Craig O'Hara

In the following selection, Craig O'Hara writes that the punk movement stands in opposition to the conformity of mainstream rock and roll. The punk movement, particularly in Britain, originally consisted largely of underprivileged and working—class adolescents who were angry about their bleak social and economic prospects. According to O'Hara, punks spoke out against authority and conformity, questioning the prevailing views of society. However, as the punk movement gained in popularity, it began to receive acceptance from the society that had first scorned it. O'Hara is the author of The Philosophy of Punk: More than Noise, which he originally wrote as a graduate student at Boston University.

"In a mechanical and depersonalized world man has an indefinable sense of loss; a sense that life . . . has become impoverished, that men are somehow 'deracinate and disinherited...