Punk zine

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A punk zine (or punkzine) is a fanzine devoted to punk rock music, bands, or the DIY punk philosophy.

The earliest UK punk zine was probably Sniffin' Glue, produced by punk fan and founder of the band Alternative TV, Mark Perry in 1976. However, the magazine never applied this term to itself, and indeed it is thought that it did not come into use until the early 1980s. The term punkzine was possibly coined amongst anarcho-punk circles, specifically by writers who objected to the connotations of the word fanzine, believing the first part of the word to imply the slavish following of pop groups, and unquestioning acceptance of celebrity culture.

The DIY aesthetic of punk created a thriving underground press; you could not only start a band, you could also be a music journalist and critic. Mark Perry produced the first photocopied issue of Sniffin' Glue in London immediately after that Ramones concert in 1976. In the US, such titles as Punk, Search & Destroy (later REsearch), Flipside and Slash chronicled and helped to define the emerging culture. (Such amateur magazines took inspiration from the rock fanzines of the early 70s, which themselves had roots in the science fiction fan community; probably the most influential of the fanzines to cross over from SF fandom to rock and, later, punk rock and "new wave." was Greg Shaw's Who Put the Bomp, published since 1970.)

The politically-charged Maximum RocknRoll and the anarchist Profane Existence were among the most important fanzines in the 1980s and onward. By that time, every local "scene" had at least one, often primitively- or casually-published magazine with news, gossip, and interviews with local or touring bands. The magazine Factsheet Five chronicled thousands of underground publications and "zines" in the 1980s and 1990s.

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