ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1970s, the punks have been gaining a certain visibility in the social space. In France, there are nearly as many punk concerts today as there were when the genre first emerged. The punk ‘space’ is a powerful way to analyse the rise of countercultural styles and their international circulation through transfers and exchanges selected by intermediaries who apply their categories of perception. This chapter demonstrates how the structure of this space and its recognition paradoxically evoke principles akin to those of more autonomous spaces like ‘art for art’s sake’ or ‘social art’, as opposed to the logic that is structuring the cultural and musical industries. One of the characteristics of the punk space is the close link between multi-positional producers and their public. This means that the receivers are often members of the bands, or participate in the organization of concerts. The mere concept of this space–the do-it-yourself ethos–acts as the power of each individual’s know-how.
