What is punk cabaret? An Attempt to Define and Exemplify the Phenomenon

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present punk cabaret — a new musical phenomenon on the music scene of the English-speaking countries. The author briefly presents its main representatives and cultural contexts, which is followed by an attempt to define the constitutive features of the genre in its musical, performative, and textual aspects. The former consist of prominent vocals, displaying both lyrical finesse and raw, punk-inspired force, with scant accompaniment evoking circus music and pre-war cabaret. Performance, playing a significant role in the genre, adds campy aesthetics and vintage flair. The textual layer, in turn, is characterised by dark humour, moral irreverence, disrespect for the established aesthetic canon, and the orientation towards social margins. All these facets — auditory, visual, and textual — are considered as inseparably intertwined and mutually interrelated in a constant play of contextualisation and allusions, with sound playing a vital role in text interpretation.

Keywords

• punk cabaret, Tiger Lillies, Amanda Palmer, song, sound semantics