Punk In The Developing World

In the 80’s, a DIY movement spread rapidly throughout the punk scene, and became the biggest example and tool of punk rock’s survival and individuality at the time. Today, the DIY scene in punk is still clearly alive, even in the explosion of punk bands signing to major labels (which is not by any means a bad thing). With a lot of research and a little coffee (okay so I lied…a whole damned crate of coffee), I have compiled in this article a bit of information on the current status of punk rock in developing nations, with a touch of history mixed within.

South America

South America has a notorious history of brutal dictators, political oppression, worker abuse, and a slew of other problems. Such problems naturally progressed into a rather strong anarchist and worker’s solidarity movement. When punk rock came to town, it immediately became friends with both the solidarity and anarchists movements, so naturally the music has strong ties to the politics there. The specific type of punk is as diverse in South America as it is in the States. Pop-punk is not quite as prevalent there however, and for a large part is completely nonexistent. Brazil is the home of the largest punk scene in South America, which once again makes sense due to the fact that Brazil has the largest population of any country on the continent. Though the old school punk bands didn’t tour much in South America, their influence is easily recognized in a good portion of the punk that comes from the area. Not only does punk exist well in South America, hardcore and emo have smaller, but still thriving scenes. Just about all punk, emo, or hardcore from the area is done DIY. Brazil's hardcore scene continues today, with bands like Ulster, Armagedom and RDP still around. The economic and political situation in the country, as I understand, is at a low point right now, with foreign debt and its companion, austerity, at a high. It sucks to know that such a situation will probably produce some great hardcore. Unlike most of the rest of the world, South America did not have a huge starting surge in punk in the 70’s. In fact, punk in south America was almost completely nonexistent until the late 80’s. (Stuart Schrader, Brazilian Punk).

Africa and the Middle East

The scenes in Middle Eastern and African nations are either nearly invisible, or dead. In the 80’s, some African nations had thriving scenes, but since then many of them have failed and died. Thanks to an international record label called Tian An Men 89 Records (which will be discussed briefly later), whatever bands that remain in the area are beginning to have an outlet with which to record and distribute their music both at home and abroad. An exception to the near-death experiences of punk in Africa, South Africa has a semi-successful scene that has many of the same qualities of the scenes in South America (strong political ties, heavy DIY influence, visible influence from older punk bands) and even have a website ([url]welcome.to/sapunk[/url]). The website does not give nearly all the bands in South Africa, but provides a small list to cruise through. In the Middle East, there are very small scenes scattered across the region, the largest residing in Iran, Israel, and Iraq. Tian An Men 89 Records also provides an outlet for this region, giving the small bands with no other outlets a way to distribute their music. Due to the US occupation and other events going on in Iraq, it is feasible to predict a huge turnout in the punk movement there in protest to what is going on. In any case, the Israel is the most recognized Middle Eastern scene. Israel's scene has been around since 1977, but Useless I.D. was one of the first Israeli bands to do some serious recording. Useless I.D. are also the most popular Israeli band to-date, although Nikmaat Olalim and Chaos Rabak could boast popularity in the street punk scene, only Useless I.D. have made the crossover to be recognized in America by the average American kid, most Americans that like them have NO Idea they are from Israel though.

Asia

Hardly a region of developing nations, Asia has the largest punk scene of any of the other regions listed in this article. The scene is so large, in fact, that some Japanese punk bands are starting to break into the U.S. markets. Even more shocking is that these bands are being met with moderate success. Japan is the big time place for Asian punk. Recently, China has also had a great surge in punk. China has had much exposure to American music in the past, but until the 1990’s was only really exposed to metal and classic rock. When the record companies started accepting more and more alternative music (starting with grunge), the Chinese punk scene began to grow. Today, the scene is very much alive, even rivaling the scene in Japan.

