This research analyzes the punk “public sphere,” highlighting the punk bands that use the expressive space to politicize the punk community. Punk is typically associated with fast music, brightly colored mohawks, facial piercings, a nihilistic attitude, and if considered political, only encompassing the punk subgenre itself. Despite this broad narrative, the punk community overall is far more multifaceted. The punk community offers a vibrant space wherein members use their place in the community for political organization and social activism. Based on 12 semi-structured interviews with members of punk bands, this study examines participants’ active involvement in their music and the punk “public sphere” for politicizing punk itself. By attending punk concerts, where participating bands played live music to an audience, and utilizing open coding for the coding process of interviews, punk music and the public sphere are brought together. This research brings Jurgen Habermas’ concept of the public sphere to contemporary punk music to better understand the politicizing processes of the punk musical subgenre. Findings suggest that through the “punk public sphere” punk bands use art, literature, and dialogue for the specific purposes of the politicization of punk rock.
