Abstract | This chapter argues that in relation to dominant communication media such as newspapers, radio, and television, punk rock operated as a form of noise—less in the literal sense, since noisy forms of rock music were already well established, but in the sense of communicational noise, as an excess of the standard requirements for rock music communication. More than just “ineptness” in relation to professional recordings and instrumental prowess, punk was a short-circuiting of mainstream media channels operating both by an alternative production of media and the production of events unassimilable by the mass media, especially radio and television. The author argues that the first-generation punk band the Clash was as much a form of alternative world service radio, informing listeners about both local and global struggles for freedom and survival, as it was a musical band. |
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