Tian An Men 89 Records

Tian An Men 89 Records is an international DIY record company that hopes to spread the message of solidarity and peace through music throughout the world. Started by Luk Hass, the record label is based in Strasbourg, France. The label is completely nonprofit and consumes much of Haas’ time. Tian An Men 89 does not even seek to gain much money at all; all records produced are produced only in vinyl and only 500 copies are ever made. Haas has said that he will not make CD’s, but does not object to a Tian An Men 89 compilation done in CD format, or using CDs when turntables no longer exist. The following quote is taken from the website:

“Tian An Men 89 Records was created in 1993 in the purpose of releasing punk music from parts of the world where, due to financial reasons, civil wars, or lack of record factories, there is no possibility for the bands to release their music on vinyl…
Tian An Men 89 believes individual positive actions and international solidarity can make a change towards a fairer and more beautiful world.”

Closing Remarks

To close, the punk scene internationally is touch and go. There are nearly dead scenes in the Middle East (with the notable exception of Israel) and northern Africa, to the powerful scenes in China and Japan. In between are the scenes in places like South America and South Africa. The size and “shape” of the punk scene is as diverse as the people who live it.

“The businessmen and pundits of the world can talk all they want about international trade and the free flow of ideas, but we're smart enough to know that's bull****. The pure rage of buzzsaw guitars transcends international boundaries in a way no commodity ever will.” (Brazilian Punk, by Stuart Schrader)

Please Note: If you have information that I have not written down, please share it in the comments. Punk is a global scene, and it would benefit all punks to hear what punks in other countries have to say. If you want information on specific bands, check out internationalpunk.com and/or get some issues of Maximum Rocknroll magazine (I think that’s the correct title). Thanks.

I would also like to thank the members of UG for information on this topic. Special thanks to Whyvern (for middle east information and the motivation to do this column) and Runefan88 (for support and all-around information). Information for the Brazil/South American scene history taken from Stuart Schrader’s article at speedstaterecords.com.

Lucky

Comments

[Shifty08]

Shutup the hell up, no one cares if you post first, second or third. Idiots.

Nice article Lucky, I enjoyed to read.

[ReelGreenBat]

Good article, actually extremely interesting unlike most punk articles on this site.

[Tcurtis]

Balzac is an awesome Japanese Horror Punk band. Good article.

[them_sell]

yah it was good. like you siad about useless i.d. i never predicted that they were from isreal. its good to know that punk is thriving some where else.


and again the point has been proven, that punk is not dead.

[An80sAbortion]

i dont know....balzac's singer seemed to torture their misfits covers but that's all i've heard so i could be wrong.

[FenderStrat1337]

Yey Lucky Number 13..... o well pretty interesting article, I didnt really know there was a ton of punk on other continents

[twotonerudie]

yeah my brother went to brazil, brought back some CPM 22. good stuff

[harm0n20]

yawn...

[rhcpcure2826]

the second guest, you are an idiot. ever consider that comments dont pop up while people are reading the article??? well, guess what, they don't. its perfectly logical for him to have written first, but even if it was a legitamite mistake, your retard/mentally challenged thing is an extremely gay joke for 6th graders or something.

anyways, ive always seen Punk as the
sh*t that sticks to the toilet and wont go away.

[zakk_wylde4]

i don't like punk. I wish it would die. I hate the boring guitars.

[Twilight]

Great article. I hope people will rate it based on how well written it is and not just because "punk sux azz yo nirvana r0x0rz"

[egor]

useless id is pop punk and how possibly some punk band could exist in iran or iraq ??? its a totallitarism there first , and second no-one would listen to real punk there !!! i bet these are just guys who took guitars and play araabian pop .

[western]

sdhikuh,jjhgvhjlmbjmhm .nmh;klfjytg0jkmkljiojiojfhkfn,.bnijnF

[MrLucky77713]

Unter a totalitarian government, they would have LEGITIMATE to sing about.

Thanks for the commentary that actually said something. Spamming bastards. We need mods to frequent comments in articles and columns.

Egor: You are not only wrong, but stupid for making such an idiotic assumption.

Don't knock the other punk articles on this site ... Most of them are mine...

[psychodelia]

unfortunately it seems punk is the only genre that actually cares about how similar bands do in other countries... ah well good stuff i wonder what the perspective of bands in those other countries is.

