INTRODUCTION
By realizing it or not, punk subculture has long been in existence in Malaysia
as early as in the 1970's. This coincided with the punk explosion itself that
had happened in England (and not to exclude the one in the United State of
America) during the same era. At first, it was only about music and everything
else that came along with it. This includes the in-your-face attitude,
rebellion, some post-hippie idealism and anti-society fashion statement.
When punk rock bands made their appearance in the UK and USA music scene, they
had also been accepted here. Records of bands like the legendary Sex Pistols,
The Clash, The Jam, The Buzzcocks, The Damned and The Police had continuously
been played on every youngsters record player and stereo set. Tunes of the
classics; Anarchy in the UK, God Save the Queen, White Riot, What Do I Get, New
Rose and Message In A Bottle can never be forget as they had been sang with a
new kind of spirit, alternatives to the other kind of static popular music of
the 70's. Soul, disco, adult-oriented-rock (AOR); the kids just want to listen
to something else. So, what Danny Kelly (1996) has stated is true, 'punk sprang
fully formed from nothing more than the desire of youth for fast, engaging music
and the sheer blinding inspiration of musicians'.
From the late 70's till the new millennium, punk has gone through a tremendous
culture build-up. Many sorts of things have penetrated into the punk movement
worldwide. The good things and the bad one too. Much arguments and conflicts
have circulated in and out of the scene. Whether been resolved or still keep
being debated, they have acted upon the punk society and the outside-society
where they live.
So, the sole existence of punk cannot be discarded. Whether it accidentally
happens or not, that is not really the case here. As what is important to notice
is that it has formed a new subculture in the normal complex society. Like any
other culture, punks have their own set of values, beliefs and customary
behavior. It is important to study their way of thinking, way of living or just
way of doing things. And not to forget also about their roles in the society and
any conflicts that has arisen. As the study is being done in the context of
Cultural Anthropology so it is not really about whats positive and whats
negative. Just acceptation is what it all about. Our studies of concerns are in
the context of Malaysia but still stick to the parallelism of punks all around
the world especially the one in UK and USA where the whole shebang has started.
So it is important to set aside first all negative perception about this
subculture as punk has been assumed to be associated more with the bad things by
the mainstream publics. This is true especially when it comes to the moral
matter. Most people have taken one-side judgments regarding to this. Punk has
been concluded as a demoralizing culture and even sometimes it has turned out as
a mere joke to be laugh at. Therefore it is important that this research is
done. It is about to open the eyes of everyone about the real situation. What
actually punk is all about? Is it just another case of social ill like the other
infamous Bohsia and Bohjan, wild young Malay sex party and apostasy? The answers
lie within the texts that follow later on.
HISTORY BACKGROUND OF PUNK IN MALAYSIA
In an on-air interview with WOWFM radio station, somewhere around August or
September 2000, local punk guru and former The Sun columnist Joe Kidd opined
that punk first came to Malaysia in 1978. It started in the East Coast states of
Terengganu and Kelantan. It was getting big in 1980.
Joe Kidd, originated from Terengganu himself, is a well known in the local punk
scene and the underground music arena as a whole. Now, in his mid-thirties, he
is a member of a seminally important and quite legendary punk rock band,
Carburetor Dung. He is also in the side project band, The Shitworker and other
bands, which, in his own words, come and go according to situations. The old
punkster runs Alternative Garage Entertainment, one of the few active local
underground labels. It has a couple of releases of bands such as the Japan-based
grindcore band, Damage Digital and the UK melodic punk/hardcore band, Annalise
besides Carburetor Dungs own record.
As a teenager during the nascent years of Malaysias punk scene, Joe Kidd was
initially attracted to the fashion sported by such seminal icons as the Sex
Pistols emblazoned across the English magazines his brother brought back from
his west coast boarding school (Ismail, Z. Et al. 2000). It is also believed
that the same kind of attraction had appealed to the other earliest punkers.
Those punk images just couldnt be blinded off from their eyes.
There is another theory that links to the experiences of local kids that went to
study in colleges and universities in UK and USA. By chances, they had observed
the evolution of punk at the right place where it had all started. This is the
exactly thing that had been experienced by Kamil Othman, ex-DJ of Time Highway
Radios former Alternative Rock Show, in the 70's somewhere in England. It was so
happened that he had attended the 1976's 100 Club Punk Festival in London. He
remembered of seeing Siouxsie of Siouxsie and The Banshees at the gig. The
sights; the dressings and the attitudes, of her and the other crowds were so
amazingly shocking him and his fellow Malaysian students. 'We have never seen
such things before', he told. But they didnt really bring this newly discovered
culture baggage when they got back home. It is just another culture shock that
they had been experiencing. Whether they had enjoyed it or not, one thing for
sure Kamil had latter on contributed something to the local scene. But lets hold
that for a while. What about the other Malaysians who also studied and lived for
a while under the Union Jack or in the State? At least maybe a few numbers of
them had brought something punky across the border no matter in term of punk
idea or just its plain attitude. It might be the case as no real evidence to
proof this.
There is clear evidence showing the influences of punk culture to Malaysian
audience. In the 35th edition of ROTTW, the Malaysias first music magazine, its
editor Raja Iskandar Bin Raja Halid has admitted about his brother involvement
with punk. He said, his brother has become a Mat Punk in the 70's while still in
the 16-17 years of age. His teenage attitude is clearly a punk and he lived with
it. But one thing that is astoundingly to notice is about his success in getting
a university degree later on in his life. At the moment he is working somewhere
in New Zealand (Raja Halid, R.I., 1999). This story somehow has become quite an
inspiration to some readers of the magazine by acknowledging few replies to the
editorial that followed the later edition of the magazine.
The story shows that a punk devotee can become useful too and acts as a source
of inspiration to other people especially the punk wannabe.
