Days of Punk | Fashion
Blog

Punk was a unique challenge to rock music. By the mid-1970s, rock ‘n’ roll music was comfortably entrenched as the mainstream cash machine of corporations. Creativity was hatching from discontent, frustration fueled by a rebellious frustration against the co-opted music that was the revolution. The young and discontent in the suburbs and urban forgotten neighborhoods were simultaneously leading the change on two sides of the Pond, New York and London.

History can usually point to one spark that ignites a revolution. Not so much with Punk. Its music, culture, DIY ethos, and roots became a forest fire through simultaneous spontaneous combustion. Overproduced rock, arena concerts, homogenized sounds, dress, and a middle-class mentality were all fuel for the stripped down, three chord structure on cheap instruments, in non-descript clubs that became the maternity wards of Punk in New York and London. They were two scenes that shaped the birth and emergence of PUNK.

New York, New York

In the City of New York, where wealth and decay lived side by side, the first cries of Punk were heard in its urban decay. Neighborhoods untouched by gentrification became Punk’s habitat. The Lower East Side, shunned by corporate rock, became a breeding ground for artistic experimentations, DIY record labels, music clubs, zines, and the birth of the Punk Nation.

At the heart of the New York Punk revolution was CBGB, a rundown country bluegrass club. It became the hangout and its stage the introduction for The Ramones, Television, and Patti Smith. Not only was the stage of this once forgotten club the center of the music, its backroom, bar and neighborhood drew the poets, creators, and influencers of the day. It was the epicenter of an avant-garde movement whose spark ignited a sound, spirit and lifestyle that continues today.

The entrance to CBGB (photo credit: Wikipedia)

The stripped-down explosive sound that was fast, raw, minimalist and loud created an earthquake heard round the world.

London Calling

The London ignition of Punk was more political than New York. It was Punk with a mission. The British who were once the Red Coats defending the status quo against the ragtag American revolutionary became the political anarchists. The Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Sex-Pistols led the London charge against the Tale of Two Cities.

Buzzcocks photographed by Michael Grecco

Punk was giving voice and broadcasting the inequities of the great British economic collapse. The ripped clothes, safety pins and sneering defiance reflected not just the sound of Punk but its statement.

Two Cities, One Pond, One Camera

Photographer Michael Grecco was there in London and New York in the early Days of Punk. Today, he has curated his collection that documents the artistic cool of New York and the political confrontational energy of London.

In two cities across the pond, the camera of Grecco preserved an historic environment that is the definition of the birth of PUNK.

Grecco has made the preserved documentation of the scene collectible. Fine art prints by Michael Grecco, available through his Days of Punk archive, offer a chance to own a piece of that revolution. These images are artifacts of a moment when music, politics, fashion, and attitude collided to change culture forever.

The Birth of Punk was a conversation between New York and London. Michael Grecco was listening and documenting it for the future, which is now.