‘What is punk?’

In Fight Back: Punk, Politics and Resistance, an edited collection from the Subcultures Network, Penny Rimbaud of Crass provides a brilliant answer to this question. ‘It isn't’, he says, ‘Period’ (p. 81). Rimbaud's statement can be found in Ivan Gololbov's chapter on ‘Immigrant Punk’. It is, as Gololbov explains, a reflection of punk's ‘moment of nihilism and denial of its own identity’ (p. 80). Elsewhere in this book, we find Steve Ignorant, Rimbaud's partner in Crass, suggesting that there can be no ‘definitive article on punk’, as the movement is ‘too myriad and diverse’ (p. xiii). This book nevertheless warns against personal interpretations of the movement. Its afterword features an interview with Jon Savage, conducted by Matthew Worley, a member of the subcultures network. Worley complains, ‘subjective experience presented as universalism – it's the bane of my life whenever I talk about researching punk and youth cultures’ (p. 311), while Savage disparages the ‘overwhelming trend in music writing over the last fifteen years to elevate … autobiography above everything else’ (p. 311).

So how, then, to explore this ‘contested cultural form’ (p. 4)? Fight Back takes on the challenge of searching for ‘punk's continuities and divergences’ (p. 4). Moreover, it aims to do so in a temporal, cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary manner. Declared objectives are to ‘explore some of the different ways in which punk has been understood, adopted and utilised since it first established itself in the cultural consciousness from the mid-1970s’ (p. 2); to ‘begin a debate as to the ways and means by which punk's protest, aesthetic and style found expression in different national, cultural, socio-economic and political contexts’ (p. 3); and to ‘open up a dialogue across designated research areas and provide a conduit for interdisciplinary study into both punk and youth cultures more generally’ (p. 4).

Given the scale of these tasks, Fight Back is a remarkably effective book. At the individual level many of its chapters provide useful additions to punk's vast literature. In accordance with the editors' brief, there are valuable historic investigations (Worley's nuanced reading of ‘Oi!’; John Parham's outlining of the impact of Manchester's ecosystem on the poetry of John Cooper Clarke; Herbert Pimlott's account of the punk ‘structure of feeling’ that emerged in Britain between 1976 and 1983); there are fascinating descriptions of punk in a number of different countries (Britain, Russia, France, Italy, East Germany, West Germany and Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic are all covered); there are insightful contributions to debates about punk and gender and sexuality (Hilary Pilkington on masculinity; Laura Way on older women punks); and there are knowledgeable accounts of different forms of punk media (Bill Osgerby on punk films; Michelle Liptrot, Matt Grimes and Tim Wall on fanzines).

Collectively, the focus on subculture sheds light on some of punk's continuities and divergences. Worley's work includes a welcome questioning of the idea that, as punk developed, its adherents could be divided into neat avant garde and social realist camps (pp. 38, 58). Although it is not the editors' intention, what becomes apparent from reading this book is that punk's major split lies elsewhere. There are clear differences between the form that emerged in Britain in the late 1970s and the punk that has been spreading ever since. And so, while the subcultures network wishes to interpret ‘punk as being far more than a brief moment in popular music history or sartorial style’ (p. 3), it is the separateness of that ‘moment’ that ends up being reinforced.

The British punk of the late 1970s had a distinct subcultural status. This was, in part, due to its focus on music. The editors are right to argue that punk has always fought back against the ‘status quo’, ‘dominant culture’ and ‘pre-established hierarchies’ (p. 2), but the point of origin of British punk was to battle against these factors as manifested in the music world. In doing so, it achieved a considerable degree of success. For a time, punk formed a part of mainstream British musical culture as well as battling against it. In this sense it was not entirely subcultural, something that cannot be said of successive punk scenes. The musical preoccupation of early British punk is reflected in Fight Back itself. It is notable that whenever the analysis moves away from this era, the focus on music recedes.

And what of the punk diaspora? This book provides intriguing glimpses of a number of streams. Despite its focus on activism, it includes analyses of punks who wear aimlessness as a badge of pride. Those surveyed in Russia, for example, display a ‘heroic incompetence’ as they fight among themselves (p. 16), while political punks in 1980s Czechoslovakia are revealed to be a minority inside a minority:

In other chapters we do see punk offering a means for ‘politics and resistance’. The editors claim that this legacy resides in ‘multiple and divergent interpretations of Johnny Rotten's insistence that “I wanna be me”’ (p. 6). Some of the contributions suggest a different story, however. Punk also has a collective spirit, drawn from the ideologies of later punk bands. Two strands are highlighted as being particularly inspirational: the ‘anarcho’ punk of British groups such as Crass and Flux of Pink Indians, and the hardcore punk of American groups such as the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag and Minor Threat. As this book shows, the impact of these bands has not been restricted to their music and lyrics. It also lies in their artwork, literature and DIY enterprise. Penny Rimbaud may well stake a claim for punk's blank status, but it was his own group who helped to negate punk's nihilism. The anarcho and hardcore groups fostered a more readily identifiable politics of punk than anything that emerged in the confused ‘moment’ of 1976–1979. For a glimpse of this collective spirit, we can turn to the lyrics of the Discharge from which this collection draws its name: ‘we've been shit on far too long, there are no equalities, no freedom, fight the system, fight back’. One of the great virtues of this book is that it rekindles this righteous ire.