Now lets get back to the 80's scene. The early 80's scene here however has never
really transcended the trendiness of a small group of enthusiasts. Ex-punk
rocker Flopster hazards a guess that only one in a thousand underground fans
would have listened to punk rock back then (Ismail, Z. Et al. 2000).
Furthermore, the scene went quiet by the mid-80's due to the rising popularity
of thrash metal within the underground music scene, but punk never died.
Before the discussion goes further, it must be known that actually the mid-80's
is more concern with the emergence of Malaysian underground music as a whole.
This includes all the early Thrash/Death Metal and punk bands such as Rator
(This legendary death metal band played in the vein of early Celtic Frost with
dark lyrics), Blackfire, Punisher , Nemesis , Betrayer, Picagari, Mallaria, and
Hijrah etc. The latter, an East Coast band is now popularly known as the
Pilgrims. They were the first ever punk band to record a demo in 1990, called
Pilgrimage to Nowhere and also the first one to release an album Perfume Garden
in 1993. This album was pretty well received and played a part in kick-starting
punk once again (Ismail, Z. Et al. 2000). Other band in the East Coast (Terengganu,
to be precise) punk scene then was Mallaria, fronted by the influential Ku Yee.
However the most other underground bands had split-up without leaving any
musical legacy except for some badly recorded demo tapes. The most surprising
and most memorable one is Evil Symphony a demo released by Rator (Mohamed Salleh,
S. 1996). Lately the underground music scene has growing bigger while getting
better and moving stronger than in the old days. It does not only involve punk
bands but other themes like New School Hardcore, Modern Grunge, Metal, Indie,
Electronica and Nu-Metal. Many new bands have come out of the closet and reveal
themselves to the underground masses. Some have even made it to the overground
and join the mainstream. But were not going really into detail on the whole
underground thing, as we want to focus only on the sub-portion of it, the punk
side. Still the interrelation of it must not be denied as they have inspired
each other. The important thing is punk like most of other extreme music started
from the underground scene.
It is nothing wrong to say that punk now has been evolving greatly. In the eyes
of some people they have yet to notice it. For those who have been long enough
in the scene and follow it thoroughly they can surely tell. This also true to
the one whom has made deep observation to the scenario. They know whos who and
what has happened and what is still going around.
WHO AND WHERE ARE THEY
These are two big questions arise from the scene outsiders who want to know more
about them. Well, those punks can be as young as primary school kids and as old
as 40 years old and above. But most of them are still in their teenagers and
those below 40 . Many youngsters started to commit to punk culture when they
have just finish with their schooling as they have gained new kind of freedom.
With no more school they can do whatever they want. However, learning is still a
process to go. This time in the shape of new culture the wild, exciting,
young-angst rebellion of punk. Whether they further their study in colleges and
university, got hold to a job or just loitering around wasting their parents
money, it cant stop them from pledging alliances to the punk community.
Some who's lucky enough, even got to know about punk while still in elementary
level of education. They by chance got the opportunity when their big brother
brings them along to gigs. During the past few years till recently we can easily
notice small kids with clean cute face and nice combed-hair within the vicinity
of many underground gigs. And yes, they are sure looked punk enough in
embarrassment of the other older attendees who are not quite punky.
Therefore punks can be just about anyone. High school students, undergraduates,
sales persons, eatery place workers, engineers; these punks are everywhere. Punk
must not be from big cities like Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Ipoh and
Alor Setar, they can also originated from other ordinary places (and also remote
areas and far-away villages) like Jelebu, Kangar, Teluk Intan, Trolak, Pasir Mas,
Sg. Petani or even Labuan. They can always be seen in any underground gigs
especially punk related shows. In Kuala Lumpur and its neighborhood Selangor,
places like Damansara's Piccadilly Discotheque and The Pyramid Club, Life
Center, etc. are classic places where underground punk gigs always being held.
But that are in the past as most of these places have been closed down or not
active in organizing underground gigs anymore. Newer places have taken over
their roles. Today most gigs are been held at the Artist Club (ex-Carlos), the
Actor Studio (more of a theater place actually), the new and grand MCities at KL
Plaza, and other small pubs and discotheque around the city. Besides that punks
are known to hang out and lepak at the Central Market (CM) , Pertama and
Campbell Complex, Medan MARA food court and Kotaraya Complex in Kuala Lumpur.
Males are more into the punk culture than females. This can be understandable,
as the punk culture itself doesn't deal with soft agendas but rather harsh, wild
and aggressive belief, style and way of doing things. However the number of punk
girls has increased. Some even to the extent have formed their own minor
girl-riot (girl power?) movement. But still there are not many of them involve
with any band and if they do usually as the singer and not any of the
instruments players.
DEFINITION OF PUNK
If you went by the basic definition of punk in most English dictionary such as
the one in the Collins Gem (1988), its meaning are inferior, rotten, worthless
(person or thing) and petty (hoodlum). It is ironic somehow that the punk idol,
John Lyndon the front-person of Sex Pistol, had been christened John Rotten,
after his catchphrase, 'You're rotten, you are' by his band mate Steve Jones (Aizlewood,
J. Et al. 1996). Are these the real meaning of punk in our context of
discussion? In this same dictionary, the last definition of it is a style of
rock music. But punk is not about music per se. Has this dictionary miss some
other things that worth to be defined too?
According to Joe Kidd, his definition of punk has always been changing in
accordance to his maturity. When he was a 13-year old kid deeply enthralled by
pictures of Johnny Rotten and The Ramones, punk was a crude, shocking and
revolutionary fashion parade with raw, unschooled and deeply honest (highly
exciting!) music in tow (Kidd, J. 1999). Later on he recognized the spirit of
change, independence, creativity and also the political side to it as he step
further and started to venture out of the usual punk trappings and discovered
other things that are punk as well. So his perception of punk has become widen.
