'it Was Easy, It Was Cheap, Go and Do It!' Technology and Anarchy in the Uk Music Industry I[1]

This paper argues that the independent record scene that developed out of punk rock in the late 1970s and early 1980s embodied anarchist principles, even though few of those involved would have called themselves anarchists. Advocates of independent records resisted the control of the mainstream music industry and in some cases actively sought to subvert it. They allied punk’s ‘access aesthetic’, which challenged elitist conceptions of the ‘artist’ and aimed to break down the barrier between producers and consumers of music, with a do-it-yourself ethic that challenged the relations of production in the music industry. The paper argues that change in the music industry is closely linked to technological change. Technology must therefore be a crucial element of anarchist cultural intervention. The paper highlights the limitations of existing anarchist approaches to technology, and suggests that anarchists need to treat technology as integrated with culture, rather than automatically equating it with hierarchical social structures.