Is there anything left to say about punk rock in the UK? Matthew Worley obviously thinks so and this book is certainly a useful edition to academic accounts of both the genre and the years that saw its emergence and development. Worley's problem is having to having to stand on the shoulders of giants. Dave Laing's masterful semiotic account of punk, One Chord Wonders (Reference Laing1985), set the bar high, while Jon Savage's epic England's Dreaming (Reference Savage1991) was an insider account which has serious claims to being definitive. Added to this are Simon Reynolds's insightful work on post punk (Reference Reynolds2005), Nick Crossley's (Reference Crossley2015) exploration of punk's social networks, Roger Sabin's account of punk's wider influence (Reference Sabin1999) and numerous accounts from punk musicians and protagonists. Adding to that little lot is not a task to be undertaken lightly.
Perhaps one of the reasons Worley does add to the understanding of punk is because of the sources that he has assembled. This includes not only an exhaustive list of academic and wider literature on both punk and contemporary history, but also an array of films and largely long forgotten fanzines. The book serves as a reminder of both the breadth of punk's influence and of the diversity of topics it addressed. If much of what Worley writes here will not be new to those, like myself, who lived through and participated in punk, then he does much to remind readers about why punk mattered and continues to do so.
The book consists of eight chapters, bookended by an Introduction (‘Teenage Warning: Punk, Politics and Youth Culture’) and Conclusion (‘Alternatives: Chaos and Finish’). It starts with violence, in this case that which occurred at a Crass benefit gig in September 1978. While Worley notes that this was not a typical contemporary Saturday night it was, he says, ‘resonant of a time in which youth culture, popular music and politics intertwined in complex, exciting and often ugly ways’ (p. 2). While it could be objected here that all of this is something of a perennial, Worley does show how such intertwining was particularly intense during the years in question. His aim is ‘to determine the politics of punk as a musical form and youth culture’ (p. 2). Initially this is done via The Sex Pistols, a band whom, it is argued, are ‘synonymous with’ (p. 3) UK punk and ‘helped to forge a distinctive youth culture’ (p. 4), although the net is soon cast wider. Punk is shown to be subdivided into to sub-genres and local scenes so that it ‘may be best understood as a cultural process of critical engagement rather than a specific musical or sartorial style’ (p. 11). Worley ends the introduction by examining previous accounts and explains that he wishes to ‘rehistoricise British punk beyond its media moment through to one of its own prescribed end games of 1984’ (p. 23, emphasis Worley).
The chapters which follow begin with an overview of the contested views of punk. This suggests that a wide range of approaches were adopted and that ultimately: ‘To define punk was to emasculate it’ (p. 27). What was often at stake was the extent to which punk should be avowedly political, rather than limited to an assertion of personal identity. Here Worley provides a useful survey of the various views and the issues at stake, especially within the music press. He confirms that both left and right sought to give political meaning to punk.
The second chapter deals with punk as cultural critique. Here Worley suggests that bands were criticised for playing stadium gigs (p. 50). In fact these were comparatively rare at this point and it was larger gigs that were critiqued rather stadiums per se. However Worley does have a good grasp on what alienated punks from much contemporary musical praxis, noting that the point was not to dismiss rock ’n’ roll's history but to revitalise the music (p. 55). He draws on The Jam's ambivalent attitude to punk to make his point, arguing that punk's challenge to ‘the music industry’ was first to open up the existing one and then to form an alternative to it (p. 61). While there is again something of a feeling of little being added to existing accounts such as Laing and Reynolds, observations such as ‘the politics of punk were more readily discerned on its processes than its content’ (p. 69) and that ‘punk positioned itself as an alternative media’ (p. 79) are well made.
The third chapter deals with punk's social realism which, Worley suggests, ‘oscillated between the thrills and frustrations of urban living’ (p. 86). He cites The Clash as a prime example of this, noting that many of the bands did not like to take political sides and presented themselves as reporting the truth or being observers (p. 86), rather than taking an overtly political stance. Here gigs were as important as records. Worley mentions ‘every government report on violence at rock concerts’ (p. 95) but, frustratingly, doesn't mention any. However he captures the flavour of the time well, illustrating how referring to politics became somewhat routine. Nevertheless, saying that youth unemployment ‘formed at least part of the backdrop to (punk's) … social realist drama’ (p. 100) again adds little to what is already known.
