A Brief History of Punk.
Describing the nature of punk is difficult as its major aim was to be something that could not fit neatly into any box or category. (Bayard, 1999) The problematic issue in defining punk is that the very act of defining punk makes it complicit with mainstream societal terms. Being difficult to describe or define aligns itself to its overriding philosophy of an alternative. To maintain authenticity means to avoid definition, therefore, the definition is that which must not be defined, cementing its status as a subculture, outside of the mainstream norm. Regardless, punk needs to be understood as a subculture of society for the purposes of this thesis to illustrate its importance and influence on skate punk. Punk could therefore be described as a politicisation of cultural practice based on anti-authoritarian; anti-corporatism; anti-corporate greed; non-conformity; and a do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos.
Whilst highly debated, punk music is said to have begun in the United States in New York City in mid 1970s with bands such as The Ramones and the New York Dolls bursting onto the music scene. Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, where political and economic hardship was influencing youth rebellion, there was a greater focus on the representation of punk through fashion. Malcolm McLaren’s London shop SEX used local youths to wear his creations. Out of this project came the Sex Pistols who went on to influence youth rebellion on a worldwide scale and epitomise the ethos of punk music for generations to come.
In response to the tedious banality of pop music of the day, punk appealed to the youth that were frustrated with mainstream modern life. Their genre testified through lyricism and style, whilst pop music just entertained (Ensminger, 2011, p10). Nylons (2006, p136) explains that the punk music genre “…tends to reveal the bracing, even vociferous postures of a counter-culture clamoring towards anti-authoritarianism….Punk embodied a restless culture of politics rooted in music that is always the gristle. That doesn’t break down in the crucible of pop culture…[since]…everyone in [first generation] punk was descended within one-two generations from some social injustice somewhere.”
The origins of punk have been critiqued and extensively written about, however, skate punk has been largely left out of punk histories in favour of the more prominent New York scene and the British punk movement. Skate punk is aligned more with hardcore punk, which is understood as a subgenre of punk music that differs through it’s faster and more aggressive style than earlier punk variations. This music emerged on the West Coast of America in the mid to late 1970s with its own distinctive “fashion, participation, and textual content” (Butz, 2012, p77), and it was specifically Southern Californian. The development of hardcore punk in this locale correlated with the rise of the Dogtown skateboarders with both entities pushing the boundaries and facilitating behaviour that mirrored each other in its radicalism and rebellion.
A Brief History of Skateboarding.
Skateboarding rose to prominence in the 1950s and suffered fluctuations of popularity for the next few decades. Michael Brooke’s comprehensive documentation of Skateboarding, The Concrete Wave (2005) outlines the interesting history of what he describes as “this exhilarating sport”. Chivers Yochim describes skateboarding as being a relatively mainstream innocuous childhood sport in the 1960s until the authorities and conservative elements of society started to become worried about the accidents and the risk taking behaviour displayed by the skateboarders (Chivers Yochim, 2010, p3). The popularity of skateboarding declined drastically, but the introduction of the polyurethane wheel in the early 1970s saw a resurgence in the activity.
Skateboarding was considered a legitimate sport with competitions held on a regular basis and sponsorship money provided by skateboarding companies. The revolution in trucks design paved the way for another facet of skateboarding to grow and develop. Independent Trucks, founded by Fausto Vitello and Eric Swenson (Vitello also created the revolutionary Thrasher skateboard magazine in 1981) meant that skateboards could now be ridden more radically. Vertical skating became very popular in the 1970s, instigated by legendary skateboarder, Tony Alva. “Tony was instrumental in pushing the sport towards a more aggressive edge and moving skaters away from downhill, freestyle, and slalom. (Brooke, 2005, p55) Along with vertical skateboarding, the highly risky obsession with pool skating became hugely popular in the 1970s. Proliferated by the infamous Z-Boys of Dogtown (Venice Beach), the need to find any empty pool and skate it meant that these skaters often found themselves on the wrong side of the law. In drought ridden Southern California, it was not hard to find an empty pool, but gaining approval to ride
was generally not an option. This further added to the rebellious reputation that skateboarders had already acquired.
Skateboarding was beginning to be understood through several ideological frameworks ranging from childhood pastime, to the lazy pursuit of a teenage slacker, to the portrayal of a destructive rebel who appropriates and makes fun out of the sterile city and suburban scape that surrounds them (Borden,
2001). Chivers Yochim describes in her book Skate Life (2010) how cultural and sociological theorists explain and theorise about skateboarding and skateboarders: Ocean Howell stated that skateboarders were members of the creative class who were intent on reclaiming city space; Kyle Kusz was focused
upon skate culture as a part of the white male backlash against the perceived slights of feminism, gay rights and civil rights; Belinda Wheaton felt that newer non-traditional sports such as skateboarding offer different and potentially more transformatory scripts for both male and female physicality that the hegemonic traditional sports culture and identity (2010, p3); and Iain Borden, who has arguably contributed the most to academic analysis of skateboarding subculture proclaimed that …”The tactics of appropriation, colonization, and identity formation helped skaters to redefine the city and themselves. By making a different edit of the urban realm from alternative locations and times, skateboarders transformed the sedately suburban character of Los Angeles into dramatic concrete constructions, exploited under an air of espionage” (Borden, 2002, p53).
It was definitely evident that by the 1970s “skateboarders had fragmented into their own anti-authority subcultures.” (Ensminger, 2011, p107) This was the period in which Dogtown and the Z-Boys rose to prominence. Dogtown skateboarders were teenagers seemingly intent on breaking the rules, appropriating suburbia and transforming harsh concrete cities and dull suburbia into “usable spaces to vent their restlessness in a creative whir of pavement and urethane wheels” (Ensminger, 2011, p107). Skateboarding had been kept alive in the Dogtown area and ingrained in local culture due to the strong surfing lifestyle. When there were not any waves, they would grab their skateboards and ride (Brooke, 2005, p56). This is where the punk and skate subcultures began to converge.
Both subcultures were purveyors of innovative and unique methods in which to express, move and represent. Their culture and lifestyle morphed into creative aspects of corporeal movement, which involved both skateboarding and music. Living in the same locale in Southern California, those involved
influenced others who were interested in colluding with this rebellious identity and not conforming to the hegemonic norm of mainstream society. When music and movement combined, skate punk was born.
References
Bayard, M. (1999) “Introduction” in O’Hara’s The Philosophy of Punk A.K.
Press: San Francisco
Borden, I (2001) Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the
Body, Berg: Oxford
Borden, I., Hall, T., & Miles, M. (Eds) (2003) The City Cultures Reader,
Routledge: London
Butz K. (2012) Grinding California: Culture and Corporeality in American
Skate punk, Transaction Publishers: New Jersey
Chivers Yochim, E. A. (2009) Skate Life- Reimagining white masculinity,
University of Michigan Press: Michigan
Ensminger, David. (2010) A Visual Vitriol – The Street Art and Subcultures of
the Punk and Hardcore Generation, University Press of
Mississippi/Jackson:USA
Nylons, J. (2006) “In with the In Crowd: The View from Under the
Floorboards.” Johnny Lydon: Stories of Johnny: A Compendium of Thoughts
on the Icon of an Era. Ed. Rob Johnstone. Chrome Dreams: London
[This is an excerpt from my Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) Honours Thesis, submitted to the University of Wollongong Arts Faculty in 2013. I am publishing excerpts from this thesis in multiple posts. The thesis aimed to explore the youth subculture of skate punk, how its expression perpetuated authenticity through the aesthetic form of the music video, and how this was reflexive of society at a deeper social level].
[copyright 2023]