PUNK NOW! Registration now open!
Posted: October 12th, 2015 | Filed under: Calls for Papers | Comments Off on PUNK NOW! Registration now open!The 2nd Punk Scholars Network Annual Conference and Post-Graduate Symposium
29th-30th October 2015
Free registration via https://punk-now-2015.eventbrite.co.uk
Registration closes at 1700 on Wednesday 28 October 2015
Presented by Punk Scholars Network in conjunction with Birmingham City University, Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research, London College of Communication.
Thursday 29 October (0900-1730) and Friday 30 October (0900-1700)
The Shell
Birmingham City University
Parkside Building
Cardigan Street
Birmingham
B4 7BD
5 minutes walk from Moor Street Station, 10 minutes walk from New Street Station, 15 minutes walk from Snow Hill Station. Parking and accommodation are available nearby.
Following the dynamic emergence of punk in the UK, USA and Europe in the 1970s, the subculture spread widely. As punk and new wave gained commercial and critical success, together with an attractive notoriety, it soon began an on-going journey around the globe – both as a product and as an ideology.
Punk, then, despite its omnipresence in contemporary underground and popular cultures, is clearly more than legacy music.
More than forty years after the proto-punk progenitors of Detroit and New York unconsciously launched an underground revolution, to continue what some of the 60’s and 70’s anarchic counter culture propagated, and after untold premature obituaries, it appears that punk – in terms of music, philosophy, and identity – remains in rude health.
Punk scenes continue to thrive as far afield as Russia, South America, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Indonesia – 2011 saw the first official record release from a Saudi Arabian punk band, Sound of Ruby, while other scenes have established their mark in Madagascar, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, even Tibet and the Himalayas.
Meanwhile, nearer to home, an underground punk scene never actually went away and continues to ‘mutate and survive’– ranging from the continued support for longstanding bands and scenes, to the network of emerging small-scale gigs, fanzines, music distribution, (sub)cultural and political activities of a truly cross-generational subculture.
This joint conference and postgraduate symposium seeks to illuminate the current landscape of contemporary punk in all of its global, musical, political and (sub)cultural manifestations.
The PUNK ROCK!! SO WHAT? exhibition, showing the changing imagery of punk, as well its influence on societal, cultural and political thinking, is on display in Birmingham City University’s Parkside Gallery until Friday 13 November 2015.