Punk for a Day

What the day is

Punk for a Day is observed on October 25. Its origins are not documented and no founder is known, which leaves the meaning of the name genuinely open.

The word carries two senses. The older American one, a worthless or contemptible person, is not much of a holiday. The other refers to punk rock and everything attached to it, and that is the reading worth taking.

Origin and background

Punk emerged in the mid-1970s in New York and London more or less simultaneously, and its defining claim was that technical skill was optional. A famous British fanzine printed diagrams of three chords with the instruction to go and form a band, and a great many people did exactly that.

That lowered barrier is the substance behind the noise. Punk produced an infrastructure rather than just a sound: independent labels, self-released records, photocopied fanzines, small venues, touring networks and mail order. Bands recorded cheaply and distributed themselves, which broke the assumption that a major label was the only route to an audience.

Almost every independent music scene since has run on that model, and the do-it-yourself ethic spread well beyond music into publishing, film and software.

The aesthetic followed from the economics. Ripped and safety-pinned clothing, hand-lettered sleeves and cut-and-paste artwork all reflect making things without money, and were later sold back expensively, which punk itself noticed and complained about almost immediately.

How to take part

• Listen to something from 1977 and something from this year that descends from it.
• Go to a small venue. Punk was never really a stadium music and does not work at distance.
• Make something badly and release it anyway. That is the actual ethic, more than the clothing.
• Buy directly from a band. The economics of small music have got harder, not easier.
• Read about a local scene rather than the famous London and New York ones; most cities had one.