But basically he stressed out that:
Anybody or any group of people who sincerely push boundaries, create challenging
bodies of work with integrity and thought, is considered by me as punk,
especially when the expression positively reaffirms individual freedom and
allows for the betterment of the world we live in. Thats my conclusion. Thats
punk.
Through what he has stated above, that has been featured in a written interview
column in a local punk fanzine, Callus (1999), punk can take a bigger definition
than anyone can ever understand. Punk can go across the boundary of music. Punk
takes part in other side of life too. In fact, punk helps to shape life itself.
Punk is an alternative way of living that can change certain aspect of life of
some individual or group of people if not for the whole society.
This is also coincided with what Weng had said in the same publication and also
in his own newsletter Hickey on Your Brain #4. He is another punk activist who
used to help running a Kuantans underground label called Dull Entertainment
Programme. As for him, punk has always been about doing the right things and
doing things right, being in conflict with the mainstream ideas/values that have
been dictated to us to be followed blindly. Its about sticking up for our rights
as a free and individual human being while being ethical at the same time using
punk rationale and common sense. To him personally, its about taking control of
our life. He has seriously stated that, Punk, you either get it or dont...its
not just music and its not for everybody!
WAY OF LIVING
THE DO IT YOURSELF (DIY) ETHICS
The Do It Yourself or simply DIY ethics is an important component of local punk
scene and in the globalize punk scene as well. It can be traced back as early as
in the 70's. At first it hailed out through fashion. The guy who was responsible
for this is non -other than Malcolm McLaren , a Fine Arts graduate and clothing
retailer. This is the same person who helped to form Sex Pistol. He had
introduced anti-fashion statements for the band members including bondage
clothing, safety pins through the skin and short, spiked, dyed hair. Most of
these new kind of fashion at that time were simple and easy to make. No wonder
that the new fashion craze had been caught up by those young punk-wannabes in a
short time. They just simply trashed out their already available apparel and
turned it out as a new one. This was where creativity and innovative came in.
Not to forget also the term anti-mainstream. And so against the mainstream it
was that the whole society had looked upon it as something out of norm, novel
and kind of nihilistic. But lets put aside about fashion and anti-mainstream for
a while, as we will touch more on them in other sub-topic of discussion later
on. Lets hear what the punk has to say about DIY.
As what (Ismail, Z. Et al. 2000) has put it, the most positive aspect of punks
influence in the local underground during the 80's was probably the
self-determining spirit of DIY. Weng thinks that DIY is basically a punk ideal
about having control of what you do and taking control of your life in general
by refusing to be a part of the mainstream business system and in our little
underground world, releasing and distributing stuff on our own. What he means by
having control in what we do is more related to things like doing our own
records, spread our own ideas by making our own literature stuff and organize
gigs or other shows and events by ourselves without or with less help from
outsiders especially those business -minded person.
In Weng own experienced of releasing punk related stuff, he and his companies
finance, record, produce and market the stuff on their own effort without
relying on backings from corporations or record companies. Therefore through DIY
way they have complete control on their releases especially the price part. They
can keep the price fair and lower than those normal prices at shop. Usually the
price of underground/punk DIY records is as low as RM3 and not exceeding RM10
for cassette releases, and for the compact disc format, it just a little higher
than the cassette one. For example, DEP labels own third releases are Enslaved
Chaos self-titled tape that is sold for RM6 and the price can be less than that.
This price is possible, as elimination has been done to the hierarchy of a
normal mainstream business system of middlemen and distributors and shops where
at every step on the ladder of hierarchy, there is a definite price mark up (Weng,
p40-42, 1999).
As Joe Kidd put it, DIY is a method used to circumvent the evils and pitfalls of
commerce. This is true as punks nowadays are really against the idea of
capitalism. DIY is anti-capitalism. So it is the solution to this problem. DIY
gives producers of expression (bands, writer, artists etc.) total control over
his/her ideas or products. Through DIY he/she will be able to be creatively free
with his/her ideas and more importantly, to control the way his/her creations
are being distributed to the masses.
This is in reaction to the normal (mostly and usually unfair) business practice
of dictating bands, writer, artists or other creative people to dilute, tweak or
tailor their products toward a certain standard (their standard) which will not
only ensure their profitability but also make it appealing to the largest market
possible. This kind of practice forces the creations/expressions to be safe,
unchallenging, conservative and trapped inside established lines. In short, your
band is going to be more than boring, youre fucked! (Kidd, 1999).
Joe Kidd has further on stated about the unfairness of the usual recording deal
is one of the other reasons why the DIY ethics is important in the punk scene.
As what we all generally know, normal business practices main concerned is
making profit. And usually a huge chunk of the profit made is taken out of the
bands, artists etc. share- meaning unfair division of the profit been made. This
problem is still a major concern in the music industry worldwide and keeps being
debated. But still someone will say that there is nothing wrong with it as it is
a common thing in the music industry. The record company has the money and
capital to invest for someones music product. Is it what capitalism all about?
Again, as it is about unfairness, that is why punks are against it and they
resolve the problem through DIY.
This battle between DIY and capitalism of ordinary business can be clearly seen
through a real example. Usually many underground and alternative bands that
signed with VSP are given RM1 for each cassette sold. Lets say VSP sold the tape
to the record shops at RM10 per cassette and the cost of producing one cassette
is RM3. That means, VSP has made a clean profit of RM6 out of the whole shebang!
The company gets RM6 and the band RM1. According to the punks, they do not get a
fair share. But there is other way to handle this.
If a band decides to record, produce and duplicate their products on its own (DIY)
and give the distribution rights to VSP meaning the band gives VSP finished
product (tapes all sealed up and ready for sale) VSP will usually give the band
RM5 per copy of ready-made cassette. VSP then sells it to the record shops at
the price of RM10, thus making a clean profit of RM5. The band then has to pay
for duplication, covers etc. which cost, lets say RM2 each. This means that the
band has made a profit of RM3 per cassette.