The Politics of Boredom is the subject of the Chapter 4, with the Buzzcocks as the key protagonists. Much here concentrates on the suburban punks and this time Worley adds genuinely new knowledge and rescues for history bands such as The Head and Nuclear Socketts. Punk, Worley suggests ‘stemmed from recognition that the future looked bleak, that the music industry was exploitative, that politicians lied’ (p. 138). There are also interesting observations on how punks further blurred any distinctions between art and politics.
Politics itself is the subject of Chapter 5. Here punk involved both critique and rejection. It also included comments from the likes of Paul Weller and Siouxsie Sioux which embraced elements of Thatcherite thinking (p. 140). However, punk was embraced more by the left than the right and Worley shows that its adherents included some who came to music via leftist politics, again adding new knowledge. He also investigates the extreme right's interest in punk, as well as punk's anarchist affiliations. The latter is among the best parts of the book.
Two chapters on punk and identity politics follow. The first examines personal politics, noting that this might include a disavowal of politics and frequent avowals of individualism. Issues of gender are also highlighted and, again, Worley shows both complexity and tension. For example Rock Against Sexism's desire to control what could be played at its discos and who could play its shows went against the individualism that punk embraced elsewhere. Here Crass get good coverage, but Worley omits the less politically correct bands such as the notorious Macc Lads and I would have welcomed his views of them.
The next chapter examines attitudes to sex itself, noting that heterosexual sex was often dismissed, while homosexuality was initially hidden away. Worley also examines the rebel masculinity of the Clash and the hyper-masculinity of some Oi bands. The alternatives provided by The Smiths, which he outlines, seem a lifetime ago given Morrissey's recent outpourings. However, while the demarcations here are useful, it is also notable that these chapters feature relatively little reference to previous academic work in these areas. More critical engagement with the giants upon whose shoulders Worley stands might have proved useful here.
The final chapter deals with punk as dystopia. It begins with Ian MacDonald's analysis of the UK's political situation published in NME in 1980 during the early days of the first Thatcher administration. Here an increasingly militarised state and fears of a nuclear war combined to be seen as ‘a validation of punk's grim foresight’ (p. 217). Add in to the mix the Falklands War, the miners’ strike of 1984–1985, the decision to bring US cruise missiles in to the UK and an economic crisis and it is little surprise that post-punk was often concerned with darker thoughts, albeit generally interspersed with hope and humanity.
In the concluding chapter Worley writes that: ‘punk rejuvenated and re-energised popular music’ (p. 252) and that is true. Punk certainly showed why popular music matters. Worley adds that: ‘Punk's politics were messy. They could be contradictory and formative, implicit and explicit, liberatory and reactionary’ (p. 253) and this is also true. This was the politics of refusal (p. 254). That refusal was often couched as a refusal to conform, which raised complex questions for those refusing to obey punk's emerging norms. Did being a punk imply a commitment to anti-racism and anti-sexism or were such constraints antithetical to punk's espousal of individualism? Refusing is one thing, finding common values another and so movements such Rock Against Racism were riven with internal tensions concerning appropriate attitudes and behaviours. Political correctness and adherence to individualism can make uneasy bedfellows.
Worley has comparatively little to say about what is often called ‘the music itself’. While it is true that texts make no sense without contexts, those who do close analysis of texts may feel that the musical texts themselves should have been foregrounded more.
Overall the book is something of a mixed bag. Worley is largely successful in showing the ambiguity and complexity of punk's politics. What is more questionable is what new is being added here. Rather than new ideas, I got the feeling on more detail being added, of more evidence being put forward. I didn't get the feeling of being cheated, more let down. A bit like punk itself. Ultimately this is more a reminder of why punk matters than it is a new explanation of how. New readers could do far worse than to begin here, older ones (such as this author) might feel the need to be more circumspect.
