No Future
Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976–1984

An innovative history of British youth culture during the 1970s and 1980s, charting the full spectrum of punk's cultural development.

Matthew Worley (Author)

9781316625606, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 September 2017

414 pages, 26 b/w illus.
23.4 x 16.3 x 1.9 cm, 0.68 kg

'… a richly textured work …' David Fowler, American Historical Review

'No Feelings', 'No Fun', 'No Future'. The years 1976–84 saw punk emerge and evolve as a fashion, a musical form, an attitude and an aesthetic. Against a backdrop of social fragmentation, violence, high unemployment and socio-economic change, punk rejuvenated and re-energised British youth culture, inserting marginal voices and political ideas into pop. Fanzines and independent labels flourished; an emphasis on doing it yourself enabled provincial scenes to form beyond London's media glare. This was the period of Rock Against Racism and benefit gigs for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the striking miners. Matthew Worley charts the full spectrum of punk's cultural development from the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and Slits through the post-punk of Joy Division, the industrial culture of Throbbing Gristle and onto the 1980s diaspora of anarcho-punk, Oi! and goth. He recaptures punk's anarchic force as a medium through which the frustrated and the disaffected could reject, revolt and re-invent.

List of figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction. Teenage warning: punk, politics and youth culture
1. What's this for? Punk's contested meanings
2. Rock and roll (even): punk as cultural critique
3. Tell us the truth: reportage, realism and abjection
4. Suburban relapse: the politics of boredom
5. Who needs a parliament? Punk and politics
6. Anatomy is not destiny: punk as personal politics I
7. Big Man, Big M.A.N: punk as personal politics II
8. No future: punk as dystopia
Conclusion. Alternatives: chaos and finish.

Subject Areas: Popular culture [JFCA], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Punk, New Wave & Indie [AVGU]