This is way better than signing to VSP and getting RM1. The band is able to
control its creativity and gets a fairer deal for their toil, but the band still
cant control the price at the shops. Usually shops sell the tape at around RM13,
making a profit of RM3. This doesnt mean that the band is less DIY, they still
did it all on their own, they stuck to their principle but they lose out on how
much the product is going to be sold for at the end of the process.
So, the best way to deal with it is to go at it totally DIY right from the point
of writing the songs to the other end of the line where a consumer is holding
and enjoying the bands product. This where local punk band such as The Bollocks
has been admired and hailed as hero. They have been selling their tapes at RM3
by hand and RM4 by mail or DEP who sells their tapes at low price such as RM5.
By working with DIY distros , they cut out on the involvement of middlemen; the
culprits who make the products become expensive.
But this doesnt ensure how the product is going to be sold at the end of the
line anyway. It has been a big issue recently in the underground circle where
the piratisation also came in. The Bollocks own recording has been wickedly
pirated and been sold as high as RM9 in the shops. The same kind of thing also
happens to another band, ACAB. These things happen, albeit in a smaller scale
than that VSP/DIY band example.
Still Joe Kidd has another way in handling this kind of situation. He suggested:
I think the best way to go about it is to have your products distributed by both
DIY distros and normal distributors. The area covered by distros such as ASAS,
DEP and such is mainly in and around the scene. People in the scene will find it
relatively easy to obtain the products but what about those who dont go through
the gigs or read zines or order stuff through the mail? Are they automatically
excluded here?
Furthermore, With that in mind, we must make these DIY recordings or products
widely available or at least widely known, but we must do it in such away that
doesnt compromise too much of the control we have over it. Thats where the
method used by Dischord Records and so many other respectable/reliable labels
comes in.
However, by selling punk stuff cheap and in the ethics of DIY, it doesnt mean
that the quality has to be sacrificed. Weng thought that the best way is to
release something as good as we can within our own budget. However Weng still
strictly stressed on quality product:
All people who play in bands want their releases to be of good sound quality.
But can we afford it? Releasing something is always better than nothing but we
must try not to get people to equate DIY releases with poor quality so that DIY
releases will earn their much-needed credibility even comparable to mainstream
prices but of cheaper price. In this case, the message (of punk/hardcore) will
truly get across. People will see through it by making comparison of the prices
and everything will be more crystal clear.
PUNK AND ITS LITERATURE
Punk as a subculture for the chosen young generation also lives on with its own
kind of books and writings. As punk is about making statement, therefore the
existence of literatures is important in this subculture. Punks literatures,
usually in the form of fanzine and newsletter act as a media to deliver ideas
and messages about things in and out of the scene. It works as a tool to spread
the ethics by providing information and discussing the philosophy of punk
culture.
The existence of these literatures came along with the arrival of the punk
culture itself especially in the late 80's and early 90's. One of the first ever
punk fanzine is Aedes. It was written and self-published by the punk guru itself
Joe Kidd, back in the early 1987 till 1994. Aedes had also brought itself the
effort to documented music by early underground bands through 1994 self-produced
compilation tape featuring many influential underground bands. Another worthy to
be mentioning fanzine is Vortex From The East. This is a bilingual
(English/Malay) fanzine done by an old-timer in the underground scene, known as
Ajizz. Vortex From The East is also the longest running fanzine in Malaysia.
However this zine is more involved with the whole activity of the underground
scene and not focusing solely on the punk agenda. It is a multi-genre style zine
but mainly covers the metal side.
Till today there are too many zines that have been written by many individuals
or party of people from various corners of Malaysia. This also surprisingly
includes those that are from remote places and never-been-heard villages. The
scenario shows that punk-related ideologies have penetrated deep into the heart
of many persons throughout the country. It is easier actually to track down the
spread of punk culture to local young individuals through the existence of zines.
Kluang, Clang, Mentakab, Taiping, Tronoh, Kuala Pilah, Kemaman, you name it,
punk has arrived to just anywhere and everywhere. Not forgetting also those
universities like USM, UM, UTM, UKM, UPM etc. Somehow without we ever realized
it, our next neighbor had spread his/her written messages to all around the
world through his/her own copies of zine.
Actually, there are two forms of literature that dominants in our country. They
are fanzine or zine and newsletter. Fanzine has more pages compare to
newsletter. It can be less than 20 pages or as many as nearly 100 pages or more.
While newsletter usually has 1 to a little more than 10 pages. They can be in
various format of presentation. In term of size, most of them are either in
full-size or half-size of A4 paper format. They can be amateurishly photocopied
or professionally offset-printed. The Raincity fanzine from Taiping, Perak is
the first Malaysian zine in newsprint paper. And what is more impressive about
it is that it has been done by a group of young punk kids who are still in their
teens and had just finished school. This same format has later on been followed
by another new zine, Callus. It is more of collective sort of effort as it
involves various people in the scene. These people form Callus Collective and
base in Batu Caves, Selangor.
Other publications include Embrace (Kluang), Pangcore (Skudai), Chaos PS (USM,
Minden), Broken Foundation (UKM, Bangi), Ganyang Resistance (Parit), Cronically
Donut (JB), Buddy Holly (Kuching), Solidaritas (Tronoh) and Periodical Dissonant
(PJ). As for newsletter, there are Network and Subnetwork (KL), Quandary (KL),
Voice From The Mind, In The Name Of Love and another Joe Kidds own personal
side-project, the highly-irregular newsletter cum statement, Communion. There
are many other zines and newsletters that have made their existence to the scene
that are not mentioned here. Some of them have been published till a number of
editions and then vanished. Some have managed to carry on with their work and
still active till today. Theyre usually the high-spirited one and consider punk
culture as basis for something they fight for.
