Anyone Can Do It

For more than three decades, a punk underground has repeatedly insisted that 'anyone can do it'. This underground punk movement has evolved via several micro-traditions, each offering distinct and novel presentations of what punk is, isn't, or should be. Underlying all these punk micro-traditions is a politics of empowerment that claims to be anarchistic in character, in the sense that it is contingent upon a spontaneous will to liberty (anyone can do it - in theory). How valid, though, is punk's faith in anarchistic empowerment? Exploring theories from Derrida and Marx, Anyone Can Do It: Empowerment, Tradition and the Punk Underground examines the cultural history and politics of punk. In its political resistance, punk bears an ideological relationship to the folk movement, but punk's faith in novelty and spontaneous liberty distinguish it from folk: where punk's traditions, from the 1970s onwards, have tended to search for an anarchistic 'new-sense', folk singers have more often been socialist/Marxist traditionalists, especially during the 1950s and 60s. Detailed case studies show the continuities and differences between four micro-traditions of punk: anarcho-punk, cutie/'C86', riot grrrl and math rock, thus surveying UK and US punk-related scenes of the 1980s, 1990s and beyond.

Pete Dale is renowned in the punk underground for his involvement in the Slampt Underground Organisation and groups such as Pussycat Trash, Milky Wimpshake and Red Monkey. His recent PhD research at Newcastle University explored the politics of punk. He taught music in a Gateshead secondary school for many years. He is currently Popular Music Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Contents: Introduction; Part I Anyone Can Do - What?: What is punk; The folk 'us'; Punk as folk; Conclusion to part I. Part II Can Any One Do 'It'?: Punk, avant-gardism and novelty; Marxism, anarchism and the issue of universality; Justice to come and the micromatic recoi; Conclusion to part IIl. Part III The Beginning of a Continuation: Interlude 1: an original rebirth?; There is no authority, but ...; Indie pop ain't noise pollution; Conclusion to part III. Part IV The Continuation of a Beginning: Interlude 2: still birth?; The arrival of a new, renegade, girl-boy hyper-nation; Delivering the groceries at 138 beats per minute; Conclusion to part IV; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.