Philosophy of American Punk Rock Music
Faculty Mentor
Jack Simmons
Location
Savannah Ballroom
Type of Research
On-going
Session Format
Poster Presentation
College
College of Arts & Humanities
Department
Philosophy
Abstract
Under capitalism, culture is an industry, and the history of American counterculture is a history of commodities. This extends to the history of punk rock music. Often associated with the origins of punk are bands like The Clash and The Ramones and other predominantly white groups - “marketable” groups in comparison with bands like Death, the entirely black punk rock band founded in 1971. It is no mystery now that the narrative of “counter-culture” was adopted by and subsumed into the mainstream, its meaning neglected in the process. But is the character of punk rock able to exist meaningfully at any capacity? In the realm of philosophy, the question of artistic authenticity has come into question in many forms, including Adorno’s theory on the fetishization of music - that is, the focus of culture on surface-level elements in music and its promotion of simplistic unchallenging “light” music.
This project focuses primarily on Adorno’s essays On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening as well as On Jazz, observing how the ideas in these works hold up in relation to punk rock music. Theodor Adorno assumes a hierarchy of musical quality - one which inadvertently undermines the value of cultural context in favor of elitist measures of quality. While his ideas are strong when addressing the tendency of popular culture to promote “passive” listening - a habit which ultimately functions to reinforce existing power structures and produce conformity - they fall short when addressing the necessity of cultural context outside of his own elitist perspective.
This presentation will analyze/deconstruct the traditional American narrative of counter-culture, introduce the theories of Adorno and compare them with this narrative, and investigate the possibility of there existing an authentic counter-culture that is capable of meaningfully situating itself outside of the dominant historical dialectic. It will pull examples from the 70s to now, including examples of what qualifies as pop-music (K-Pop and its emergence in America), what qualifies as “serious” music, and where punk music fits in all of this.
Program Description
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Start Date
4-21-2026 10:00 AM
End Date
4-21-2026 12:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Rosario, Kadiel J., "Philosophy of American Punk Rock Music" (2026). GS4 Student Scholars Symposium. 32.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/research_symposium/2026A/2026A/32
Philosophy of American Punk Rock Music
Savannah Ballroom
Under capitalism, culture is an industry, and the history of American counterculture is a history of commodities. This extends to the history of punk rock music. Often associated with the origins of punk are bands like The Clash and The Ramones and other predominantly white groups - “marketable” groups in comparison with bands like Death, the entirely black punk rock band founded in 1971. It is no mystery now that the narrative of “counter-culture” was adopted by and subsumed into the mainstream, its meaning neglected in the process. But is the character of punk rock able to exist meaningfully at any capacity? In the realm of philosophy, the question of artistic authenticity has come into question in many forms, including Adorno’s theory on the fetishization of music - that is, the focus of culture on surface-level elements in music and its promotion of simplistic unchallenging “light” music.
This project focuses primarily on Adorno’s essays On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening as well as On Jazz, observing how the ideas in these works hold up in relation to punk rock music. Theodor Adorno assumes a hierarchy of musical quality - one which inadvertently undermines the value of cultural context in favor of elitist measures of quality. While his ideas are strong when addressing the tendency of popular culture to promote “passive” listening - a habit which ultimately functions to reinforce existing power structures and produce conformity - they fall short when addressing the necessity of cultural context outside of his own elitist perspective.
This presentation will analyze/deconstruct the traditional American narrative of counter-culture, introduce the theories of Adorno and compare them with this narrative, and investigate the possibility of there existing an authentic counter-culture that is capable of meaningfully situating itself outside of the dominant historical dialectic. It will pull examples from the 70s to now, including examples of what qualifies as pop-music (K-Pop and its emergence in America), what qualifies as “serious” music, and where punk music fits in all of this.
