What Makes Punk, Punk?

Rebellious, wears leather jackets and spiked cuffs, loves guitars and drums in angry music, and has a mohawk or buzzcut. These are characteristics commonly associated with punks and punk culture largely thanks to the common depiction of a punk in popular media. However, you too can be punk! Anyone can be punk if they wanted to, and it doesn’t require adopting the stereotypical traits I listed earlier. In fact, in the 1960s, what some call the “proto-punks” never would’ve identified with those behaviors, or even as punks at all. The fact of the matter is, the punk movement was sparked by the dissatisfaction of ordinary working-class citizens in an industrializing capitalist society that rampantly encouraged obedient workers and nuclear families. Not everyone wanted to work a 9-5 for the rest of their life, so many looked for ways to express themselves outside of the image society expected them to be in; it was their contributions to punk that they were posthumously awarded the label for. So if that’s the case, what makes punk, punk? If not all punks are like in the movies, what identifying features tie punks together? There are many ways to identify what makes punk, punk, but here I’ll be arguing what makes a punk a punk at their core. In other words, the most important identifiers.