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Remember Punk Rock? Probably Not...: The Real Culture War of 1980's America

When most people hear the word “punk,” they think of drug addled, nasty behavior. The truth is, it was driven by a visceral hatred for the president.

When most people hear the word “punk,” they think of drug addled, nasty behavior.  Like Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols high on heroin, slashing himself with a broken bottle and wearing a t-shirt with a swastika on it.  Stupid and nihilistic both.

But if you push beyond the year the Sex Pistols imploded and when Sid Vicious died (1978-1979), you might be surprised to meet a punk who would tell you how he rejected drugs, alcohol, and sex – often labeling himself “straight edge” – but who still believed Johnny Rotten was right when the Sex Pistols singer called “anger” an “energy.”  Usually a suburban resident, this punk rocker would tell you how big corporate music CEOs kept releasing albums that sucked. Maybe our ideal type punk of the 1980s had realized that the music industry’s sales were tanking in 1980.  This kid, usually a young white male, would explain how he rejected corporate music and went into his basement and formed a band that played at small and cheap venues (sometimes even just friends’ houses), or produced his own zine pasted together and xeroxed, or drew art that served as social commentary about the boredom of suburban life.  All of this centered around the idea of Do It Yourself (DIY), its own kind of ethic.

As local punk scenes started to gel across the country in the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan ascended to power as president.  While contemporary conservatives fawn over him today, many punk kids at the time perceived him as scary and mean, projecting a surface image much like the celebrities he admired (he invited Michael Jackson to the White House in 1984, not just because Jackson was a celebrity with a certain brand but also because he saved the music industry in 1983 by reinvigorating record sales and the bottom line).  Reagan exuded celebrity himself: from his days as a movie actor in Hollywood to his time shilling for General Electric Theater on television.  When elected, some called him the Entertainer in Chief.