In the early days of rock n’ roll, song refrains shouted out what became mottos. Rock n’ roll will never die, and long live rock are just two of the many slogans that evolved from rock n’ roll, the music of rebellion. Punk rock was more than a genre of rock, it was a mindset, a movement, and a challenge to the status quo of society and rock itself. It has now evolved into Modern Punk, where the new punk bands are keeping the spirit alive.

The DIY ethos of punk stuck its finger up to the corporate raiders who co-opted rock. The original seeds of punk were sown in the early 1970s, but each succeeding band struck their own chords and screamed their own lyrics of rebellion to mold the core into something new. Just as rock n’ roll will never die, punk as music, a lifestyle, a culture, an art form, an interpretation of living itself will never die.

Punk Lives

After six decades the core principle of the original punk scene, the DIY ethos is undergoing a resurgence. The punk identity has never died even when it risked being swallowed by the very corporate raiders that the roots of Punk were challenging.

The 1970s punks cut, printed, and distributed their own albums and gained a following in the scene through self-promotion and performance. Technology has opened new doors for the DIY ethos of Punk today. Bandcamp, YouTube, and social media platforms are essential tools for the self-promotion and distribution of punk music.

The punk culture has gone full circle by co-opting the tools of the corporate raiders and turning them into DIY tech for the masses. The gatekeepers of the music industry are easily bypassed allowing punks to access and grow their audiences organically. On the flip side audiences can bypass the music pushed by record labels and find their own genre.

The Activism Music of Punk

At its peak during the first evolution, Punk quickly splintered into political punk, eccentric punk, artistic punk, party punk, skate punk, urban punk, garage punk, and so many subgenres that have continued to flourish and morph in the 2020s.

IDLES, a UK-based band known for their cathartic performances and raw lyricism, embodies this soul of the ethos of punk activism. Their themes include toxic masculinity, mental health, and political unrest explored with the raw unpolished energy embraced by the soul of punk.

Down under in Australia, Amyl and the Sniffers have amassed a following reminiscent of early punks like The Clash, Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedys. They are channeling the essence of the chaotic energy of early punk with brash, high-energy performances and sharp, satirical, activist lyrics.

The Politics of Experience

Early Ramones were not political per se, but the evolution of punk itself was, is and shall remain a political statement of a culture. Punks today embrace the genres of the past and sharpen others in response to a changing political climate.

Down in Baltimore War on Women, a feminist punk group supercharged the genre to light the fires of topics like gender equality, and reproductive rights. The Punk anthem is alive and well with bands like Anti-Flag blending the driving sounds of traditional punk music with activist message lyrics.

Punk Will Never Die

As a culture, a lifestyle, an art form, a philosophy, a worldview and a music, Punk is alive and well over a half-century after its incarnation. While early bands paved the way for the DIY ethos and then took the record company money and went on orchestrated world tours, the core of Punk survived. The DIY ethos of Punk is a purity of spirit that will continue to flourish even as political and cultural changes happen around it.

The Punk Rock Concert Experience: Capturing the Chaos and Energy

Capturing the chaos and energy of the punk rock concert experience is not an easy task. Live recordings only captured the music, not the raw energy, chaotic atmosphere, or the relationship between the audience and bands. More than a performance or a reenactment of recorded music, the punk rock concert experience was its own entity. It was a visceral experience, an electrifying whirlwind of unchained melodies, and the chimes of freedom giving life to the universal soul of thousands of floating souls to form one.

Those who experienced the heyday of punk or wish they had or want to experience it can certainly turn on the music. To live it, it must be seen to experience. Michael Grecco was a young photographer finishing his college days in Boston and working as a freelance photographer and news stringer for the Associated Press (AP), a syndicated news service.

Fate causes that for which the soul can only wish. Michael Grecco was studying photography under a professor with expertise in black and white photography during the age of the living color of Kodak. Michael was drawn to the shadows and light that were the essence of black and white film like a moth to a flame. At the same time the news editors were taking notice of his photographs and one editor, then another assigned him to cover the emerging “New Wave of Music” of the New York and Boston underground scene.

Right Place, Right Time, Right Energy

The starkness of black and white film was a perfect match for the emerging new music scene tagged with the moniker “punk.” Michael Grecco, his camera, his love of black and white, and his ability to capture energy in the still of a photograph put Grecco in the right place at the right time.

Michael became a fixture of the Punk scene befriending the regulars at the clubs of the genres in New York and Boston. He was able to capture the energy, the rawness, the revolutionary lifestyle of stage shows, everyday life, and the chaos and charisma of the punk rock concert scene.

 

Michael Grecco has begun the process of curating his thousands of unrehearsed, original photographs of the chaos and energy of music that revolutionized the revolutionary music of rock ‘n roll. He has gathered a collection of photographs that stand as a testament to the spirit of punk rock in a glossy book, The Days of Punk. The photographs are stark black and white images capturing the chaos, energy, and raw screams of a generation revolting against the status quo of the demons that captured and homogenized rock.

