Nablai's Nebula: PeacePunk

33 10 9

by Ooorah

Dedicated to Nablai

by Ooorah

February is counting its last days and here I am delighted to meet you again. I know I'm a bit late, but better late than never. And it's the article that counts, right? Moving onwards, I just want to talk about peace as a punk genre and a concept as a whole. It's different and challenging. Because let's admit it—peace isn't for the faint, weak-hearted. Takes a lot of courage to stand for right. In the words of Billie Joe Armstrong, "Punk is not just the sound, the music. Punk is a lifestyle."

It's also the month of the super overrated cliche expressions of love and our very own Tevun-Krus International PeacePunk issue. So, ready for some sub-genre rock and hush? Here we go...

There isn't an interpretation of PeacePunk that is accepted by all. It's defined as the predecessor to the crusties movement. PeacePunks were those politically correct folks who in the late 80's early 90's, rarely wore leather, ate meat and wore dread locks. They are the people who like punk rock music, and whose style of dress is influenced by punk rock, who are against war, and will organise and participate in anti-war protests. They usually practice non-violence, have many of them as vegetarians or vegans. It can also be defined as the right to exist for all of us. A bridge to span the diversity that encloses us, a tranquil existence in the river of life.

Peace punk(formally known as Anarcho-punk) is punk rock genre that promotes anarchism through the use of anarchical lyrical content which might figure hardcore punk, folk punk and other.

New experimental political and art movements such as Fluxus, Dada, the Beat generation, the surrealism-inspired Situationist International, the May 1968 uprising in Paris were precursors to the PeacePunk sun-genre. Public consciousness was changing, evolving and this sub-genre was the perfect base to build an idea of using rock as an agent of social and political peace in the ever-growing global scenario.

Following the birth of punk rock, a surge of popular interest in using chaos as a symbol of peace occurred during the 1970s in the United Kingdom. The early-1980s saw the emergence of the Leeds peace-punk scene with groups like Abrasive Wheels, The Expelled and Icon A.D, which resulted in Chumbawamba, whose confrontational political activism overtook their connection to the scene in no time at all.

The Peace-punk sub-genre spread to the United States in the late-1970s under the influence of anarchist punk groups like Austin's MDC and San Francisco's Dead Kennedys. With the vocals of Henry Rollins, Los Angeles' Black Flag supported peace-punk politics between 1982 and 1986. Generally peace-punk sub-genre was generally supportive in Latin America and anti-Apartheid movements and found fault with Ronald Reagan's presidency.

Basically speaking, Peace-Punk ideas are actually are a group of varied social and political beliefs connected with the punk sub-genre culture and punk rock. Though its primary concern is with concepts like mutual aid, humanitarianism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, anti-war, freedom of thought and non-conformity. A rejection of mainstream, corporate mass culture and its values is one of their first principles as Peace-Punk continues to evolve its ideology as the movement spreads throughout North America from its origins in England and New York and embraces a range of anti-racist and anti-sexist belief systems. They are often leftist or anti-capitalist and go against authoritarian and right-wing Christian teachings.

There's so much more and I could fill pages and pages rambling about Peace-Punk, taking hours. Which I'm not going to. And this marks the end of our article. Like a diamond in the rough, Peace-Punk sun-genre has their work cut out for it. Not withstanding the anarchy that inevitably comes with peace, there's so much more at stake. And yet, this is what we strive to save.

Until we meet in the next article, this is me, Nab, saying "Au revoir, bonne journée" which translates to 'Goodbye, have a nice day' ❤️

Take care, stay happy, and protected =]

By Nablai