On and Off Stage: The Multiple Commitments of Underground Musicians
This paper presents a study of the politically engaged punk milieu, by way of seventeen multi-activists, long-time militants and musicians, known and interviewed in Paris and in Rennes between December 2002 and May 2006. These stage “pillars” (musicians, label producers like Do It Yourself, fanzines and squats makers, and concerts organizers) durably combine their involvement in the punk universe and in political activism.Within such ethics, diverse “fronts” of activities (musical and artistic pratices, participation in political groups, and also for some, employment in the social and educational sectors) tend to be considered as being equally dignified and militant. The analysis of these biographical continuities and coherences, along with that of the civic and anti-specialist claims, based on the principle of `everybody’s participation’, enables us to catch sight of the decline of the vocational, specialization-based, conception of the work.
Keywords
- punk
- political involvement
- vocation
- work
- multiactivism