The Punk Effect: Art School Bands, Artist Collectives, and the Makings of an Alternative Culture in Downtown Toronto 1976-1978

This thesis aims to examine the intersections of music, art and politics in late 1970s Toronto, particularly among the artists and musicians of the nascent Queen Street West scene. My research has two intertwined goals. First, to investigate the effect that the nearby Ontario College of Art had on this scene and how local art students' formal training may have impacted their music. Secondly, the symbiotic connection between established artists and the local punk scene will be explored, through a discussion of how artist collectives General Idea and the Centre for Experimental Arts and Communication appropriated punk aesthetics and enlisted punk groups in order to further their owns artistic ends. To address these questions, pertinent theoretical models are applied, including; Birmingham School subcultural theory, theories of the avant-garde, and sociological high culture/mass culture debates.