Music

Here's punk rock as defined by stock photography

by Mark Teo

If there’s one thing that Ted Leo-loving NPR rockers love to claim, it’s that “punk rock saved their lives.” Inevitably, that statement is followed with a question: But what is punk rock, man? Usually, it’s anything but music—it’s more than music. It’s more than fashion; it’s a lifestyle. It’s about living your life the way you want to, man. It’s about living outside the confines of, like, rules ‘n’ shit. Indeed, there’s very little consensus about what punk rock is, although we can all agree that Rancid’s new album, Honor is All We Know, is some kind of punk. So, we asked the greatest sociological tool of our time—stock photography sites, natch—to define punk. Here’s what we found.