[sanitarium017]

yess... must spread message of punkness.... must control world with punk music..... evil plan must succeed

[MrLucky77713]

The strongest scene is the one closest to us, in South America. The hardcore scene is a lot larger than the general punk one, though. It's pretyt good stuff.

I reccomend you visit punkinternational.com (if the name is wrong ill post again with the right one) for international punk information.

[gryftorsguitar]

well researched.

[pirate]

god doesnt like cry babies....thats right im talkin to you.....mrs.arnold...i never stepped on your childs toe...arrrrrrrrrrr

hmmm....

sketelz:
haha 1st
[POSTED: 27 July 2004 - 10:49]|


rocker69:
2nd
[POSTED: 27 July 2004 - 113]|


RatiugLink:
3rd
[POSTED: 27 July 2004 - 11:15]|


yellowdart:
4th?
[POSTED: 27 July 2004 - 11:28]|


battleofla:
1st woo i offically am a prick with nothing better to do! woo first!
[POSTED: 27 July 2004 - 11:39]|

you all receive one warning for spamming up my ***ing forums.

yellowdart: that's number 2 for you.

oh... and.... The 2nd Guest: i see you're back with this new name. hmmm.... keep up your bullshit and an IP ban will be coming your way.

[CasualtiesArmy]

/\/\/\ HAHAH dumbshits....Good article. Very interesting read

[dylan_f1989]

IF ITS GLOBAL WHAT ABOUT THE EUROPEAN PUNK SCENE AND THE AUSTRALIA OCEANA PUNK SCENE?

[egor]

MrLucky77713
dude i know 99% of religious arabs (all the arabs in iraq and iran are into musulman religion) wont listen to punk rock (maybe for pop punk but not punk rock !) they wont ever and ever do it ! i know them , i live with them !!! (im from israel)
and they wouldnt be able to sing ***-the-system-lets-riot-songs , they would be killed !!!
and dude i dont have anything against punk or u , i love punk , im just tryin to say that its impossible for punk to exist there , it might be one or two crazy guys who tryed to do it , but how the hell could they a scene could exist there ? if he says that these scence are tiny in comprehansion with israel's scene than it means that that scene (iran iraq) has one or two bands , i doubt it can be called a scene , it could be called one or two bands.

[egor]

MrLucky77713
and i wasnt ever bitching at your articles

name me at least 3 bands in iran or 3 in iraq ,that play punk rock (not pop with guitars) AND play some performances and make at least small tours . then ill agree with you

[cold_static544]

5 stars, wonderful article

[leadguitar1001]

oi oi oi the chosen few...or alot maybe punk is a great fowm of music i love it

[theslayertones]

thats one of the best articles ive seen on UG.good work.
speaking of japanese punk the mad capsule markets rule and so do the 5678's.peace out.

[darkstar9814]

good article, thanxzfor not including the us, we hear soo much about it, i enjoyed hearing bout asia, but hearing about romania would have been cool too

[MrLucky77713]

They dont have the money there to do it egor, not even the 'pop with guitar' bands.

Information on this topic was SCARCE. So everything i got took about a month so search for. This article was in the works for a long time.

Australia isn't a developing country, now is it?

Not all punk has to be political

[dylan_f1989]

MR LUCKY ARE YOU SO SURE THAT AUSTRALIAS NOT A DEVELOPING COUNTRY? DO YOU LIVE THERE MR LUCKY ? YEH I THOUGHT SO

[dylan_f1989]

AND IF YOU DIDNT READ MY POST CORRECTLY I SAID AUSTRALIA OCEANA WHICH COULD BE NEW ZEALAND, FIJI, BALI AND MANY MORE ISLANDS.

[egor]

MrLucky77713
so where the all of the sudden did they found money for guitars and drums ???
these are just the high class over-feeden grown up kids of rich sheihs and buisnessman who has nothing to do with punk world.

[MrLucky77713]

You can be rich and be in the punk culture. Joe Strummer (main man of the Clash) was the son of a rich noble diplomat.

Theyre guitars probably suck, but are sold rather cheap (there being such a low demand).

Australia is doing just fine. I don't need to live there to know that. Sydney is a booming city, and the economy is doing well enough (they being an INDUSTRIAL nation, not a developing/third world one).

