Punk Rock: A Genuine Subculture or Commodified Rebellion?

This week's reading "The Function of Subculture" written by Dick Hebdige was very interesting to me. Growing up in Brantford Ontario there was very little entertainment and activities for the city's youth to engage in. One thing my group of friends and I were involved in was the local music scene. We could be found regularly at bars and venues (which our parents either were unaware of or were disapproving of) such as the Ford Plant, the Mesonic Temple and Jay's Place to watch some of our favourite local bands play primarily punk and ska music (we also seen up-and-coming bands such as Arcade Fire, Wintersleep and Constantines, but I'm ashamed to admit, did not appreciate it at the time). Dressed in black, with heavy eye-make up and terrible piercings, we were as Hebdige explains, engaging in a subculture primarily to rebel against our parents; be it their values, beliefs, class or otherwise.

Hebdige states "... the media play a crucial role in defining our experiences for us...It should hardly surprise us then, to discover that much of what finds itself encoded in subculture has already been subjected to a certain amount of prior handling by the media" (p. 259). The author goes onto explain that although the styles adopted by punks was reflective of their genuine aggression, frustration and anxiety with a host of contemporary issues, they were in a language that was available and current. In other words, at the same time the punk culture attempts to adopt symbols and musical expressions from other outcast culture and synthesize it into something uniquely their own, the dominant culture tries to make sense of subcultures though various means, including news reports and articles in the mainstream mass media that identify the new subculture within a historical context, and by taking aspects of the culture such as fashion and commodifying them (Cartledge, F. 1999, p. 143).

Christian Louboutin studded heels: $1095

Safety pins, leather jackets and ripped jeans are taken out of the context of rebellion and translated into runway fashion, selling for thousands of dollars at ritzy boutiques. However, for today's youth, entire punk-rock wardrobes can be purchased at stores such as Hot Topic for a more reasonable price. These stores are designed to acquire the disposable income many youth of today have from allowances and part-time jobs.

I will close with an appropriate punk rock song written and performed by MC Lars entitled "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock", which lyrics depict what someone emerged in the subculture deems to be and not be "punk rock":



Cartledge, F. (1999) “Distress to Impress?: Local Punk Fashion and Commodity Exchange” in Punk Rock: So What, Roger Sabin, Ed. London: Routledge p. 143-154.

Hebdige, D. (1979) The Function of Subculture. In Szeman, I., Kaposy, T. (2011) Culture Theory: An Anthology (p. 255-263). Sussex, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell