Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"If Only I Could Get A Job Somewhere:" The Emergence Of British Punk, Nina Fletcher

Young Historians Conference

In the seventies, Great Britain was crippled by a widespread recession during which more than a million people were out of work and the inflation rate rose to above 18 percent, a stark contrast with the generally prosperous economy of the sixties. The conditions of this difficult decade would result in lasting social and cultural developments — including, of course, punk rock in all its loud, cynical, and spiky-haired glory. This paper examines the economic origins of the punk movement and argues that it was, at heart, the unique product of a generation raised in times of hardship and scarce …