Wikipedia

Punk in Sweden

Punk rock and hardcore punk have created a punk subculture in Sweden since punk music became popular in the 1970s.[1][2] Punk came to Sweden in the spring of 1977; the event credited as the beginning of the punk movement in Sweden was a one-day festival lined up with Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones, and Television.[3]

History

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The most famous Swedish punk band was Ebba Grön,[4] followed by KSMB; other notable bands were Asta Kask, Kriminella Gitarrer, Tant Strul, Pink champagne, The Pain and Göteborg Sound.[5] In the 1980s hardcore punk, kängpunk and raw punk became popular in Sweden. The two most influential bands are Mob 47 and Anti Cimex, whose music has also inspired many foreign bands.[3] Some other examples of influential bands are Moderat Likvidation, Black Uniforms, Totalitär, Headcleaners, Homy Hogs and Avskum.

There is also a Swedish subgenre called trallpunk, with its roots in '80s melodic punkbands and raw punk bands like Asta Kask, Total Egon, Strebers, Charta 77, Puke, Rolands Gosskör and Sötlimpa, etc. Many of these early trallpunk bands had a powerful folk music undertone and a style of music with catchy melodies, fast drum speed and narrative texts, often left-wing political lyrics, and unlike the more aggressive hardcore punk, straight to the point lyrics. Notable trallpunk bands include De lyckliga kompisarna, Strebers, Dia Psalma, Charta 77, Coca Carola, Räserbajs, köttgrottorna, Radioaktiva Räker. later trallpunk bands took inspiration from American skatepunk and play a mix between the two. For example, Skumdum.[6]

Early punks in Sweden clashed with the youth movement Raggarna, which was working class and centered around cars, drinking, and rockabilly music.[7] These conflicts were described in lyrics, for example by the Rude Kids and P-Nissarna.

 
Kafé 44 in Stockholm in January 2003

In the beginning, there were several venues and cultural meeting points associated with the Swedish punk subculture. One of the first of these was the Oasen in Rågsved, followed by Ultrahuset in Haninge, and Vita huset in Täby. Venues where a lot of punk is played today include the Kafé 44 on Södermalm in Stockholm, and Verket in Umeå.

Punk in Sweden also connected with the hardcore scene that emerged in Umeå and other northern cities in the 1990s, with bands such as Refused (Umeå) and Raised Fist (Luleå) in the lead. Refused had a strong base in the genre's traditional roots and may in part represent how it sounded then, but experimented and stretched the limits sufficiently to their most famous songs rather have come under the term post-hardcore. In the 1990s, the punk scene also turned more towards crust punk with bands like Driller Killer, Skitsystem, Wolfbrigade, and Disfear.[8]

In the 2000s many of the first and second wave Swedish punk bands such as Asta Kask, Dia Psalma, Mob 47, Moderat Likvidation and De lyckliga kompisarna reunited. They released new albums, with new songs. This decade many hardcore punk bands from Umeå and northern Sweden started to play more pop-influenced punk and the early Swedish punk like Ebba Grön and KSMB, for example Invasionen with Dennis Lyxzén from Refused and Knugen Faller with Inge Johansson from Totalt jävla mörker.[6]

Notable bands

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1970s and 1980s

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1990s

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2000s

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Notable labels

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Literature

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  • David Andersson. Råpunk: The Birth of Swedish Hardcore 1981-89. (No Good, 2023).

Videos

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References

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  • Svensk punk 1977-81 - Varför tror du vi låter som vi låter?
  1. ^ Mörtberg, Sara. (2008). För att man vill göra något själv: en studie om hur den svenska punken spreds som en löpeld med avstamp 1977 (PDF) (Thesis) (in Swedish). Linköpings Universitet.
  2. ^ Dahlén, Peter (2016). "When PostModern Times Arrived: Dork punk and nostalgia as experiments of cultural orientation 1973-1989". In Björnberg, Alf; Bossius, Thomas (eds.). Made in Sweden: Studies in Popular Music. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315543390. ISBN 978-1-315-54339-0.
  3. ^ a b Lundström, Markus (2023). "When Anarchism Met Punk". Social Movements in 1980s Sweden: Contention in the Welfare State. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements: 81–109. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-27370-4_4. ISBN 978-3-031-27369-8.
  4. ^ Émilie (2021-10-11). "Episode 34 – The Swedish Punk Rock Scene w/ Fredrik Olsson of Misconduct". The Punk Roquette show (podcast).
  5. ^ Ekström, Moa (2023). Vi ville bara ha ett plejs för sånna som oss: Exploring the Swedish Punk Movement in Two Swedish Newspapers 1978-1980 (PDF) (Thesis). Södertörn University.
  6. ^ a b Persson, Mattias; Hannerz, Erik. Punk in Sweden.
  7. ^ Lalander, Philip; Qvarsebo, Jonas (2016). "The performance and meaning of punk in a local Swedish context". Educare-Vetenskapliga Skrifter. 2: 26–49.
  8. ^ "SWEDISH PUNK from the 70's and 80's by Star63 | Discogs Lists". www.discogs.com. Retrieved 2023-09-29.
  9. ^ Ben (2023-11-20). ""We Are the Best!" – Swedish Punk Film". WKNC 88.1. Archived from the original on 2023-11-28.
  10. ^ Grandpa Punk (2016-09-05). "Episode 35: Never Mind the Meatballs...It's Swedish Punk". Noise Annoys Podcast.
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