In the new series Animal Underworld, activist and singer-songwriter, Henry Rollins, explores the relationships between humans and animals around the world. While advancements in technology have allowed a larger audience to access information on human/animal relationships, individuals have been questioning and challenging the dynamic between people and animals for decades.
Music has been a major component of cultures throughout history. With sounds and words we have used music to share a story, express a belief and bring people together. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s the punk rock community took their music in another direction and began writing more politically focused lyrics. Fronting the American punk band Black Flag, Henry Rollins sang about topics like anti-authoritarianism and neurosis attracting an audience of marginalized youths. Overseas other sectors of the punk rock community started to focus on the relationship humans have with animals, specifically one of cruelty.
As the media was focusing on bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash, an underground movement of anarcho-punks was taking shape. Through songs and artwork UK bands like Crass, Flux of Pink Indians and Conflict encouraged their audiences to take a stand against animal testing, vivisection and even eating meat. Lyrics like those from Conflict’s “Meat Means Murder” asks listeners very simply to question how one animal deserves to be saved from slaughter but not another. You’ve never had a fur coat; you think it’s cruel to the mink. Well, how about the cow, pig or sheep. Don’t they make you think?
In the late ‘80s/early ‘90s as apartheid protests and the demolition of the Berlin Wall were making headlines a new generation of punk was being born. From screams, chants and breakdowns, the underground hardcore movement spawned a new sense of passion and urgency from bands like Youth of Today whose song “No More” yet again encourages listeners to stop supporting the meat industry and choose a vegetarian lifestyle. In addition, the do-it-yourself punk ethics were still going strong with independent record labels like Revelation Records becoming home to several anti-meat industry/pro-vegetarian bands like Into Another, Gorilla Biscuits, Shelter, and Ignite.
Through labels like Revelation Records, these bands and others we able to not only use their music but also merchandise—like Youth of Today’s “Go vegetarian” t-shirt— to expose kids to animal rights. By the mid-90s it was nearly impossible to attend a punk show without seeing animal rights propaganda. T-shirts, books, zine, pamphlets and videos depicting the cruelty of the meat and dairy industry were at every merch table making the punk rock/animal rights connection undeniable.
The relationship between animal rights and the punk rock movement has a lengthy history that cannot be encompassed in a few paragraphs. The bands mentioned here are just a few examples of many who contributed to animal rights awareness within punk rock. While the advent of things like social media has made animals rights more prevalent today, this has not always been the case. Before there were vegan talk show hosts and movie stars speaking out about how we treat animals, there was a punk rock subculture saying similar things but they were considered taboo.