Okay, I admit, the title is a bit of clickbait because I’ve known for a while that punk music is political. Punk music has been used as an anti-establishment protest device since its inception, using heavy rock and lyrical call-outs to get its point across. Now, I’d like to preface this by saying, punk music in its entirety isn’t political, and punk isn’t the only political music, but punk started out political.
Punk Rock had its start in the 1970s in small clubs in London, San Fran, New York, Boston, and LA, drawing inspiration from 50s rock and roll and 60s garage rock. Punk music has been anti-institution since inception, and has been used as a feminist device as well by the likes of Patti Smith and L7 (one of my favorite punk bands ever.)
Patti Smith was an artist and poet who was very active during the beginning of punk, being one of the pillars of the community, she toured North America with her band The Patti Smith Group, influencing punk artists of later generations.
L7 was another punk band, though functioning in the latter 80s. they were one of the first all-female punk bands in the game. They have been staunchly political since their beginning and are to date one of my all-time favorite bands. They formed the Rock for Choice movement in the 90s, aimed at holding concerts over a ten year period to raise funding for the pro-abortion movement of the time.
The Slits were the first all female punk band (to my knowledge) and had one of the defining releases of the punk era. They were heavily inspired by Patti Smith and toured with many punk bands of the time. The Slits cycled through members, having a total of 15 members in their time.
Now, being a bit sick has left me with little energy, so this blog post didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but I hope you enjoyed and maybe give some of these artists a listen!
Much love,
Jude ♡