What about the standard and quality of all these fanzines and newsletters? As
all of them are done amateurishly and DIY, we can expect the worse and still be
amaze at the same time. The quality can vary. Some of them are badly published
and not even nice to look at. With all that sad written sentences, bad English
and even to the extent of adding everythings up rojak style. Nevertheless there
are still that have been done with an excellent performance of writings and at a
standard command of language. These include Wengs Hickey On Your Brain and Joe
Kidds own Communion. However it all depends on the standard of education that
has been gone through and how it is being practiced. But above all, the things
that must be stressed out are the message and the information regarding the
scene and everything that surrounds it. In simple words, it is not for syok
sendiri. It is just not for the sake of fun of doing it. It is for other people
to enjoy and at the same time get the message and knowledge attached to the
literature. These literatures are for other people in the scene and outside the
scene to know better about punk culture and the real thing that is going on
around the world.
PUNKS CODE OF FASHION AND STYLE
We have touched a little bit on the punk theme of fashion before under other
topics. Here is the more detail of it. Punk is discovered by many young people
in this country through fashion alongside the music itself. So it can be said
that punk is very much easier to notice through fashion. If we stroll off along
the street in the busy city for our usual hang out or shopping treat, by chance
of luck we can easily happen to come across the punks. The first thing that
strokes our eyes is their appearance. And sure enough they're somehow different
from the normal people. Most of us then will keep our eyebrow high and act with
disguise towards them. This is the common thing that happens in Malaysia.
We must not forget the role that has been played by one of the punk creator,
Malcolm McLaren. He is an important person because he had helped to create the
punk culture at the first place through fashion. When he introduced the
ever-popular anti-fashion statements for the Sex Pistols, the bands followers in
the UK and all around the world have also caught the same phenomenon. The same
situation is also applied to the Malaysian punk audiences. They employ the same
style of fashion. They also want to wear the bondage clothing and torn out
T-shirt, jacket and jeans, insert safety pins through their skin and made their
hair short, spiked and dyed. What made these kind of thing more interesting is
the fact that it can be done DIY-ly without going to the hairdressing saloon or
spend so much money on designer-label branded clothing items so punk now can be
equate to affordable and inexpensive subculture. Other style and code of dress
that are the in things are Mohawk hair, almost bold hair, Doc Martens boots,
leather jacket, spikes, studs, body-piercing, propaganda T-shirts, Converse
shoes and cargo pants. One thing that is quite fascinating to notice about punk
fashion is actually they are not like any other kind of mainstream fashions.
What does it mean here, it is not about following the latest trend. It does not
wear out with time. It is still applicable through many generations and years
the 70's, 80's, 90's and now the new millennium. What those Sex Pistols
followers wore in the 70s, punksters now are still wearing it. And yet new
things keep coming up and been added to the current style of dressing. Lately,
dreadlocks hairstyle and the wearing of wallet-chains have becoming hot items.
It must be made clear that all punk styling that have been elucidated above
applied to the punk rockers generally. As punk culture consists of many themes
where they are associated with somehow different type of punk music, they also
wear quite different style of dressings. The Anarchopunk wear black cargo pants,
T-shirt with slogans or logos of bands, patches, khaki backpacks, dreadlocks or
spiky hair. While the Hardcore kids are spotted with cargo pants, loose denims
and T-shirts, wallet-chains and baseball caps among other things. As for the
skinheads, they are synonym with bald or shaven heads, tight jeans rolled up
above the ankle, suspenders, berets, denim and suede jacket, Fred Perry shirts
and Doc Martens. The skinheads are more fashionable, smart-dressed and sometimes
dont really show that harmful looks.
MUSIC AND THE MEDIA
Music is the important thing in punk culture as it is where it all started. Punk
is rooted from Rock genre. Actually, punk music has not been created by the Sex
Pistols as what many people have assumed. Punk sound has been derived from the
music of garage bands of the late 60's with bands such as the artistic and
experimental Velvet Underground, New York Dolls and the very acclaimed Iggy Pop
and the Stooges. Their music has been termed as proto-punk. It means the early
projected sound of punk before the real punk culture itself existed. So,
musically punk came from the United States of America.
Then, in the early 70's, The Ramones from New York has made their appearance for
the first time. This is an important band as it has introduced the simple
3-chord melodic music termed as bubblegum punk music. At this same period of
time, UK was more associated with Glam-rock. It is a soft side of punk and its
predecessor, Rock n Roll. It is popularly concern with man that wears make up
and a little bit of woman clothing. The Glam-rock followers will try to dress as
glamorously as possible hence where the term came about. The Glam-rock era has
clearly been pictured in the film by Todd Haynes, Velvet Goldmine. The film who
has been starred by Ewan McGregor among others, is a valentine to the sounds and
images that erupted in and around London in the early 1970's: to Brian Ferry,
David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and the extraordinary inversions they imposed on
our notions of the performance, sexuality and identity. The film shows some of
the elements that help to the emergence of punk later on.
But not until the mid-70's that punk has became a music genre of its own. In
both major countries, the USA and UK, young and new bands had started to
establish their own style of music and wanted to get away than the mainstream
music wave like hard rock. They want to give priority to their own taste and
passion of music.
In the UK, the Sex Pistols has been labeled as the first punk band. Even though
the Sex Pistols and The Ramones have different agenda and sound, they have
revolutionized music in their own country. The Ramones music is faster more to
the bubblegum music as what has been said before. While the Sex Pistols play
Faces riff boisterously with more rough sound and noisy.
In America, punk stay as an underground music movement, and they try to explore
Hardcore music and indie-rock in the 80s. But in the UK, punk has become a major
music trend. There, Sex Pistols has been pictured as a band that gave threat to
the government and monarchy, but what for sure, this band has led way for other
new bands to emerge. Some of the bands tried to imitate the Sex Pistols, but
there were many others who had succeeded in establishing their own sound like
Buzzcocks near-pop music, reggae and rock influenced of The Clash and
experimental music of Joy Division.
