Iain Ellis

Born in Manchester and raised east of London, Iain Ellis spent his formative years playing, performing, and consuming a heavy (if not healthy) diet of punk rock music and football. Little has changed since. In 1986, the young man went west to find his dreams in Bowling Green, Ohio. Instead, he picked up a PhD in American Culture Studies, writing his dissertation on 1980s American Punk Culture. In 2000, he traveled further west, settling in Lawrence, Kansas, where he currently teaches English and Youth Culture Studies at the University of Kansas. An avowed arrested adolescent, Iain continues to follow music and sports with a passion, performing and recording periodically with his Ohio-based Britpop band, piss artists, and playing weekly with his Lawrence football team, The Sweepers. When he grows up, Dr. Ellis hopes to head further west. You may also enjoy his book, Rebels Wit Attitude: Subversive Rock Humorists.
Punk in the Classroom: Question Everything

Punk in the Classroom: Question Everything

Punk’s “question everything” attitude has always been suited to education, despite the forces that seek to contain its rabble-rousing trouble-making from the classroom.

The Art of the Pose: Punk and Performance

The Art of the Pose: Punk and Performance

London School of Ballet prodigy Michael Clark saw beauty in the moves he witnessed when attending punk gigs as a kid in the late 1970s.

Subversive Threads: How Punk Inspired the Craftivist Movement

Subversive Threads: How Punk Inspired the Craftivist Movement

Craftivism’s core values of autonomy, subversion, political consciousness, and subcultural community make it yet another example of punk’s enduring influence.

What Happens When Punk Rockers and Sports Jocks Meet in the Middle?

What Happens When Punk Rockers and Sports Jocks Meet in the Middle?

When punk rockers and sports jocks meet their clash creates a fusion that causes a different kind of explosion.

Runway Punk: A Story of Celebration and Co-option

Runway Punk: A Story of Celebration and Co-option

Haute couture designers tap into the socio-political commentary of punk’s confrontational attire to reflect upon societal decay–and to satirize high fashion.

Punk Rap: The Early Years

Punk Rap: The Early Years

When the rebel subcultures punk and rap crossed paths in ’70s NYC, a hybrid was born that endures and reconfigures to this day.

Folk Punk: Three Chords and the Truth

Folk Punk: Three Chords and the Truth

When coupled with punk in the late 1970s to create folk punk, folk music’s most enduring and endearing traits—DIY, inclusivity, and proud amateurism—shined bright.

Cowpunk: A Brief Y’alternative History

Cowpunk: A Brief Y’alternative History

Cowpunk is a reaction against conventional country music, yet embodies some of its distant and deepest traits. Likewise, it's also a reaction against punk, yet manifests as one of its purest expressions.

Psychobilly: Qu’est-ce Que C’est?

Psychobilly: Qu’est-ce Que C’est?

Many punk hybrids have come and gone since their heydays, but the punk-rockabilly one, psychobilly, has endured and is still thriving around the world today.

When Punk Got the Funk

When Punk Got the Funk

As punks were looking for some potential pathways out of the cul-de-sacs of their limited soundscapes, they saw in funk a way to expand the punk palette without sacrificing either their ethos or idea(l)s.

The Deep and Distant Roots of the Ska-Punk Hybrid

The Deep and Distant Roots of the Ska-Punk Hybrid

Many only recognize ska-punk as a fad of 1990s US pop music, but its emanation and roots run much deeper and spread far wider than one may think.

Unite and Fight! England’s Punk-Reggae Hybrid

Unite and Fight! England’s Punk-Reggae Hybrid

When Bob Marley went to London in 1977 he discovered, documented, and reveled in the punky reggae party.

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