Today’s College Lesson: Punk

Turns out there’s more to punk rock than guys with weird haircuts rebelling against authority through music.

In fact, there’s more to punk rock than just music — there’s a social context, too. Together, they form the foundation of “Punk Rock and Society,” an honors course offered this spring at the University of New Haven.

Taught by sociologist Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl and music-industry veteran Murray Krugman, the class surveys punk from a critical distance, examining the history of the music, its relationship to mainstream pop-culture and what it all means, if anything.

“The idea is to try to put a container on something that at least espouses a desire to throw off any container, and may not be containable,” says Krugman, whose career has included managing the New York punk band the Dictators in the early ’70s and co-producing “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult.

Along with a series of readings that include the seminal punk tome “Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk” by Connecticut native Legs McNeil (with Gillian McCain), students are listening to touchstone punk bands, starting with early acts including the Ramones and the Clash and continuing through more recent pop punk groups such as Green Day and Rancid.

“The first thing I played them was Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding,’” Krugman says. “Is that punk? And right after that, a Tom Verlaine song. Is that punk? I don’t necessarily advocate that there’s a holism to it, I just think it’s an interesting thing to look at.”

The class is also hosting guest speakers, including Handsome Dick Manitoba from the Dictators, guitarist and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, rock photographer Bob Gruen and maybe Ian McKaye, who fronted the influential hardcore bands Minor Threat and Fugazi.

Hardcore — a volatile offshoot of punk — was among the topics of last week’s session. Debies-Carl played songs by Black Flag, Minor Threat, the Dead Kennedys and others, quizzing students on their reactions and asking them where, or whether, the bands fit with their notions of punk.

“In my view, the class does two things,” Debies-Carl said by phone a few days before the class met. “One, of course, is just explores this punk rock subculture that might seem sort of strange to people who are unfamiliar with it.”

Then there’s the sociological component, which Debies-Carl says involves students examining their own values and culture through the lens of punk.

“There are a number of issues that we explore through punk that are sociological interests more generally, but I think this case study makes it more clear,” he says. “So issues like authenticity, like norms, identity itself, and then there’s questions that are more germane to the subject matter, like, what is subculture in the first place?”

Those questions are what attracted Ashlee Racow to the class.

“I was not very familiar with punk rock at all. Besides the Ramones and the Clash, all of this has been very new for me,” says Racow, 20, a Cheshire native who lives in New Haven, and one of 20 students in the course. “I hope to learn more about the punk subculture and how that works with society. I have also enjoyed learning more about new bands, and hearing different kinds of punk.”

Other students were more versed in the music and curious about the cultural aspects of punk.

“I never really thought about what punks did other than sing awesome music about a wide variety of topics,” said Kellie Broome, 20, of Winchendon, Mass.

Having two instructors is part of the appeal for some students. Honors classes at the University of New Haven are often team-taught, and showing the cross-disciplinary nature of the course — which counts toward credits in sociology and music — helped Debies-Carl and Krugman pitch the idea to administrators.

“It gives two different outlooks about what the music is like, what makes it tick,” says Spencer Poulin, 20, a Northfield native who says he’s been a fan of punk bands since he was little.

Grades are mostly split between weekly journal entries students must submit and a group project exploring some topic of punk and society.

One student, Shaun Sintic, already has first-hand experience with punk and society. Sintic, 20, got into punk when he was 10 or 11, and has been active in the punk scene in Denville, N.J., where he grew up. For him, the class was an opportunity to explore his passion for the music, and the culture, in an academic setting.

“I kind of built my schedule around this class,” Sintic says.

For other students, the course is changing the way they think about the music, and its influence.

“It’s fascinating that, basically, a bunch of misfits could have such a deep impact on society,” Broome says.