Past Hokudai/Cast Entries

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Punk Rock

Punk Rock
Punk rock music originated in England in the 1970s when many young people of the working-class were fired from their jobs and they became homeless people, so they could only express their anger at politics, the Thatcher government and other politicians at that time in music with their significant lyrics. The music is known for its grossness, violence and anti-establishmentarianism.

There are many popular punk rock bands in the world: The Sex Pistols, Ramones and The Clash that are still liked by many punk rock fans. They developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, and the United Kingdom, and they made the new musical movement. By 1977, punk music was spreading around the world, so they really made a revolution into the world of rock at that time. 

Since those days, punk rock music developed and has many kinds of punk or rock styles. For example, by the turn of the century, pop-punk, grunge punk or rock, emo and hard core music are known as fusion with elements of punk rock. They are fascinating many people in the world now. I really love many kinds of punk rock and always listen to punk rock music. I’d like to explain the how difference between pop punk, punk rock and emo punk. 

At first, I want to demonstrate how punk rock differs from pop punk and emo punk. First of all, punk rock music created fast, hard music, typically short songs, stripped-down instrumentation and often political or nihilistic lyrics with three chords. 

Also pop punk is a kind of music that includes punk rock elements with pop music. It has three chords like punk rock and is known for its easy music style for us to listen to more than punk rock. The music originated in the mid-1970s, by such popular pop punk bands as Green Day, and The Off Springs. However, it is not clear when the term pop punk was first used, but pop-influenced punk rock has been around since the 1970s. Two examples of breakthrough pop punk records are the 1994 multi-platinum albums Dookie by Green Day and Smash by The Off Springs.

On the other hand, emo is a style of rock music which describes several independent variations of music with common stylistic roots. The cultural origin of the music is from Washington, D.C, in the mid- 1980s and gained mainstream popularity through the 1980s and ‘90s, growing in the early 2000s. At the end of 1980s, the term emocore, short for “emotional hardcore” was also used to describe the emotional performances of bands in the Washington DC scene. As such, use of the term has been the subject of much debate. Also they are called “post hard core”, because they have roots of hard core musically and mentally. Also the music including screams can be called “screamo” which is categorized for a kind of emo core music.

In the future, punk rock music will develop more and more, so we can think that it is possible for us to think punk rock will be fusion with more kinds of music. However, there are some people who are faithful to the original punk rock music and blame for many kinds of punk rock. I heard from my friend that many punk bands (emo, pop punk and more) has been slandered and hurt by such as people. Furthermore, as for punk-fashion, many people who are faithful to punk rock are criticizing people who wear other kinds of punk fashion; gothic punk and Lolita punk. 

Therefore, I think punk rock will not only be awesome fusion with a lot of kind of music but also be faulted one because of the lack of devotion to the original punk rock. Indeed, it’s important for us to be loyally to something including music. Only we should set our vision of music more, then we may be able to widen our horizons and perceive the nature of music better than now.



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Mirai Sozo is the School of Future Learning at Hokuriku University. The primary focus is on language (English and Chinese) and management (hospital administration, sports, and business).
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