Abstract

Little media attention has been devoted to the burgeoning punk scene that has raised alarm abroad in areas such as Banda Aceh, Indonesia and Moscow, Russia. While the punk subculture has been analyzed in-depth by such notable theorists as Dick Hebdige and Stuart Hall, their work has been limited to examining the rise and apparent decline of the subculture in England, rendering any further investigations into punk as looking back at a nostalgic novelty of post-World War II British milieu. Furthermore, the commodification of punk music and style has relegated punk to the realm of an alternative culture in Britain and locally in the U.S. In these current international incarnations, however, a social space for this alternative culture is threatened by severe punishment including what Indonesian police officials have label “moral rehabilitation” and, in the case of Russian punks, imprisonment. Punk today is once more—or, for the first time, truly becoming—an oppositional culture as described by Raymond Williams, rather than a non-threatening alternative.The international punk scene has become deeply connected to other punks through the internet, creating a growing global community. Through musical and stylistic culture, punk offers its members much more: a voice that questions established values, that screams for change. In these nations where punks have little agency in political and social matters, a guitar and a microphone offer a means of speaking. The communal aspect of punk creates an arena for those involved to foster a culture of dialogue and dissent.