The Punk movement can be hard to discuss because it is not commonly agreed upon when it started, where it started, or even what the meaning of “Punk” is. There is one quote however, from one of the founding fathers of the movement that does as good a job at describing it as you’re likely to get.

Terri Hooley is considered one of the most important people in the timeline of the birth of Punk because it is he who opened up the Good Vibrations Record Shop in Belfast in 1970, which would turn into one of the first punk show venues, which would turn into a record label, which would turn into the first record label to sign one of the first punk rock bands: The Undertones.

Now before delving further into the punk movement itself it is crucially important to at least briefly cover what was going on historically at the time in Punk’s three motherlands:

America

The 1970s is a rocky time in American History, it is remembered for it’s violence and turmoil in the light of the Vietnam War as well as the rise of Terrorism. At the time Americans were concerned by these things that haunted what they thought of their once glorious nation, nothing was simple anymore and the life most people knew a decade before was now history. Soldiers away in Vietnam literally had to be trained in pop culture upon their arrival back home! This is because of the drastic changes that took place in the world of the arts in the USA. Films became darker and more reflective, and Music became more experimental and complex. It’s part of the reason why 1968, just two years before, was known as the year that changed America forever:

England

Seven thousand kilometres across the ocean 1970s England was going through an economic crisis. Thousands of workers were on the street striking and the majority of young adults were unemployed. The music that dominated the airwaves leading up to the era had been what is known as “Bubblegum Pop”, very rhythmic, very vibrant, and very marketable. It was the genre that had already been replaced in the US by music with more gravitas. Similarly, Britain would start to see more abnormal experimental artists in the form of both sound and style in artists like Iggy Pop and David Bowie, in the words of the Clash “British Beatlemania ha[d] bitten the dust”.

Ireland

Now we move on to the place that according to Terri Hooley, held the reason for the birth of punk rock. While America and England had reasons of their own, the reasons were not as concentrated or intense as in Belfast, a place that in the 1970s was home to almost hourly terrorist bombings, rioting, and protest.

The IRA’s chaotic guerilla fighting against the national guard turned Belfast into an urban war zone. This period was fittingly named the Troubles, and it would ultimately be the force that demanded an artistic and cultural response, this response took form of what is now known as the punk movement and it would be a sound, a style and an attitude that would spread to London, New York, and eventually the entire world.

In addition to Ireland, the United States and England were also perfect places for the cultural side of the movement to be built as they both were homes to music that were due to be phased out. While bands like The Grateful Dead and Jefferson airplane acted as the figureheads for the Woodstock generation at least in a musical sense, the slow, complex and experimental nature of their songs grew dated in the ears of the new wave of youth. Alternatively, in Britain you had the Beatles, and The Kinks who were making music in the 60s that was painfully simple and poppy, almost the opposite of the phsycadelic rock phase in the US. Both of these musical genres also had styles of hair and clothing that went hand in hand so naturally those had to be replaced too. What was left was the perfect cultural void for the new wave of rebellious teenagers to fill, just as we saw in the 60s when teens were desperate to create their own culture.

The youth wanted to maintain the aspects of prog rock that surrounded injecting personal and political messages into the music, but they also needed an art form that was simple enough that everyone could get involved. Teens started getting ahold of guitars and amplifiers and taking to each other’s guitars to aggressively smash the strings along with drum kits while screaming about their problems. Obviously these kids were self taught so musically they weren’t talented,  much like the folk era ten years before except much more angry and chaotic. In Belfast Terri Hooley saw this trend occurring and opened up part of his record shop as a venue to host punk jam sessions. People outside of the bands would come to listen and eventually there was a demand for actual punk shows. Unlike the large open fields and stadiums the Rolling Stones would play, punk clubs would be small and jammed packed, with the band often blending into the crowd.

The care free mentality of punk spread quickly across the three nations with heavyweight representatives from each one:

As the punk movement  was occurring, it wasn’t a big deal, it was a temporary deviation, a niche thing that indulged weirdos and misfits that were dismissed as.. well… punks! At the time many people thought it was just a phase and that it would soon vanish as quickly as it arose, but we’re still talking about punk today, and not just in a musical sense. It became more than just a form of music it became a way of thinking and acting and creating that still has an impact on music, film, visual art, literature and politics, and it’s why the entire ethos behind punk can still be found virtually everywhere we look in society today.