Than punk music has been converged into sub-genres like post-punk (more
experimental and artistic), new wave (more into pop music) and Hardcore who made
punk music harder in sound with strong lyrics. Through the 80's decade, punk has
active been played in the Hardcore music arena in the USA and UK. In the early
90's, new era punk bands, headed by Green Day and Rancid emerged from the
underground music wave of America and get signed to the major label.
In Malaysia, punk music first gets through to the youngsters through records
playing and on the stereo set. As the record and tapes of overseas punk acts are
very rare and hard to find locally, those early punks always trade amongst them.
They are lucky enough if they are in the same school and have the same taste in
punk music. But, that is not always the case. For Joe Kidd, he remembers in the
old days where he had a strong continuously friendship with his pen pal, Abazz
of Taipings Karatz:
Me and Abazz were writing to each other back in 1979! Fucking 20 years ago! He
was living in Penang then and we always traded tapes, pictures, cuttings and
zines. When he moved to Kuantan in the early 80s we always hangout with each
other as I was studying there. And when he went to Taiping in 1985/86 I visited
him once, hanging out at his house and watching Suburbia and Ruth! A Music War
videos (Zahid, 1999).
So, during those early pears, there was no band, they were just trading the
noise among them (Bollok Wok cover notes, 2000). Joe Kidd says, Punk rock was a
worldwide phenomenon back then. For a bunch of kids living in Terengganu, it was
like being touched by the hand of enlightenment (Ismail, Z. Et al. 2000). In the
same interview in TONE magazine, he had added, Musically, it was raw, fast,
quirky, intelligent and by far a lot more potent, dangerous and alive than the
whole content of all TONE magazines combined.
During the era of rising popularity of the underground scene in the mid-80's,
most of the punk bands that existed at that time play quite the same kind of
punk rock music. Many of the tunes have energy and strength that replicate the
one of the Sex Pistols. As passion for the music is above everything, musical
talent is not something that is very important. As long as you knew three
chords, you were a guitarist. Talent was optional ((Ismail, Z. Et al. 2000). But
they keep on improving themselves with frequent jamming sessions and started to
perform in small underground gigs. It was fun no fights, no animosity; just a
bunch of kids having a lot of fun thrashing out their own brand of music,
reminisced Joe Kidd in his column Blasting Concept in The Sun (October 1994).
Therefore, the first sub-genre of punk music that has been played by local punk
band is Punk Rock (sometimes it is spelled Rawk) itself. Besides the legendary
Carburetor Dung, Hijrah and The Pilgrims other bands that play this kind of
music are The Splatters, Karatz, DEP, Tayar Soton, The Bollocks, etc. They play
fast and straight-ahead version of 3-chord music. Sometime, the tunes are catchy
and melodic. They employ meaningful and no metaphor lyrics to their songs. The
song can be about almost anything; abortion, politics, friendships, racism,
sexism, having fun, environmental issues and the list goes on.
Their influences include western bands like the Sex Pistols (always the numero
uno of any punk related list of preferences), The Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Bad
Religion, NOFX, The Damned, The Clash and The Adverts. Even the 90's
grunge-superhero, Seattles Nirvana, has been credited for bringing the sound and
spirits of late 70's punk rock to the mainstream pop audience. Smells Like Teen
Spirit has become the anthem for young people alienated by baby boomers Michael
Jackson and Madonna. The band consisted of three hippies and punk rockers
wannabe fronted by the late Kurt Cobain who committed suicide in 1994, Dave
Grohl (who now the front person of Foo Fighters) and Chris Novoselic (who later
formed Sweet 75 after Nirvana was disbanded).
There are also bands that play a simpler, sing-along kind of punk tunes. Most of
the tracks they play and record are catchy and easy to remember. Their style of
music is termed as street music as it is popular to the kids that always hang
out on the street. The music is also kind of popish, hence the term pop punk
also applied. If the band members hail and very much involve with skateboard
activities, they can be known as skate punk. Musically, their hero is more of
The Ramones other than the Sex Pistols. Not forgetting also the more recent
bands especially the Americans act like Green Day, No Doubt, and Blink 182. They
are of more from the mainstream arena and being signed to the major labels. But
still the music has meaningful lyrics of varied subjects. The most important
local punk band that is well known with this style of punk music is the
legendary Subculture. The band is still active till today even though they have
successfully been employed to other real and permanent job. But the band has not
be getting very much support from the local undergrounders lately due to their
involvement with the more mainstream crowd. Their songs also always being played
on the local radio station as the songs are radio-friendly enough to penetrate
the ears of major listeners. Other local bands in this category, which are worth
to notice, are Head cleaner and H.A.S from Ipoh and the going-to-be-big Spunky
Funggy from Kuala Lumpur.
Then, there are bands that instead of keeping true to traditional 3-chord punk
search within contemporary and historical references, from pre-punk band Velvet
Underground to Can and Beefheart (Ismail, Z. Et al. 2000). Those bands such as
The Pilgrims, Naked Butterfly, and Shitworkers (Joe Kidds indie-punk side
project) are attached to Post-punk. It is the 90s punk revivalism with a
heavier, more metal-like sound than the original punk. The three bands mention
are seasoned punk rockers and not new to the scene. They try to create
challenging cerebral music; experimental, bleak, abrasive and serious at the
same time.
The very good example is The Pilgrims. Earlier it has been explained that this
band plays punk rock just like Carburetor Dung and the Splatters. Before they
change their name to The Pilgrims due to the breaking up of Hijrah they have
been playing Sex Pistols-fueled music. Then when they signed to Pony canyon, a
major label who keens to engage local rock acts, The Pilgrims has been known as
a humor punk-combo who play variety of punk rock music, from the usual
sing-along tunes to the fast hardcore songs and also some surf numbers courtesy
of their surf-crazy guitarist, Combat. When they started to perform Hindustani
cover song they have become much more popular even though this was not intended.
