Expert: Caleb - 3/23/2007

Question
How has punk had an overall effect on Society and Politics?

Answer
Hmmm, well it hasn't really effected politics as much as it has reflected it, though it has probably got more young people into politics, just like music did in the 60s also.  It has made anarchism more cool, but a lot of punk fans seem to offer token support to the anarchist cause while not really understanding the actual politics of it.

Society - hard to say.  I guess it harnessed teenage rebellion and made the whole punk dress thing cool for a while.  The thing is, rock has always been about getting on stage, working your mojo and making a shitload of noise and playing music that your parents hate.  Punk wasn't anything new there, it was just louder and harder than most of what had come before.  Punk was more a return to the basics of rock, and loud bands like the Velvet Underground, Stooges, MC5 etc, than it was a new movement.  It rebirthed rock after the 70s had killed it.

Punk probably contributed to, or at least gave a voice to, generation gaps between young people and the middle-aged, but that happened anyway with songs like the Who's "My Generation", which came out in 1965.

Is that a satisfactory answer?  What do you think?