Street punk is both a subgenre of punk rock and a word that describes people, mostly young, who live on the streets. In the latter case, while those people may not identify as "punk," people described as "street punks" usually have a punkish appearance, including studded leather jackets, torn jeans, plaid Censored page pants, bullet belts, mohawk hairstyles and dyed hair, piercings, et cetera. Others into street punk don't have any particular punkish appearance and can be described as Casuals. The word "punk," in this usage, may have a derogatory intent. Streetpunk is also seen as a reaction against early middle class art school type of punks like Generation X and mainstream cashing in on punk rock. It is a will to bring back punk where it belongs: the dirty streets of suburbia.

The street punk music genre started with the Oi! music scene in the late 70s and early 80s. But on early streetpunk acts one can still feel the influence of late 70s British pub rock and cockney glam noize. This form of music was developed by bands such as Censored page, Slaughter and The Dogs , The Business, 4-Skins , Gonads, Blitz, Ejected and Censored page. It started as a youth music style with songs about tales of the street, police violence, easy girls and teenage drunk mayhem. Today - condemned on the eyes of the media as a gang of street thugs - the street punk movement is stronger than ever and as become a global youth cult. Streetpunk bands of the mid 80s include The Skeptix , Abrasive Wheels , Infa-Riot , Vicious Rumours , Cobra, Decibelios , Komintern Sect and Attak. Today street punk bands can be found all over the world.

Street punks are typically dressed in the height of punk fashion: Often including studded and painted leather jackets, tight black or Censored page with band patches sewn all over them, dyed liberty spikes or mohawks and torn or otherwise modified band t-shirts. Today's street punk is dominated by Dropkick Murphys, the Casualties, Social Combat , Garotos Podres , The Gang Bang Cowboys , Beerzone , Deadline, Anti-Heros , Bonecrusher , Career Soldiers , The Unseen, Oxymoron,Censored page, Mata-Ratos , Resilience, The Virus Charge 69 , etc. These bands play with faster beats, screaming or raspy vocals, almost always distorted guitars, short 10-30 second guitar solos (if any), and faster, more technical bass lines. Their lyrics often talk about having fun at shows, fights, friendship, police opression, the generation gap, social problems, either a negative or positive attitude towards the general punk scene, and in some cases, glorify having spikey hair (for example "Spikey Haired Drunk Punx" by The Casualties)or getting beaten by your mother in law (for example "A Minha Sogra é Um Boi" by Mata-Ratos). Some bands, Boston's The Unseen for example, decide to break from the norm and discuss how they feel the scene is full of conformists. The modern conformity of punk led lead singer of The Unseen, Paul Russo, to lose interest in the direction the band was going and eventually abandon it for a more artistic project called Paul and The Strings .

This is most evident in the song "What Happened?":

"they shut down another venue proving once again they're right

we can't even police ourselves or see a show without a fight

that's why

I'm so fucken sick of this scene but what you gonna do?

condemn anything you think is different that's nothing new

what happened to intelligence in the scene?

maybe there was never any

I ain't saying we can't have no fun but would it hurt to fucking think?

what separates you from the dumb jocks? when all you do is fucking drink

don't preach, learn, teach"