The Evolution of Punks in the GDR

In Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc : Youth Cultures, Music, and the State in Russia and Eastern Europe chapter 7 author, Kate Gerrard, discusses the subculture of punk within the GDR. The punk movement came out of Great Britain, a Western nation, in the 1970s and was adopted in many cities in the GDR. The fact that punk is a Western creation while also having ideals of non-conformity leads it to be outlawed in the GDR. Thus, the first representation of punk in the GDR was eventually squashed by the Stasi, only to have a revival in the 1980s. However, the two punk eras in the GDR have different aesthetics and ideals, and I think that is something that is important and interesting. Gerrard states about the new “wave” of punk, “[…] by the mid 1980s the imaginative do-it-yourself outfits from the initial wave of punk were replaced by rigorous dress codes to differentiate hardcore-, anachro-, wannabe-, alco-, dirt-, kid-, Nazi-punks, and skinheads from one another,” (Gerrard 154). Between group one and group two of the punk subculture there is a clear evolution of how fashion is to be done. Continually, there becomes more detailed subgroups within punk itself, that each have their own unique traits. There become more rules on what it means to be punk and how to do it correctly. Which brings me to some questions. Why is there such a clear change within the punk subculture between the first representation and the second? Could this be due to having time underground that lead to more organization? Do you think Soviet Socialism and officials affected how punk re-emerged? How does a more organized and rigid representation of punk seek to make it stronger or try to have it last?

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