What is the place of punk in ‘punk studies’? How can we write punk, rather than just write about punk? Can we do this in a way that is more than performative affectation? More than just a(nother) punk cliché? Do we owe a sense of authenticity to our subjects in academic writing on punk? This article offers a critical reflection on a conference paper ‘performed’ as an attempt to address (rather than answer) these questions. I discuss the processes of writing, editing and presenting this article in a way that attempted to ‘show’ punk, not just ‘explain’ it. In so doing, I hope that I can open up a discussion about performance in academia more generally.

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The desire to construct and define a sense of national identity has often been regarded as something of an ‘obsession’ in Cuban political and cultural discourse. Throughout the Revolution, rock music has consistently played some part in the making of a Cuban soundscape. Yet rock has often been seen as something of a threat to an ‘autochthonous’ construction of Cuban culture, and has often been denied legitimacy as part of the Cuban soundworld. Despite the rather liminal position it occupied throughout the revolutionary period, rock music in contemporary Cuba is as ‘obsessed’ with constructing, defining and reflecting a sense of Cubanness as more ‘recognisably Cuban’ musical forms. In this paper I explore some of the negotiations and conflicts in the music of the controversial rock band, Porno Para Ricardo: negotiations between traditional musics, the state and rock music in the perennial quest to define Cubanía.

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