In an interview with R.O.T.T.W (Seir and Herman, 1998), they had expressed the
feeling of sorry for including Churaliya/Deko Abto in the Pony Canyons 1996 Da
Capo album as it has made the album sold like hot chocolate.
From the word Da Capo itself shows how The Pilgrims started wanting to change
their music direction. That particular album signifies how the band wants to
start something new and fresh due to the splitting of its original group
members. The coming in of its new front man, Bob has given new light and shed
new ideas to the band. The Post-punk sound becomes stronger in their next albums
like The Wiser Fisherman and the latest one Achtung! This is not a metal album!.
The later has been criticized by many due to its complete near-metal sound and
losing its punk touch. But the band doesnt really care about that and believe in
what they are doing.
The next punk theme is Hardcore (HC). This type of music is a derivation of
earlier punk music. It has been made popular by the early or old school western
punk bands such as Minor Threat, Youth Of Today, Rollins Band, Black Flag, Sick
Of It All and Warzone. Hardcore music is harder and more extreme than punk rock.
The elements of hard rock and metal have been added to make the music more
aggressive. The lyrics are very important in accordance with its hardcore sound.
They must deliver strong and meaningful messages.
The term old school is referring to the early bands they have their own sound in
distinction with the new school'. Some of the old school bands are the legendary
Chronic Mass, Basic Right, Disaster Funhouse, N.E.T (Never Ending Threat) and 24
Reasons. However only Disaster Funhouse has the real old school sound resembling
those of Minor Threat and such. The others represent variety of Hardcore
sub-genres such as raging and brutal HC, progressive-experimental HC, rapcore,
Doom HC etc. As for the new school bands they are Tabaraka, Standstill, Self
Defense, Kharisma, Carbon 13 and FSF among others.
Skinhead punks music is Oi! And Ska. Oi! Is like crowd-friendly sing-along punk
tunes. There is also the more extreme Strength-thru Oi! with more aggressive and
sometime harsh style of singing. Oi! Influences come from Sham 69, Anti-pasti,
Oi Polloi, Cockney Rejects, UK Subs, Last Resort, The Oppressed, etc. Ska is
slower with similarities to reggae. In fact, it is believed that ska came first
before the appearance of reggae. Some of the ska heroes are Madness, Bad Manner,
and The Special. As for the local acts, there are ACAB (All Capitalists Are
Bastards), Oppression, The Official, The Maniacs, Boot Off!, Skin-Rovers,
Drinking Squad, The Opponent, Crewkutz and Individuous.
Anarchopunk has gained much attention recently. It is punk that adapted to
anarchism, which derived from Greek word an archos, meaning no government. The
sound is exactly like punk but the difference is in the political and social
themes in the lyrics. Anarchists like Crass, Conflict, Dis-bands, and Flux of
Pink Indians have influenced local anarchopunks such as Mass Separation,
Parkinson and Aghast. Many of the anarchopunk bands have thrash music elements
embroidered in their tracks so it makes it hard for the casual listener to grasp
what they are singing (or screaming?) about. That is why the usual supplement of
lyrics sheet is important to understand the messages of the songs.
The involvement of mass media even though not thoroughly, has in one way help to
promote and introduce punk music and the culture to the masses. But it is not in
the form of daily playing of songs on the radio or spinning of video clips on
television musical programme like any other pop stars. It is more in the form of
special radio show or television programme that dedicates to rock and
alternative music acts.
On Time Highway Radio (THR), there is one radio show called Alternative Rock
Show hosted by the superpower DJ Kamil Othman. The show has premiered the show
somewhere in the mid-90's and has been terminated few months ago. Since it first
started, it has gathered much cult and faith followers who will wait patiently
for the show to be aired at 10.00 p.m every Saturday night. The show only plays
and introduces rock related music and other alternative kind of songs not
usually air on radio. DJ Kamil Othman has dedicated himself to bring in many
local underground music to the music and introduce many segments that committed
to certain genre of music like metal, electronica, Malay rock, experimental
music and certainly punk music itself. Usually he will start with the classic
tunes and later on will be followed by newer acts with international and local
bands. He will also explain certain information like the history of the music
and relate it to other materials. Sometime he held some interview and discussion
sessions with local personalities like underground bands, musician and music
expertise, not to exclude Joe Kidd himself . DJ Kamil Othman has become an
important informants about the local scene and very much respected from the
crowd .
On television there is once a programme called Alternatif . It was produced by
TV3 and featured international and local so-called alternative music. This
30-minutes weekly programme first been aired around 1995. The show has taken
advantages of the local underground scene by introducing acts like Carburetor
Dung , The Pilgrims, Subculture, Spiral Kinetic Circus, OAG (Old Automatic
Garbage), The Beads and Apple Greens among others. It was first been hosted by
Lee of the Carburetor Dungs fame and later on, who else Joe Kidd. The show has
also introduced another host, Reza of Saturnine during its last seasons.
WAYS OF THINKING
CODES OF ETHICS
Like any other subculture, punk has its own specific codes of ethics. They are
usually derived and extracted from various ideals, politics and ethics currently
in vogue in the Western scene. The acceptance of punk ethics is varied, either
the music first than come the ethics or vice versa. As for Shahrail of the band
Nitty Gritty (early Kuantan underground band), I started by listening to
underground music, then came the ideas. I was hooked by the energy and I always
felt that we (myself and punk rock) had this mutual affection (Ismail, Z. Et
al.).
