical music production
and distribution.
Hip Hop and punk used music and art to respond to capitalistic oppression and
economic depression, and to express frustration with the effects felt by those on the
fringes of society. Hip Hop and punk participants gravitated toward the values, culture,
feelings, and worldview of the alienated. This stance was not necessarily compassionate
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or charitable; their music and cultural elements exemplified realism and solidarity.
Defiance, resiliency, and self-determination shaped the experiences and artistic
expressions of early punks and Hip Hoppas.
Hip Hop and Punk were both spontaneous youth movements rooted in a changing
society. By presenting anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist messages related to the post-
industrial urban society, punk and Hip Hop assumed power and control over their own
individual lives and communities. They were tools to transcend boundaries of proscribed
social roles and social situations, creating a new social reality. This reality was initially,
and vehemently, rejected by mainstream society.
Hip Hop and punk both created community as they created music. The
subversive nature of both, along with the identifying characteristics of style and attitude,
led to the development of strong subcultures. Yet, both Hip Hop and punk valued
individual style and responsibility within this shared cultural context. Participants
distinguished themselves and developed notoriety by pushing the envelope just a little bit
further. The self was central to the creation and experience of the culture, expressing the
collective conscience as interpreted by each individual based on his or her experiences,
values, will, and ambitions.
Unlike other music of the time, the development of Hip Hop and punk was
strongly influenced by audiences in addition to performers. The audience was a critical
component of each performance, assuming a dynamic role in each event as co-creators of
the experience. Both also inspired audience members to become performers themselves;
the accessibility of the musical production techniques reduced the obstacles that
commonly excluded most people, particularly those without financial means, from the
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ability to create new music. This created an opportunity for those without a voice to
become co-creators of society.
Both used revolutionary new sounds to express feelings about self and society.
The lyrics, too were radical in that they explored the unpretty subjects of the streets.
Punk and Hip Hop opened up new cultural, social, and political spaces.
Hip Hop and Punk did not communicate a visualization of the future. Rather,
they expressed the joys and frustrations of daily life as participants lived in the moment.
Their purpose was not to change society through public policy or education, but to cause
an unsustained uprising.
Eventually, the commercial potential of punk and Hip Hop were realized and they
became, in many ways, a tool of the capitalist as certain aspects assimilated into
mainstream society. Both subcultures were commercially reconstructed by adult
outsiders who manipulated the meaning of punk and Hip Hop to please the buying public.
Both are now diverse, transnational movements. The impact of commercialization has
been to minimize the revolutionary aspects of punk and Hip Hop, to change the
composition, production, and distribution of the music and culture, to enlist new
supporters with divergent interests, and to force those who represent the true spirit of Hip
Hop and punk to the periphery of its creation. Despite their dilution, punk and Hip Hop
still have the ability to shock and intimidate many “average middle class white people” as
well as the ruling class.
But Punk and Hip Hop Speak Different Languages
Although punk and Hip Hop share many similarities, they are very different in
terms of race and class. Punk consciously rejected middle class values while Hip Hop
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recognized and articulated its participants’ exclusion from the middle class. Participation
in punk constituted a conscious choice of class membership while Hip Hoppas were
responding to a class membership that had been imposed on them. In this sense, punk
represents a form of self-hatred while Hip Hop represents increased self-awareness.
Hip Hop and Punk were influenced by geographic and social space related the
race of its actors. African American youth that were racially segregated in the Bronx
were also systematically excluded from the music industry, including record companies
and performance spaces. “We weren’t socially accepted at disco joints; we were pretty
much segregated” (DJ Disco Wiz in Fricke and Ahearn, 2002:26). This situation fostered
the development of the unique sounds and attitudes of Hip Hop. As Tricia Rose explains,
“much of rap’s critical force grows out of the cultural potency that racially segregated
conditions foster” (Rose, 1994:xiii).
Both Hip Hop and punk were initially rejected by mainstream society. Hip Hop
had to overcome the additional stigma of being African American music. “Like other
forms of black music, rap also has had to combat perceptions of it as a crude, simple, and
barbaric “jungle” music” (Fernando, 1994:xxii). In addition, those who participated in
Hip Hop were suspected of illegal behavior by law enforcement. “The police also made
thousands of arrests and stepped up intelligence of youths of color – monitoring their
crews, confiscating black books, interrogating graffiti perps and raiding homes” (Chang,
2005:135).
Fusion and Diffusion
Although punk and Hip Hop co-existed in the same city, they did not fully meet
until the early 1980s. In the early years, Hip Hop was largely isolated to the South Bronx
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and punk to lower Manhattan. There was some interaction in the 70s, when graffiti art
captured the attention of gallery owners downtown. The cultures collaborated in the 80s
to share music across audiences. Punk rockers’ visits to the Bronx are less documented,
perhaps because of their infrequency. This trend is in line with the propensity for white
social spaces and artists to dominate that of African Americans.