Excuse me for not finding information on punk in Oceana. I don't think it detracts from the article, because not only could I not FIND Oceana stuff, whatever there is is so tiny that it would be just one small paragraph, and very vague. If you're so adamant about it, send me some links to Oceana punk, and name some bands...And stop typing in caps. You're just being a prick about it anyways, jerk. I put a lot of work into this rag, and all you have to say is some worthless comment about how I didn't include Australia, which isn't a developing nation, or Oceana, where the information is not available.

Egor: so like i said, since when did you need to be poor to be punk? You've obviously got money, since you have a computer and all. You probably aren't devoid of food, and your parents probably work. I guess you aren't punk. Such a stupid argument.

[juicee]

by the way the only punk band that ever existed are the sex pistols cause everyone else just copied them which already prevents them from being punk. ur not punk if there is about a billion others like you..... very sad truth.....

[Bassist TorViK]

Ok People, I am a new user. I've been reading the columns here and finally I have my chance at participating. I live in South America and can give you an insiders view on things... the little print is too hard to read so I will go ahead and write an article. Hope You Read it And Enjoy it...

[egor]

MrLucky77713

well i didnt say u have to be poor or rich to be punk , i ment that they are so away from the real world (if someone there have such money).
and who the *** said u that im so rich ??? do u know me ??? and maybe my parents are working their ass off and get the minimum ??? dah computer and internet is not such a big deal at all .

[dylan_f1989]

MrLucky77713

I actually think your rag is brilliant. But somehow you tell me that Australia's not worth it because there not a third world country or there not a developing country. Well what about China and Japan. I don't think they really count as third world countrys. Chinas and Japan's history of existance goes back thousands of years. Australia was only founded 300 years ago. And if economy is so good each day we grow older then Australia must be a developing country. Well besides that your article actually was really good. I WANT MORE!

[whyvern]

Lucky... I can help you do a second article... detailing the former soviet union, south east asia, central america and oceania.

Hopefully I can also find more bands from some of the countries allready mentioned.

If anyone is interested please contact me

[im not mental]

That's cool! I didn't know Useless ID was from Israel!

[MrLucky77713]

The computer and internet is a damn big deal in the middle east...The standard of living ehre is huge compared to devloping countries

Okay...so China isn't quite a developing nation, they're struggling communists. But punk doesn't really exist outside of china or japan...

Whyvern, I'd be more than happy to do a second one...I'll even add Australia if you kids stop complaining

Hey dylan, would you be intrested in helping?

[Damicksta2k]

This is a brilliant article actually! Stands out from the rest, very different and well researched. Best of all, it didn't contain arrogant opinionated comments!

[whyvern]

Luck, actually Punk is huge in South East Asia, mostly hardcore, although pop-punk kids would like Big Bag from Mynmar (they did a cover of Minority in their native langauge, i forget what it's called edihaddi, speaks it though.

China considers itself a third world nation actually, in case y'all were wondering.

[dylan_f1989]

Yes I wouldn't mind that MrLucky77713

[MrLucky77713]

^Just call me, Lucky. But I guess Whyvern is sortening it to Luck lol.

Alright, Whyvern and Dylan, lets start searching for information. PM me what you find and keep me moderately updated. I'll search as well.

Okay, time to shamelessly plug... Damick: If you liked this article check out my other ones...

[kryptonite22]

Great article. Very knowledgable and not opinionated. Top stuff and interesting to read.

[Burn in hell]

MrLucky77713:
The computer and internet is a damn big deal in the middle east...The standard of living ehre is huge compared to devloping countries

actually the U.S. gives $90 billion to israel every year, and alot of government officials have citizenship in the U.S. and Israel.So even though they are bombed frequently,I dont think Israel is considered a third world country.

[Burn in hell]

good article by the way.

[MrLucky77713]

Israel is NOT a third world country, but much of the area there is (since Palestine isn't quite a country anymore).

Israel is also the complete opposite of almost every country in the Middle East.

^right you are, man. good to see some educated persons around lol...

oh, and, last spam cleanup complete.

