The emergence of punk in Britain (1976–1978) is recalled and documented as a moment of rebellion, one in which youth culture was seen to challenge accepted values and forms of behaviour, and to set in motion a new kind of cultural politics. In this article we do two things. First, we ask how far punk's challenge extended. Did it penetrate those political, cultural and social elites against which it set itself? And second, we reflect on the problem of recovering the history and politics of moments such as punk, and on the value of archives to such exercises in recuperation. In pursuit of both tasks, we make use of a wide range of historical sources, relying on these rather than on retrospective oral or autobiographical accounts. We set our findings against the narratives offered by both subcultural and mainstream histories of punk. We show how punk's impact on elites can be detected in the rhetoric of the popular media, and in aspects of the practice of local government and the police. Its impact on other elites (e.g. central government or the monarchy) is much harder to discern. These insights are important both for enriching our understanding of the political significance of punk and for how we approach the historical record left by popular music.

Over the past few years Mr. Polska, a Dutch rapper of Polish origin, has been enjoying a growing popularity in the Netherlands. Mr. Polska uses his Polish roots to position himself on the Dutch music scene and creates a persona that leans heavily on essentialised and exoticised stereotypes about Poland and the Polish. This article tries to answer two questions: what kind of image of Poland and the Poles is being created here? What purpose does it serve? It argues that negative stereotypes used in a multicultural environment acquire a new, positive meaning and play an important role in building the artist's image. The article further explores the post-subcultural character of Mr. Polska's project. It demonstrates that Mr. Polska's objective is not so much political engagement, as was usually the case with the traditional subcultural scene, but rather to confirm his authenticity and build his subcultural capital. Finally, Mr. Polska's use of a hip-hop aesthetic in combination with exoticised Polishness will be discussed.