A young person with rebellious or disruptive behavior; also a music genre featuring loud, fast, aggressive songs with anti-establishment themes.
Originally 16th-century slang for a prostitute or petty criminal. By the 1970s, 'punk' was adopted for the rebellious subculture and musical movement. The word's association with 'non-conformist' made it perfect for the anti-establishment aesthetic.
Punk rock perfectly illustrates how subcultures create their own language—punk musicians intentionally rejected polished production, creating music that sounded deliberately 'wrong' to challenge authority and expectations. The movement was essentially linguistic rebellion set to music!
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