[SixStringForEmo]

5 Stars dude
clever article. its good to know stuff about places other than here

[whyvern]

MrLucky77713:
Israel is NOT a third world country, but much of the area there is (since Palestine isn't quite a country anymore).

Israel is also the complete opposite of almost every country in the Middle East.

except the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, and Kuwait... they're all democracies... I love it when zionists say that Israel is the only democracy in the middle east.

[MrLucky77713]

Cool. But I'm far from a zionist, and I know that Israel isn't the only democracy. It IS pretty much the most blatantly non muslim country in the area. It's also by far the most wealthy. Israel is (I believe) the only industrial (as in not developing) nation in the Middle East.

[GuitarN00b]

there's an entire street in japan devoted to punk bands

[whyvern]

MrLucky77713:
Cool. But I'm far from a zionist, and I know that Israel isn't the only democracy. It IS pretty much the most blatantly non muslim country in the area. It's also by far the most wealthy. Israel is (I believe) the only industrial (as in not developing) nation in the Middle East

The Zionists have lobbied to American schools to teach you that Israel is the only developed nation in the middle east.. it's not true... Qatar, and the UAE are very well developed and most deffenetally richer than Israel. In both of those countries the governments pay their citizens to be citizens... think of it as the dole times 3. There are no taxes paid in those countries because of the well distributed Oil wealth.

This means alot comming from a Jew, by the way.

[hobo8917]

good article

[vanceboy]

Im too lazy to read the whole thing. In my opinion, punk is old, and i outgrew awhile back. IDK, im just over it.

[vanceboy]

57th.

[Distilla_Queen6]

intersting article

[MrLucky77713]

I guess they aren't so much zionists anymore. They aren't called that as much now because theya re no longer moving or acting for a homeland in Israel...They already brutally stole it from the palestineans...

So I guess I was wrong about the UAE and Qatar, but I'm not sure if I've heard of punk bands from the region... Whyvern and I will look into it. Thanks!

[punkrockdude2]

wow did not no that....that music must suck....but good article....american and brit punk rules....

[whyvern]

Hey egor... I've been reading your comments and I'd like to point out the Tian Man 89 Records... they're the guys who recorded these bands from Iran and Iraq.

Lucky: Zionists now are right-wing Israeli nationalists, read some of Nikmat Olalim's information. Thanks to them I started a small unorganized anti-zionist movement inside the reform Jewish Youth Organization (NFTY). Nikmat Olalim contacted me and are helping me out!!! Giora Katzin is really cool!

[MrLucky77713]

^Ooo. Right wing nationalism in a radical, muslim region. Yum. I commend you on your movement. If I were a jew, I'd definitely get in on it. My beef is rather personal...with Ariel Sharon.

[Skidrowpunk]

Neat article

[whyvern]

Giora Katzin is gonna help me write a programme on it for NFTY! Coolness, Giora Katzin is sooo cool!

Go buy their album... www.gutzy.com/boshet

[hellisforzeroes]

by the way the only punk band that ever existed are

the sex pistols cause everyone else just copied them which already prevents them from being punk. ur not punk if there is about a billion others like you..... very sad truth.....

*cough*ramones...

[MrLucky77713]

^No. You're wrong, and the notion that similarity and influence make you unpunk is also wrong.

[murdermissle]

Pop with guitars??? Is this what punk has boiled down to?? Think DEVO is a punk band? How bout Throbbing Gristle??? Yet these bands flew the punk banner and were considered an integral part of the scene back then(at least DEVO was). Is being in a PUNK band mean you have to sound like Rancid or The Exploited? When there was an Iron Curtain there were plenty of bands that had a Punk look or punk looking fans, but the music they played was rock, pop, electronica,etc. The Residents once said "in every town across the world there is a person with ART in his blood and that person is a fan of the Residents". I like that statement. If you want to compartmentalize fine, but give those Iraqi and Iranian punk some kudoes. They are doing something completely outside their cultures whether they sound like the Cars or One way system. So from New York to Harare, from London to Pyongyang and all points in between.... Rock on!!!