How to Be an 80s Punk

Punk rock has gone through many stages, from the anti-authoritarian stance of early British punk in the 70s to the squeaky-clean pop-punk of today. During the 80s, punk hair and clothing styles became mainstream, much of it tailored for the shopping mall new wave crowd. Real punk music, however, still prospered on underground radio stations and in independent record stores. Here's how to be an 80s punk.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Hair dye
• Black leather jacket
• Safety pins
• Punk records

1. Listen to real 80s punk, not new wave. Buy vinyl by California bands such as the Dead Kennedys, Gun Club, Social Distortion, Circle Jerks, X and The Adolescents. Then blast out your eardrums with the sound of British bands like Killing Joke, the Buzzcocks, the Clash and the Damned.

2. Dye your hair green, blue or pink. Style it into a mohawk or liberty spikes, or shave it off completely. Understand that 80s punk hair encompassed every look imaginable from dyed black tendrils that verged on a Goth look to bright orange stripes to fuzzy, close cropped platinum blonde hair.

3. Dress like an 80s punk. Wear tatty black leather jackets with studs, buttons featuring your favorite band's logo and safety pins and tight plaid pants. Ska punk fans wore dark suits with skinny ties and porkpie hats.

4. Create punk art, including flyers for band shows. Draw crude and simple pictures of skulls, skeletons, corpses and other gory subjects. Add anti-authoritarian images of bad teachers, cops and politicians.

5. Pick a political ideology. Some punks dedicated themselves to the straight edge philosophy, which forbade the use of recreational drugs, alcohol, meat and caffeine. Other punks tried to save the world by addressing issues like homelessness, unemployment and the environment.

[cybernac]

on 7/6/2008 Short Sweet and informative! Great article and thanks for including a bit of the Punk history!