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With the 1970's rise of disco music, big hair, flared trousers and pantsuits, the punk movement was an angry "no thanks" to popular culture.

First exploding on the scene in the U.K. in 1977, British punk culture saw its heroes in The Damned and the Sex Pistols - who kicked, screamed and raged against authority, the media, and sugar-coated pop hits.

Punk culture also reserved special rancor for the advertising and marketing industry which, ironically, helped to turn the underground movement into a global phenomenon.

In the U.S., Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads were leaders in the American punk rock scene and helped influence other rockers and musicians.

Meanwhile, a generation of teens worldwide strongly responded by showing their punk colors in day-glo hairstyles, spikes and mohawks. To complete the look, safety pins were strategically implanted in cheeks, lips and eyebrows.

By the 80's, mainstream designers began to send models attired in punk costumes, strutting down international runways and effectively killed-off the fashion movement's claim to being anti-establishment. Punk eventually evolved into glitter and glam rock, and the movement began losing its hard-core edge.

Although punk culture is generally regarded to have peaked between the years 1977-1987, a post-punk movement remains alive and kicking today in alternative and do-it-yourself online communities - populated by those who still regard any band in the Top 40 charts as sellouts.

Today, US pop punk bands as Blink-182 ("Enema of the State") and Green Day ("American Idiot") are generally regarded as the torch bearers of the original punk tradition, with the 'established order' still firmly in the cross-hairs.

More about punk culture around the Web:

True Punk - Online punk rock community offering music reviews, videos, feature articles & band interviews, busy chat rooms and message boards.

Punk Rockers & Punk Meetups - Information on active groups with similar interests including online sign-up to join punk & punk rock communities in the U.S. and U.K.

Punk77 - A virtual encyclopedia of punk culture in the UK & U.S. with a history of bands browseable in an A-Z list including bios and photos of The Sex Pistols, Debbie Harry, with lesser-known bands & groups, audio clips, a review of punk fashion, punk rock lyrics, interviews.

Punk rock - The whole survey from Wikipedia, inluding a history from its earliest beginnnings to the present, with information and bio's of major performers, photos, sample audio files, related resources.

1970s Punk Fashion History - Good overview of fashion history with its beginnings in the design studios of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren with later refinements by Zandra Rhodes, including information on hairstyles, bondage in punk fashion, related resources.

How to Be a Punk - One insider's take with a review of the music, beliefs, hairstyles and ideology of punk culture.

also see in Art & Culture -> Tattoos | Body Piercing | 1970's