In discussing about these ethics, in the same publication, Ismail, Z. Et al.
continue to emphasize that; These are usually picked up from lyric sheets of
bands or opinions in DIY bedroom fanzines, an essential medium of communication
within the underground network. It has been explained before that most punk
songs have meaningful and full-of-message lyrics even though sometime it is hard
to understand what the songs all about (the inclusion of lyrics sheet is very
much important in that case). The songs and lyrics signify what they are
believed in and fight for. Many of them really serious with their ethics like
what they're singing and writing about. They will practice what they preach.
They will defend their belief in any debate and ready to argue about it anytime
and anywhere. However there are few guys who dont commit to their ideal culture.
Their actual behaviors are not in accordance with what they say they fight for.
Nevertheless, the most positive aspect of punks influence in the local
underground during the 80s and still applied till today was probably the
self-determining spirit of DIY. Punk activists like Joe Kidd and Weng will never
give up on the idea of DIY. It can be seen through what they do in everyday life
like what have been explained under Way Of Living topic. The quite lengthy
sub-topic of DIY can even goes forever, as there are still lots of articles on
DIY ethics in local and overseas punk fanzines.
PUNK INTRINSIC IDEOLOGIES
The most popular ideology that has been subscribed by some local punk is
Straight-edge with its famous acronym, SxE. It is more attractive and
significant to the Hardcore kids. Straight-edge is about healthy living and
positive lifestyle. That means they dont; smoke, take drugs, drink and practice
free sex. Even though it sounds almost impossible by other people, some of the
punk/hardcore devotees really practice it. But for sure no one is perfect. Some
will play truant and not commit fully to the idea (especially on the smoking
part!). Others will go back to practice their original lifestyle. The
straight-edge way of living can also contribute to veganism, which is commitment
to strict vegetarian. But the case is rare.
Lately, a quite new ideology has penetrated into the scene. The rather extreme
Anarchism has made its way to our shore. Outside literature like APF Anarcho
Punk Federations (USA) Counterculture has been distributed by local anarchists.
They (local anarchopunks like Jimbo of Parkinson and Broken Noise Record)) are
in the process of setting up anarchist group like ALF, ABC or ACF in Malaysian
society. Like what has been has explained before under Music and Its Media
anarchopunk worship anarchism, with the clue word itself anarchy, which derived
from Greek word an archos, meaning no government (However, we dont go very
detail with this issue, as it is still not fully understood by us). Anarchopunk
is famous with their slogans like Ignorant Is Bliss and Awareness Is A Crime.
According to Weng, Anarchism has always been part of punk, maybe not as a whole
but its the basis of the movement itself. Anarchism is an ideology and if you
want to set up anarchist groups you got to truly believe 100% in the ideology
itself in the first place and believe me, anarchism is not meant for everybody.
He responded that way because many kids who say that they are into anarchism but
in reality they are into it just for the sake of being cool and the word anarchy
itself is quite fancy to them. As for Joe Kidd, anybody can be an anarchist but
how true are they in that particular school of thought? Nowadays, its a
fashionable thing to be anarcho, especially here. And that is really sad. Its
funny too (Zahid, 1999).
CONCLUSION
To sum up everything, punk is a unique subculture that has been in existence in
Malaysia since the punk explosion itself that had happened in England and the
United State of America. It becomes more popular during 1980's and 1990's due to
the emergence of local underground music scene. Like any other culture, punks
have their own set of values, beliefs and customary behavior. Their way of
thinking, way of living and other way of doing things have been studied in many
range of subtopics. As a whole, it can be said that punk culture in this country
is not only about music as it covers other aspects of life as well.
In doing this particular research we have applied what we have learned in class
and also our non-formal learning through everyday life. Different and variety of
methods of data collection and analysis have been used to satisfy our
objectives. Some of the field techniques of ethnography have been applied. We
are lucky enough as one of our group members has been following the underground
scene for quite a long time. He is a faithful observer and has a close
attachment with the local scene. But still he wants to be known as an insider
and outsider at the same time. He has also been attending underground gigs since
1996. Many of the information attained are from his own account of experiences.
Therefore direct, firsthand observation of casual punk behavior, including
participant observation of punk activities has been utilized. Emic and Etic
research strategies have been used to study this particular subculture. Most of
the information that we have gathered are from personal articles been written by
punk well-informed informants and also interview sessions with punk activists
and band members that are featured in the underground punk DIY zines and
newsletter.
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berikut adalah senarai rujukan dan ahli kumpulan projek ini.CU
LTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
SHB
3043
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS
GROUP PROJECT
TITLE: PUNK SUBCULTURE IN MALAYSIA
GROUP MEMBER:
1. Muhammad Azwan Bin Ismail-330
2. Tan Wei Chuen-284
3. Radin Zulhazmi Radin Abdul Halim-259
4. Sophian b. Salleh-273
INSTRUCTOR:
Dr. Mohamed Halib
(1) Zahid (1999) Raincity #3
(2) Man Et al. (1996) Sufferage #3
(3) Ismail, Z. Et al (2000) Hey people leave those kids alone! TONE
(4) Kidd, Joe. (1999) Interview subject: Joe Kidd. May 1998, Callus #1, pp32-39
(5) Mohamed Salleh, S. (1996) Malaysian Underground Music Scene Report, Corpus
Chaos #1
(6) Weng (1999) Interview subject: Weng,Callus #1,pp40-42
(7) Collins Gem English Dictionary (1988)
(8) Weng, AhhThe Ever So Corny (But Ever Present) Editorial, Hickey On Your
Brain #3
(9) Weng, Conversation With Ganyang Fanzine, Hickey On Your Brain #4
(10) Seir and Herman (1998) Pilgrims di studio, rakaman album terbaru, R.O.T.T.W,
pp.22-23
(11) Kelly, D. (1996) The Q Book Of Punk Legends, pp5-8
(12) Raja Halid, R.I. (1999) Editorial, R.O.T.T.W, p4
(13) Kottak, C.P. (1999) Mirror For Humanity
(14) Bollok Wok (2000) cover notes