The Raw Energy of Punk In Living Black and White

Punk was spitting in the eye of the corporatization of music that was once labeled the devil’s music, rock’ n roll didn’t die, it sold its soul to Madison Ave, Hollywood Blvd., and Piccadilly Circus. The raw energy of punk living in the reality of black and white screamed a DIY ethos from the souls of the disaffected who created a new culture of creativity.

Michael Grecco was THERE to capture it in living black and white photographs balanced between the world of a shadow kingdom of darkness and light. His artistically framed photos in The Days of Punk collection feature iconic images of punk legends. Page after page feature, The Ramones, The Clash, and Black Flag, among others. Grecco photos do more than capture the faces of these great punk bands, they dive into the punk experience including the heart and soul of live performances and concert experiences.

The Grecco lens captures the sweat, grit, and unfiltered emotions that define a punk show. Whether it’s a close-up of Joey Ramone screaming a song, or a wide shot of a chaotic mosh pit, the living black and white photography of Michael Grecco immortalizes the intensity of frozen iconic moments still emitting the electricity of their time.

The stories behind the iconic covers of punk album art begin with the question: what came first, the music or the culture? The punk culture and the music can be identified by its raw energy, defiant clash with society, anarchy as a political philosophy, and an ethos that screamed (literally) DIY.

Seeds of Punk were nurtured in non-descript repurposed forgotten buildings, clubs bars, and retail spaces. Records were recorded, pressed, packaged, and distributed within a Punk culture determined to create a DIY identity.

Graffiti, Photographs, and the Birth of Punk Album Art

City Halls and the powers of society looked at graffiti as an obstacle to gentrification. Punk culture saw it as art that anyone can create, anywhere. The walls of buildings, clubs, café tables, sidewalks, hallways, and stairwells became living canvases. Punk album art erased the boundaries of packaged corporate rock in favor of graffiti and real-life photographs of punk music in action.

Early in the Boston to New York Punk scene photographer Michael Grecco was welcomed into the inner sanctum of Punk. Welcomed into the lofts, and warehouse space turned punk living quarters Michael Grecco captured images in black and white 35 mm film documenting Punk culture, music, people, and art.

Michael Grecco was curating his thousands of photos that captured the essence of the new music, culture, and lifestyle in a book, in galleries and a museum exhibition titled, The Days of Punk.

Grecco photos of the era included Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys among backstage graffiti, Lux Interior of The Cramps experiencing the naked existential scream of his primal soul in a live performance, and Lene Lovich walking down the art deco wrought iron framed stairwell from an urban loft. Any of the thousands of intimate photographs from the lens of the Grecco camera could have been Punk Album Art, together they inspired the punk genre of darkness and light.

Iconic Punk Album Art

The 1976 The Ramones debut album cover by Photographer Roberta Bayley is an example of the minimalist reflection of the DIY Punk ethos. The band, all in black leather jackets and tattered jeans stands in front of a haphazardly patched urban brick wall tagged with graffiti.

London Calling by The Clash released in 1979 captured the raw energy and anti-establishment mores of Punk. Photographer Pennie Smith snapped a black and white photo of The Clash bassist Paul Simonon smashing his Fender Precision Bass on the stage floor. The green and pink typography of Ray Lory was harkening back to the look of Elvis Presley’s debut album. A cultural and psychological dissertation can be written on the elements of this iconic punk album art. Old rock n roll being unseated by the punk revolution, no reverence for worshiped instrument brand, raw emotions, and the existential black and white colors of punk juxtaposed with green, and pink are the statements about punk on the London Calling Album Cover.

Every Picture Tells a Story

Every punk album cover tells a story. Each is a constructive interaction of the music, art, soul, and ethos of a culture that emerged as a counterpoint to corporate and political conformity. The record label behemoths were releasing albums with covers that were extensions of the marketing package.

The 1977 Hotel California Album by The Eagles (a corporate arena rock money machine) featured a picture of an idyllic sunset with palm trees swaying in the breeze and the steeple of an old mission church. In the same year (1977) The Sex Pistols- Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols featured a cover designed by Jamie Reid with a neon pink and yellow background and letters that looked like cut-out ransom note words. The iconic covers of punk album art tell the stories of a culture.

Punk influence on urban culture is best manifested in the late 1970s. Musicians from the garages of the suburbs to the industrial wasteland of decaying inner cities were questioning society’s rules, authority, and the corporate structure of music. The path to the recording studios and stages was tainted by the capitalists of conformity. Meanwhile, the world was in disarray. It offered an uncertain future even to those who towed the corporate line.

Punk appeared from a new ethos of do-it-yourself, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporate greed, and anti-consumerism. The blazing energy of quick repetitive full chords supported by remedial beats and impassioned lyrics transcended the melodies of top 40 airplay.