Some punk groups, like Blondie, recognized the similarities between punk and
Hip Hop early on. Blondie guitarist Chris Stein recalls, “[Graffiti artist Fab Five] Freddy
took Debbie [Harry] and me up to a Police Athletic League in the Bronx for this sort of
hip-hop convention…it was very parallel to what was going on in the punk scene” (in
Fricke and Ahearn, 2002:283). Blondie recorded the single, “Rapture” in 1980. It was
the first rap recording to hit number one on the US charts. Blondie also invited the Funky
Four Plus One to play with them on Saturday Night Live in 1981. “I’m pretty sure that…
was the first time there was a rap group on national TV” (Chris Stein in Fricke and
Ahearn, 2002:216)
The Clash, a British band, were very interested reggae and Hip Hop music and
incorporated some of their techniques into their own music. They, “were attempting to
create their own white Rasta in Punk – a new cultural resistance” (Savage, 2001:237).
They also had many African American artists open their shows in the United States.
Kurtis Blow opened several shows for The Clash in 1981, despite the reputation opening
acts had for being disliked by their audience. “I was elated, I was honored, and then I
heard the stories!…The challenge became more like a mission or a quest to be the first
African American act to open for The Clash and not get trashed…I came out like an MC
and introduced The Clash. I used child psychology” (Walker, 2006). Unlike the punk
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and society. Both can also be arranged along a continuum representing conflict and
violence – from those who practice and preach reactive violence under a false concept of
survival to those who advocate for a proactive transformation of society. The two
movements can also be aligned along a third dimension – that of assimilation versus
independence.
Now is the Time to Get Organized
History provides a prismatic lens through which we can illuminate and clarify the
complex meanings of our current reality and envision a brighter future. The story of Hip
Hop and punk are an inspiration to modern revolutionaries who reject the values and
activities of capitalism. In fact, an intentional coalition of true punks and Hip Hop heads
would have the power to transform modern American society. Such a coalition is sorely
needed.
Today, income inequality and poverty have escalated to new highs in the United
States. At the same time, rampant consumerism, tokenism, and commodity fetishism
have eroded, to some extent, the values of family, community, and artistic expression.
This imbalance has had a negative impact on the natural and built environment,
individual self-esteem, and collective identity.
Punk and Hip Hop are uniquely positioned to fuel a worldwide progressive
political movement. True punks and Hip Hoppas, those who remain revolutionary, have
become more deliberately political since the early days - both in lyrics and in social
actions. There has been an intentional break from the commercialized corruptions of
these subcultures by many who feel that their individual, and the community’s, best
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interests are better served through alternative means. Underground Hip Hop and punk
communities are flourishing, and their beliefs are clearly anti-capitialist.
Perhaps as the material world catches up to the prophesy of music, social actors
can build upon the thoughts shared by musicians of the past and present by transferring
their ideas into meaningful strategic actions. Punk and Hip Hop participants have clearly
articulated the leftist point of view; now it is time for their supporters to come together in
solidarity to systematically obliterate the root causes of poverty and environmental
devastation. A contrived convergence of the Hip Hop and punk undergrounds could
potentially organize the proletarian class, deconstruct barriers of society, open up new
social and political possibilities, and lead to the development of new, progressive
organizations based on cooperation and mutual benefit. An intentional cross-cultural
coalition of the punk and Hip Hop communities could catalyze and redirect each group’s
collective cultural and political assets in order to cauterize the cancers of capitalism and
construct new social and political institutions.
The internationalization of Hip Hop and punk music and culture has led to the
infection of new movement participants. Although many of them may be politically
uninformed or uninspired, a movement that builds upon this common basis could engage
the youth in meaningful social and political actions. By using music and culture as a
means to communicate ideas and create community, social and political action could be
encouraged in a nonthreatening and inspiring way.
Youth engagement is critical, but an intergenerational movement would be more
effective. The coalition should maximize the energy and optimism of youth as well as the
wisdom and experience of elders.
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Black Panther leader Fred Hampton “believed that the gangs collected the fearful
and the forgotten. If gangs gave up robbing the poor, terrorizing the weak, hurting the
innocent, they might become a powerful force for revolution” (Chang, 2005:46). Like
gangs, other adverse communities also absorb individuals who feel alienated, angry, or
insignificant. Punk and Hip Hop have attracted and absorbed many such people. Though
this has led to a political and social division in each movement, the potential for
contribution of every person who identifies with the movements should be explored. The
negative energy that is poured into criminal activity and other hateful thoughts and
actions could be redirected into positive activities that benefit the individual and the
community.
The democratization of technology could aid such a movement. Not only has the
Internet opened up distribution networks for musicians and artists to share their work
throughout the world, it has also created a means of communication that is highly
accessible, inexpensive, and extensive.
There would, of course, be several challenges to building such a coalition. The
first would be to identify potential participants and to develop marketing strategies to
reach them and encourage their buy-in to the idea. The second would be to develop a
consistent, comprehensive, and inclusive means of communication to determine mutual
goals and to develop strategies. The third would be to organize such a magnificent
undertaking. And finally, the movement would need to stay revolutionary and radical –
in the broadest definition of those terms – as it grows and engages new supporters.
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