ALLE GEGEN ALLES – PUNK @ 50
Punk was never just music. Above all, punk was and still is an attitude: loud, uncompromising, self-empowered, and deeply skeptical of everything we're told can't be changed. Since the 1970s, punk has dismantled conventions, rewritten the rules, inspired generations to take matters into their own hands, and left its mark far beyond music in art, fashion, politics, and everyday life. The Goethe-Institut project “Alle Gegen Alles: Punk@50” and this accompanying issue of GEGENÜBER trace the paths of that movement. It's a story of upheaval and resistance, of subculture and community, of attitude, humor, and the desire to be different. Rather than offering a polished anniversary narrative, our dossier brings together diverse perspectives on a cultural phenomenon that has consistently resisted being pinned down.
This issue was created in collaboration with Kaput – Magazin für Pop und Insolvenz, whose impeccably good instincts for contemporary art, counterculture and the politics of pop lends a distinct edge to the contributions. Together, we ask: What remains of punk when rebellion becomes history, and why is its attitude more necessary than ever today? We are interested in the people, places, and ideas that have reinvented punk time and again, keeping it alive across generations and contexts.
This issue of GEGENÜBER presents punk not as a closed chapter in pop history, but as a source of cultural energy that feels surprisingly at home in the present: unruly, creative, sometimes irritating, sometimes inspiring, and still difficult to tame.
Punk Is Not Dead. It's 50!