The DIY Punk Photography of Michael Grecco

The Punk movement was the breath of change. Unlike the hippies of rock who became lost in a haze of color, Punk music was simple, forceful, and to the point. It was a handful of power chords, the sound of action. It was as plain as black and white, no innuendo was needed. This was an urban culture responding to the establishment woes of the world, faltering economies, wars, famine, and hopelessness. “I Want to be Sedated” was the anthem written by Joey Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone, and Johnny Ramone for an urban culture that lived in the predawn hours of clubs far from the clutches of corporate rock and disco.

Deeply immersed and affected by the DIY ethos and quickly befriended on and offstage by the Punks from Boston to New York, Michael Grecco created a raw visual testament of the Punk influence on urban culture.

The Canvas of Rebirth

Punk DIY with its anti-establishment fervor naturally navigated the urban decay of abandoned buildings. Cast-away buildings without the embellishments of power, money, and real estate law became the headquarters for the urban culture of Punk.

Michael Grecco focused his lenses, adjusted for lighting, angles, and framed photos which was a living testament to visualizing the punk influence on urban culture. Reclaimed industrial spaces became home to Punk creators. Music, graffiti, art, poems, and street theater were a part of the urban culture of punk.

Beyond the stages and underground club scene, punk was transforming abandoned warehouses, and empty retail spaces creating the streets of punk, an urban culture itself. Michael Grecco captured the sweaty bodies of performers on and off stage, he also captured them in their natural habitat.

Graffiti was the art of punk. Derelict buildings were christened as hollow ground by the ever-present graffiti of the anti-establishment urban culture of punk. Michael Grecco was on his own DIY mission to record the canvas of rebirth in the living and working spaces of Punk.

Capturing The Persona of Punk

From the strobe lights of the stages to the reimagined spaces of the inner-city Michael Grecco created an indelible record of the Punk influence on urban culture. The persona of punk embraces a fashion style that rejects glamour. The culture embraced a style that reflected the sound, it was raw and unassuming. Leather jackets, spikes, safety-pinned clothes, and mohawks were hallmarks of the defiance of punk.

The black and white photograph of Michael Grecco was an instant match in the early dark caverns of punk clubs. Michael Grecco also used color film to photograph the evolution of punk fashion. Together the black and white and color photography from the lenses of the Grecco cameras offers viewers a comprehensive interpretation of punk.

Those interested in visualizing the punk influence on urban culture need only explore the Michael Grecco photographs now available in Days of Punk and as art gallery high-quality prints. Each Michael Grecco photograph captures the persona of punk, music, lifestyle, art, graffiti, urban home, and enduring fashion.

Southern Michigan, New York City, Boston, LA, and London, all contributed to the birth of punk and punk’s defining moments. In the beginning, it was MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Flyboys, Runaways, and dozens of others who reinvented the grit, grind, and rawness of a sound and culture called punk.

Punk was the antithesis and rejection of what was happening. Disco, arena rock and pop were sterilized, punk spit in the eye of conformity with a sound that created a culture. Punk set out to destroy the normalcy that the counterculture had become, the colors of the hippies were painted black.

Throughout history, change is often documented after the fact. Few recognize the importance of the times of their lives and fail to create in the moment records. The age of Punk was not one of those times. The lifeblood, soul and raw creativity of the period transcended to every conceivable art form. Paintings, performance art, poetry, literature, theater, film, graffiti, street performances, photography and lifestyles all embraced punk as it was happening.

Michael Grecco a Black and White Punk Photographer

Michael Grecco was a freelance photographer breaking the barriers of photojournalism for Boston Newspapers and music magazines. It was perfect timing. As he was perfecting his art of black and white photography, Michael Grecco was at a time and place where he was able to capture Punk’s defining moments through the lens of his 35MM camera.

Just as Punk was a transformation from the psychedelic colors of the sixties to the stark black and white of the new punk revolution, the pioneers of photography were exploring the same. Photography as an art was taking a step back from the “living” color of the Kodak age to the depths and richness of the shadows and light of black and white photos.

Black and White photography was the medium that made Punk shine. Michael Grecco was perfectly positioned as a photojournalist who shot black and white for newspapers, an artist exploring the power of shadow and light, and a witness to a music scene that was exploding.

Patti Smith who now wears the moniker, the Godmother of Punk is still writing and performing, the Ramones released a retrospect album and today young fans play The Clash. Old school converse and black tight jeans, as well as black leather and vinyl clothing are still prized by more than one generation. There is no doubt that Punk is alive and well.

Michael Grecco has undertaken the task of curating years of punk photography. As a witness to Punk’s defining moments: Michael Grecco has produced an artistic legacy that captures the essence of the punk era. These rare Punk Fine Art Prints by Michael Grecco can now be purchased online as well in galleries throughout the world.