Street punk is an urban working class-based subgenre of punk rock, partly as a rebellion against the perceived artistic pretensions of the first wave of British punk. Street punk emerged from the style of early Oi! bands such as Sham 69 and Cockney Rejects, and the Oi! bands that followed them such as Blitz, The Business and Angelic Upstarts. A key band in defining the aesthetic was The Exploited.
However, street punk continued beyond the confines of the original Oi! form with bands such as GBH, Chaos UK, Discharge, The Anti-Nowhere League and Oxymoron. Street punks generally have a much more ostentatious and flamboyant appearance than the working class or skinhead image cultivated
… Read more by many Oi! groups. Street punks commonly sported multi-coloured hair, mohawks, tattoos, heavily studded vests and leather jackets, and clothing, especially plaids, adorned with political slogans, patches, and/or the names of punk bands.
In the 1990s and 2000s, a street punk revival began with emerging street punk bands such as The Casualties, The Virus, Cheap Sex, Lower Class Brats and The Unseen. The Casualties achieved underground success in the 2000s.
Punks Not Dead is the first studio album by the Scottish punk rock band The Exploited, released in April 1981. Working class and loyal to the first impulses of the 1970s punk movement, the album was a reaction to critics who believed the punk rock genre was dead and went against popular trends such as new wave and post-punk. Today, the slogan is widely used by the punk scene as a rallying cry stating that the punk culture is still alive.