Many late Twentieth Century subcultures have been exhaustively analysed and pored over by histori... more Many late Twentieth Century subcultures have been exhaustively analysed and pored over by historians, academics and journalists; collected, collated and curated in books, magazines, galleries and museums. This level of recuperation has never been applied to the Skinhead movement-the subculture retains a strongly close-knit and largely underground identity, away from the cultural mainstream. Looking at the historical and cultural origins of skinhead identity, the Graphic Subcultures Research Group at London College of Communication (LCC) presents a new exhibition running from Wednesday 23 October-Saturday 2 November 2013. From 1960s British roots to contemporary global interpretations of the subculture, the show focuses on the visual manifestations of skinhead style-in dress, illustration, graphic design, photography, media and publishing-together with its links to music genres, football, politics and class.
This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of a... more This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of an explicitly far-right sub-genre of punk in the United Kingdom between 1979 and the early 2000s: Rock-O-Rama Records, White Noise Records, Rebelles Européens and ISD Records. While Rock-O-Rama saw the inclusion of the genre as simply an extension of their existing business model, the other labels were established specifically to support the activities of a small number of explicitly far-right groups who were blacklisted by mainstream producers and distributors within the music industry. These labels were also able to develop independent, do-it-yourself approaches to marketing, promotion and distribution that bear striking similarity to other sub-genres of punk and post-punk in the United Kingdom and Europe, particularly the politically activist hardcore and anarcho-punk scenes. Earlier examples of record covers that employed ambiguous visual metaphors to evoke a mythical Aryan identity w...
This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of a... more This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of an explicitly far-right sub-genre of punk in the United Kingdom between 1979 and the early 2000s: Rock-O-Rama Records, White Noise Records, Rebelles Européens and ISD Records. While Rock-O-Rama saw the inclusion of the genre as simply an extension of their existing business model, the other labels were established specifically to support the activities of a small number of explicitly far-right groups who were blacklisted by mainstream producers and distributors within the music industry. These labels were also able to develop independent, do-it-yourself approaches to marketing, promotion and distribution that bear striking similarity to other sub-genres of punk and post-punk in the United Kingdom and Europe, particularly the politically activist hardcore and anarcho-punk scenes. Earlier examples of record covers that employed ambiguous visual metaphors to evoke a mythical Aryan identity w...
This paper explores the representation of political and ideological issues in music graphics in t... more This paper explores the representation of political and ideological issues in music graphics in the United Kingdom from 1978 onwards. The analysis focuses on the music packaging of punk and postpunk bands engaged in the political ‘extreme’ – particularly the anarcho‐punk movement and the neo‐fascist scene.
Although for some historians punk represented a cultural rupture, it nonetheless (consciously or not) appropriated and reinterpreted graphic techniques, strategies and conventions from previous counter‐cultural and protest movements (particularly, though not exclusively, from the sixties) – as well as political movements. This paper aims to explore how such graphics influenced the visual language of politically engaged punk and post‐punk bands. It also addresses connections to art/political movements, such as Dadaism, Constructivism and the Situationist International.
The punk designers were sometimes trained but were more often practitioners of a do‐it‐yourself approach. By identifying which images they chose to ‘cut and paste’, it is hoped to demonstrate how ‘authenticity’ was constructed, and why certain aesthetic looks took hold while others did not.
This paper offers an insight into how political and ideological issues were represented in music ... more This paper offers an insight into how political and ideological issues were represented in music graphics in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1994. The analysis focuses on the music packaging concerning punk and post-punk bands engaged in the political 'extreme' – particularly the anarcho-punk movement and the neo-fascist punk and skinhead scenes, through two of its most representative labels, Crass Records and Rock-o-Rama Records. It aims to present an overview of the way persuasion and messages are articulated within systems of propaganda. It also seeks to deconstruct the propaganda graphic systems of extreme ideologies, and identify aesthetic and formal differences and similarities between contrasting political stances.
As a medium, rock music has been used to express dissent against, and support for, the establishment. However it was not until punk that it became the focus for groups of resistance. Previous subcultures appropriated music made by musicians’ external to the subculture, with politics distinct from their own. Punk rock was – and is – made by punks for punks with punk issues expressed in song lyrics. Music depicts the subculture and the subculture depicts the music. Music, the subculture and its politics are one and cannot be divided. Thus, if previous to punk, musicians and bands had engaged in political issues, the means of production with which they acted were limited. A virtual frontier was visible between actions, music and subculture. This analysis focuses on the followers of the punk tradition who were never co-opted by the mainstream, radically developing the proto-political concept that early punk (the Sex Pistols, etc.) suggested, and in so doing narrowing the gap between rhetoric and practice.
Visual media can offer a way of expressing a strong, direct, intelligible message, and therefore it is no surprise that politically engaged bands use music packaging as a propaganda medium (and music and graphics become powerful weapons to attempt to catalyze change). In this context, graphics have the function of informing and persuading, and iconic visual allegories become a representation of loyalty and allegiance. The music graphics reveal and divulge the political agenda. This paper addresses how content and stylistic devices – such as illustration and photography – are used for specific purposes, such as recruiting new supporters and strengthening the scenes, presenting a critique of contemporary realities or portraying utopian environments. It focuses particularly on music graphics as a propaganda tool and how political communication is achieved through visuals in a subcultural context.
This paper is part of a doctoral research project being developed at University of the Arts London. The doctoral research presents two main novel contributions to knowledge and to the research community. The first is the development of a methodology oriented towards the analysis of the dissemination of ideological and political content through graphic design objects in a subcultural context. The second is the analysis and interpretation of ‘extreme’ political music packaging produced by artists from the United Kingdom from 1978 to 2008, covering an under-researched field and time span.
Exhibition publication accompanying Where Have All the Bootboys Gone? Skinhead Style and Graphic ... more Exhibition publication accompanying Where Have All the Bootboys Gone? Skinhead Style and Graphic Subcultures at the London College of Communication, 23rd October to 2nd November 2013 Exhibition of Skinhead graphics, including print material and photographs from the archives of Toby Mott, Gavin Watson and Toast. Limited edition Riso catalogue published, including essays by Garry Bushell, Tom Vague, Matt Worley, Shaun Cole, Russ Bestley and Ana Raposo.
Mike Dines is seeking contributions from the wide spectrum of musicology and social sciences for ... more Mike Dines is seeking contributions from the wide spectrum of musicology and social sciences for an edited text on the anarcho-punk scene of the 1980s that will reflect upon its origins, its music(s), its identity, its legacy, its membership and circulation. Seven years ago, I was awarded my PhD for my research into the emergence of the anarcho-punk scene and, to my surprise, there are still no academic texts that fully unpack this fascinating movement and its politics. As such, I would like to put out a call for proposals in the hope that we might rectify this omission: and thus raising questions as to how we can define aesthetically, culturally, politically and ideologically the concept and meaning of the anarcho-punk scene. As such, the volume has guaranteed contributions from the likes of Andy Worthington, author of The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and Russell Bestley, whose book The Art of Punk is due for release. Furthermore, George McKay, Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre from the University of Salford will preface the volume. Perhaps the foremost academic in the field of alternative cultures and protest movements, George is the author of a number of books including Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties and Glastonbury: A Very English Fair.
Many late Twentieth Century subcultures have been exhaustively analysed and pored over by histori... more Many late Twentieth Century subcultures have been exhaustively analysed and pored over by historians, academics and journalists; collected, collated and curated in books, magazines, galleries and museums. This level of recuperation has never been applied to the Skinhead movement-the subculture retains a strongly close-knit and largely underground identity, away from the cultural mainstream. Looking at the historical and cultural origins of skinhead identity, the Graphic Subcultures Research Group at London College of Communication (LCC) presents a new exhibition running from Wednesday 23 October-Saturday 2 November 2013. From 1960s British roots to contemporary global interpretations of the subculture, the show focuses on the visual manifestations of skinhead style-in dress, illustration, graphic design, photography, media and publishing-together with its links to music genres, football, politics and class.
This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of a... more This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of an explicitly far-right sub-genre of punk in the United Kingdom between 1979 and the early 2000s: Rock-O-Rama Records, White Noise Records, Rebelles Européens and ISD Records. While Rock-O-Rama saw the inclusion of the genre as simply an extension of their existing business model, the other labels were established specifically to support the activities of a small number of explicitly far-right groups who were blacklisted by mainstream producers and distributors within the music industry. These labels were also able to develop independent, do-it-yourself approaches to marketing, promotion and distribution that bear striking similarity to other sub-genres of punk and post-punk in the United Kingdom and Europe, particularly the politically activist hardcore and anarcho-punk scenes. Earlier examples of record covers that employed ambiguous visual metaphors to evoke a mythical Aryan identity w...
This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of a... more This article explores the design strategies of four record labels associated with the growth of an explicitly far-right sub-genre of punk in the United Kingdom between 1979 and the early 2000s: Rock-O-Rama Records, White Noise Records, Rebelles Européens and ISD Records. While Rock-O-Rama saw the inclusion of the genre as simply an extension of their existing business model, the other labels were established specifically to support the activities of a small number of explicitly far-right groups who were blacklisted by mainstream producers and distributors within the music industry. These labels were also able to develop independent, do-it-yourself approaches to marketing, promotion and distribution that bear striking similarity to other sub-genres of punk and post-punk in the United Kingdom and Europe, particularly the politically activist hardcore and anarcho-punk scenes. Earlier examples of record covers that employed ambiguous visual metaphors to evoke a mythical Aryan identity w...
This paper explores the representation of political and ideological issues in music graphics in t... more This paper explores the representation of political and ideological issues in music graphics in the United Kingdom from 1978 onwards. The analysis focuses on the music packaging of punk and postpunk bands engaged in the political ‘extreme’ – particularly the anarcho‐punk movement and the neo‐fascist scene.
Although for some historians punk represented a cultural rupture, it nonetheless (consciously or not) appropriated and reinterpreted graphic techniques, strategies and conventions from previous counter‐cultural and protest movements (particularly, though not exclusively, from the sixties) – as well as political movements. This paper aims to explore how such graphics influenced the visual language of politically engaged punk and post‐punk bands. It also addresses connections to art/political movements, such as Dadaism, Constructivism and the Situationist International.
The punk designers were sometimes trained but were more often practitioners of a do‐it‐yourself approach. By identifying which images they chose to ‘cut and paste’, it is hoped to demonstrate how ‘authenticity’ was constructed, and why certain aesthetic looks took hold while others did not.
This paper offers an insight into how political and ideological issues were represented in music ... more This paper offers an insight into how political and ideological issues were represented in music graphics in the United Kingdom from 1978 to 1994. The analysis focuses on the music packaging concerning punk and post-punk bands engaged in the political 'extreme' – particularly the anarcho-punk movement and the neo-fascist punk and skinhead scenes, through two of its most representative labels, Crass Records and Rock-o-Rama Records. It aims to present an overview of the way persuasion and messages are articulated within systems of propaganda. It also seeks to deconstruct the propaganda graphic systems of extreme ideologies, and identify aesthetic and formal differences and similarities between contrasting political stances.
As a medium, rock music has been used to express dissent against, and support for, the establishment. However it was not until punk that it became the focus for groups of resistance. Previous subcultures appropriated music made by musicians’ external to the subculture, with politics distinct from their own. Punk rock was – and is – made by punks for punks with punk issues expressed in song lyrics. Music depicts the subculture and the subculture depicts the music. Music, the subculture and its politics are one and cannot be divided. Thus, if previous to punk, musicians and bands had engaged in political issues, the means of production with which they acted were limited. A virtual frontier was visible between actions, music and subculture. This analysis focuses on the followers of the punk tradition who were never co-opted by the mainstream, radically developing the proto-political concept that early punk (the Sex Pistols, etc.) suggested, and in so doing narrowing the gap between rhetoric and practice.
Visual media can offer a way of expressing a strong, direct, intelligible message, and therefore it is no surprise that politically engaged bands use music packaging as a propaganda medium (and music and graphics become powerful weapons to attempt to catalyze change). In this context, graphics have the function of informing and persuading, and iconic visual allegories become a representation of loyalty and allegiance. The music graphics reveal and divulge the political agenda. This paper addresses how content and stylistic devices – such as illustration and photography – are used for specific purposes, such as recruiting new supporters and strengthening the scenes, presenting a critique of contemporary realities or portraying utopian environments. It focuses particularly on music graphics as a propaganda tool and how political communication is achieved through visuals in a subcultural context.
This paper is part of a doctoral research project being developed at University of the Arts London. The doctoral research presents two main novel contributions to knowledge and to the research community. The first is the development of a methodology oriented towards the analysis of the dissemination of ideological and political content through graphic design objects in a subcultural context. The second is the analysis and interpretation of ‘extreme’ political music packaging produced by artists from the United Kingdom from 1978 to 2008, covering an under-researched field and time span.
Exhibition publication accompanying Where Have All the Bootboys Gone? Skinhead Style and Graphic ... more Exhibition publication accompanying Where Have All the Bootboys Gone? Skinhead Style and Graphic Subcultures at the London College of Communication, 23rd October to 2nd November 2013 Exhibition of Skinhead graphics, including print material and photographs from the archives of Toby Mott, Gavin Watson and Toast. Limited edition Riso catalogue published, including essays by Garry Bushell, Tom Vague, Matt Worley, Shaun Cole, Russ Bestley and Ana Raposo.
Mike Dines is seeking contributions from the wide spectrum of musicology and social sciences for ... more Mike Dines is seeking contributions from the wide spectrum of musicology and social sciences for an edited text on the anarcho-punk scene of the 1980s that will reflect upon its origins, its music(s), its identity, its legacy, its membership and circulation. Seven years ago, I was awarded my PhD for my research into the emergence of the anarcho-punk scene and, to my surprise, there are still no academic texts that fully unpack this fascinating movement and its politics. As such, I would like to put out a call for proposals in the hope that we might rectify this omission: and thus raising questions as to how we can define aesthetically, culturally, politically and ideologically the concept and meaning of the anarcho-punk scene. As such, the volume has guaranteed contributions from the likes of Andy Worthington, author of The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and Russell Bestley, whose book The Art of Punk is due for release. Furthermore, George McKay, Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre from the University of Salford will preface the volume. Perhaps the foremost academic in the field of alternative cultures and protest movements, George is the author of a number of books including Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties and Glastonbury: A Very English Fair.
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Papers by Ana Raposo
Although for some historians punk represented a cultural rupture, it nonetheless (consciously or not) appropriated and reinterpreted graphic techniques, strategies and conventions from previous counter‐cultural and protest movements (particularly, though not exclusively, from the sixties) – as well as political movements. This paper aims to explore how such graphics influenced the visual language of politically engaged punk and post‐punk bands. It also addresses connections to art/political movements, such as Dadaism, Constructivism and the Situationist International.
The punk designers were sometimes trained but were more often practitioners of a do‐it‐yourself approach. By identifying which images they chose to ‘cut and paste’, it is hoped to demonstrate how ‘authenticity’ was constructed, and why certain aesthetic looks took hold while others did not.
As a medium, rock music has been used to express dissent against, and support for, the establishment. However it was not until punk that it became the focus for groups of resistance. Previous subcultures appropriated music made by musicians’ external to the subculture, with politics distinct from their own. Punk rock was – and is – made by punks for punks with punk issues expressed in song lyrics. Music depicts the subculture and the subculture depicts the music. Music, the subculture and its politics are one and cannot be divided. Thus, if previous to punk, musicians and bands had engaged in political issues, the means of production with which they acted were limited. A virtual frontier was visible between actions, music and subculture. This analysis focuses on the followers of the punk tradition who were never co-opted by the mainstream, radically developing the proto-political concept that early punk (the Sex Pistols, etc.) suggested, and in so doing narrowing the gap between rhetoric and practice.
Visual media can offer a way of expressing a strong, direct, intelligible message, and therefore it is no surprise that politically engaged bands use music packaging as a propaganda medium (and music and graphics become powerful weapons to attempt to catalyze change). In this context, graphics have the function of informing and persuading, and iconic visual allegories become a representation of loyalty and allegiance. The music graphics reveal and divulge the political agenda. This paper addresses how content and stylistic devices – such as illustration and photography – are used for specific purposes, such as recruiting new supporters and strengthening the scenes, presenting a critique of contemporary realities or portraying utopian environments. It focuses particularly on music graphics as a propaganda tool and how political communication is achieved through visuals in a subcultural context.
This paper is part of a doctoral research project being developed at University of the Arts London. The doctoral research presents two main novel contributions to knowledge and to the research community. The first is the development of a methodology oriented towards the analysis of the dissemination of ideological and political content through graphic design objects in a subcultural context. The second is the analysis and interpretation of ‘extreme’ political music packaging produced by artists from the United Kingdom from 1978 to 2008, covering an under-researched field and time span.
Books by Ana Raposo
Exhibition of Skinhead graphics, including print material and photographs from the archives of Toby Mott, Gavin Watson and Toast. Limited edition Riso catalogue published, including essays by Garry Bushell, Tom Vague, Matt Worley, Shaun Cole, Russ Bestley and Ana Raposo.
Although for some historians punk represented a cultural rupture, it nonetheless (consciously or not) appropriated and reinterpreted graphic techniques, strategies and conventions from previous counter‐cultural and protest movements (particularly, though not exclusively, from the sixties) – as well as political movements. This paper aims to explore how such graphics influenced the visual language of politically engaged punk and post‐punk bands. It also addresses connections to art/political movements, such as Dadaism, Constructivism and the Situationist International.
The punk designers were sometimes trained but were more often practitioners of a do‐it‐yourself approach. By identifying which images they chose to ‘cut and paste’, it is hoped to demonstrate how ‘authenticity’ was constructed, and why certain aesthetic looks took hold while others did not.
As a medium, rock music has been used to express dissent against, and support for, the establishment. However it was not until punk that it became the focus for groups of resistance. Previous subcultures appropriated music made by musicians’ external to the subculture, with politics distinct from their own. Punk rock was – and is – made by punks for punks with punk issues expressed in song lyrics. Music depicts the subculture and the subculture depicts the music. Music, the subculture and its politics are one and cannot be divided. Thus, if previous to punk, musicians and bands had engaged in political issues, the means of production with which they acted were limited. A virtual frontier was visible between actions, music and subculture. This analysis focuses on the followers of the punk tradition who were never co-opted by the mainstream, radically developing the proto-political concept that early punk (the Sex Pistols, etc.) suggested, and in so doing narrowing the gap between rhetoric and practice.
Visual media can offer a way of expressing a strong, direct, intelligible message, and therefore it is no surprise that politically engaged bands use music packaging as a propaganda medium (and music and graphics become powerful weapons to attempt to catalyze change). In this context, graphics have the function of informing and persuading, and iconic visual allegories become a representation of loyalty and allegiance. The music graphics reveal and divulge the political agenda. This paper addresses how content and stylistic devices – such as illustration and photography – are used for specific purposes, such as recruiting new supporters and strengthening the scenes, presenting a critique of contemporary realities or portraying utopian environments. It focuses particularly on music graphics as a propaganda tool and how political communication is achieved through visuals in a subcultural context.
This paper is part of a doctoral research project being developed at University of the Arts London. The doctoral research presents two main novel contributions to knowledge and to the research community. The first is the development of a methodology oriented towards the analysis of the dissemination of ideological and political content through graphic design objects in a subcultural context. The second is the analysis and interpretation of ‘extreme’ political music packaging produced by artists from the United Kingdom from 1978 to 2008, covering an under-researched field and time span.
Exhibition of Skinhead graphics, including print material and photographs from the archives of Toby Mott, Gavin Watson and Toast. Limited edition Riso catalogue published, including essays by Garry Bushell, Tom Vague, Matt Worley, Shaun Cole, Russ Bestley and Ana Raposo.