Sell me anarchy, fuck the Po'lice

I would like to revise the concept of the commodification of punk and hip hop as anthropological art that somehow undergoes metamorphosis into something that can be commercialized and instead suggest that it is the resistance against these anthropological forms of art that gives it it’s hype in the first place. For a closer focus I wanted to look at punk and hip hop fashion and how this is shown onscreen before it then gets packaged and sold back to the masses. I observed whilst watching the 1997 documentary Punk! And Disorderly featuring commentary from singer Jonny Rotten (Sex Pistols) talking about how translating music into a visual aesthetic of a music video increased the protest against punk music dramatically by various conservative parties, yet also increased the sales of iconographic punk fashions such as pre-ripped, safety pinned tartan clothing. “when peoples started pay’in attention and sayin…oi! that’s filth, then we..then it suddenly became cool to look this way and you could get jackets like this(refers to tartan green and red jacket) and see us wearin it on the tele ”. The music video, in the world of hip hop, also seems to be central to promoting the fashion through controversy towards outward expressions of belonging to a subculture. Xan Brooks, author of Sight and Sound 2000 identifies that fashion expressions such as that of hip hop and punk revolve around making a statement about “inclusion, exclusion, attitudes and understandings in-between”, where in music videos provide an opportunity to showcase this. This then filters down, or more or less releases a visual icon of subculture into an arena where there is a desire for this ‘look’ to be bought. Weather this makes the subculture then, inauthentic in its claim to resistance is not my focus, but rather that the music video is the key catalyst in the process of resistance fashion that is commercialized.