Horror+Punk by Kriszta Katona/Artlocator Magazine ( Pt. 1)

A musical panorama in the realm of horror punk. How did the angry young men with safety pins in their noses become monster admirers? Studded-chained accessories, second-hand clothes, whitewashed faces.

The 1960s gave birth to surf rock, whose songs evoked idyllic California sunshine, palm trees and pastel colours; the 70s saw the advancement of garage rock and disco; then by the middle of the same decade punk rock burst in, blasting and rejecting everything. Everything, even what it drew from: its debauched, loud, and raw voice repre-sented the total opposite of pop and rock sounds dulled by continuous practice. Its flame kept swelling and mutating over the years and spread from England through America to Japan, finally breeding – beyond the rebellious youth, with their nostrils pierced with safety pins and angry at ab-solutely everything – stylish monsters. 

 


  

From the mid-70s punk rock was probably the most important harbinger of anger, aggression, of the breaking down political and sexual taboos and the DIY movement in the music scene. Its appearance turned the entire scene upside down, of course with varying intensity, depending on the country. The 1960s devoured young people with garage rock and surf rock, while punk gave some sort of a reaction to these genres and to the untrained musicians. It was simpler, more explicit and raw. The punks rebelled against everything popular. They rejected, judged and denied the garland-wearing hippy era, the glittery disco, but even rock performers who had become commer-cial and boring. Its music was fast and utterly subversive, lacking any compromise or frippery, and constituted a fitting background music for the world hungry for modern solutions, its impacts lingering on in the music world to this day. 

  

But the emergence of punk is not only due to garage and surf rock (or to what later came to be known as “proto -punk”) but also to styles such as the polka dot and stripes of rockabilly of the 1950s, as well as to hard rock, and the platform-booted glam rock . Punk as a genre with a political and ideological background (anti-war sentiments, free thinking, intentional non-compli-ance with social expectations, and the principle of “never sell yourself”) soon became a global sentiment, which of course was not exempt from clichés or preconceptions. Beyond the maximum three chords in the music and the critical, harsh lyrics, it manifested in the appearance as well: leather clothes, studded and chained accessories, torn, then patched up clothing acquired mainly in second-hand shops, tattoos sometimes bearing political messages, and a mohawk – these all be-came the attributes of being punk.

Will be continued ... 

Credits:
Photo: Éva Szombat 
MUA: Barbara Keserű 
Hair: Judit Iglódy
Styling: Kriszta Katona
Special thanks to: Nora Sarman 
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