WI- illegal punk

What if punk and other "heavy" musics were considered a drug and made illegal? It is a lot ASB, but funny anyway
 
How would they be a drug, exactly?

Anyway, they could be banned I suppose if there's enough of a moral panic. Certainly there were local bans because the music was considered too much.
 
While there was a certain amount of drug culture within the punk scene (particularly amphetamines and heroin) and songs reference this, it was less integral/no more prevalent than was the case in other cultures.

While it would perhaps have been possible to ban specific bands as part of a moral panic (obviously the Sex Pistols would have been top of any list), it would have been far more difficult to put any blanket ban on the genre: where would one draw the line? Are the Jam to be considered punk, or mod revival? Are the Buzzcocks a punk band or a pop band with punk influences? Are the Clash a punk band, or a garage band (their own label)?
 
While there was a certain amount of drug culture within the punk scene (particularly amphetamines and heroin) and songs reference this, it was less integral/no more prevalent than was the case in other cultures.

Exactly. That, along with the fact that the straight edge movement can be more closely linked with punk and other related hardcore genres than any other subset of popular/modern musical styles, makes Clendor's second statement particularly asinine.


"Punk", along with most other milder forms of rock and roll could plausibly be outlawed (banned) in some areas. They were ITTL.

All it would do is make the music all the more appealing to the target audience.
 
To get punk literally seen as a drug would probably take something like the US or UK being a theocratic state. If this was the case, however, the POD would have to be centuries ago, but that would butterfly the existence of punk.

As you say Eigenwelt, banning punk groups would drive most of them underground, where I think they'd actually flourish. Admittedly, there'd be less bands, as some of those with less credible 'punk' credentials (Slaughter & the Dogs, originally a glam band that jumped on the punk bandwagon, for example) would make more mainstream music, but as punk avoids becoming mainstream it probably avoids the 1978/9 burnout seen in OTL, remains a credible means of anti-establishment expression...
 
Why not just banning bad music?
I am surprised that nobody seems to have had that idea before.
 
Why not just banning bad music?
I am surprised that nobody seems to have had that idea before.

Not everyone has the same judgement of 'bad music'. Any judgement would likely be highly conservative, most non-classical music would probably end up banned. A lot of musical creativity could well be stifled.
 
Well, the initial premise is kind of ridiculous- but the idea of punk sparking a bigger moral panic than it did IOTL is interesting. It would require in my opinion more popular acceptance of punk- for all the credit we give the genre it really never reached the same level of popularity as other moral panic inspiring genres.
 
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