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Voluntary Agency Network of Korea

The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (사이버 외교사절단), abbreviated VANK, is an Internet-based South Korean organization funded by the Korean government and established in 1999, consisting of 120,000 South Korean members and 30,000 international members. They refer to themselves as the "Cyber Diplomatic Delegation Group", and are mainly involved in spreading information about Korea to the world. They are politically motivated in their activities and frequently promote the Korean government's claims in various Japan-Korea and China-Korea disputes. Park Ki-Tae, founder of VANK, has said "the project is aimed at isolating Japan". VANK's membership consists mainly of junior high and high school students, although university students also participate.

Activities
Examples of campaigns they have conducted include organizing a protests movement to pressure Google and Apple to label the Liancourt rocks as Dokto on their maps and spreading the story of the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo, and about Jikji, the world's oldest extant book printed using movable metal type.

VANK publishes reading materials, postcards, maps, and videos. VANK's self-built online database and published books with information about Korea are acknowledged by overseas universities as recommended learning resources about Korea. As a way to exchange cultures and connect with foreigners, VANK also conducts surveys about their opinions of Korea, such as a notable survey about what aspects of Korea interest foreigners the most.

VANK disputes certain terms and information regarding Asian geographic names or about East Asian history. The head of the Voluntary Agency Network of Korea said the organization has corrected hundreds of mistaken statements by foreign governments about South Korea. VANK also raises awareness for Japanese war crimes and promotes the banning and removal of symbolism they associate with Imperial Japan.

In 2013, VANK launched a campaign against the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The campaign included a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) opposing the games because "Japan has no remorse for war crimes.”, the letter was also sent to major foreign media such as CNN and the New York Times. On January 6, 2020, a poster was put on a temporary fence on the site of the new Japanese embassy in Jong Chiyo Road, Nono District. In the posters, the Tokyo Games are contaminated by nuclear radiation, in one scene the Olympic Torch Relay is depicted with a man in a hazmat suit transporting radioactive material. Stamps and coins bearing similar imagery were also produced.

In 2019, VANK launched a campaign against the expression Chinese New Year, recommending the term "lunar new year" instead.

In 2020, VANK urged Chinese netizens to stop cyberbullying Korean celebrity singer Lee Hyo-ri after her Instagram account received several complaints and criticisms. VANK posted an online petition titled "Stop China's cyber chauvinism which lynched a Korean celebrity!". It justified the petition on the basis "We oppose the chauvinistic attitude of attacking others in the name of nationalism, which includes interpreting even the smallest part of an expression in the most vicious and offensive way".

Funding
VANK is a non-governmental and private organization. According to VANK, they do not receive money from any organization or corporation, and are run by donations. In fact, they receive funds from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of South Korea, along with multiple corporate donors. The amount paid by the government has decreased, from 80 million won in 2006 ($1=W950 in 2006, around $84,000) to 30 million won in 2008 ($1=W1,300 in 2008, around $24,000).

Political position
VANK does not represent an official political position, but the organization is believed to be politically closer to a liberal-to-progressive camp than to a conservative camp one.

In South Korea, liberals and leftists tend to show more anti-imperialist and left-wing nationalist based diplomatic views than conservatives in diplomacy involving powerful countries, including China and Japan. Because of this tendency, conservatives support reducing VANK's government subsidies, while liberals and leftists support increasing VANK's government subsidies.

Criticism
VANK organizes young Korean students as "cyber diplomats" to lobby foreign organizations and webmasters about what it perceives as errors in matters related to Korea. The Government of Korea endorses such "cyber vigilantism", subsidising a competition in which participants try to censor foreign websites for "incorrect" content about Korea. Park Jung-yul, an official of The Korean Information Service (KOIS) said "KOIS is resolved to monitor the contents of Korea-related Web sites and provide correct information on the Net in order to help generate an accurate image of the country." In Asia Times Online, it was reported that the South Korean government is offering rewards to students who participate in the activities of VANK, most of which are centered on the issues of the Sea of Japan.

VANK lists current targets for "correction" on its website for members to send a form letter of protest. Some of its requests for correction are justifiable, such as referring to a simple mistake mixing up North and South Korea. However, in relation to more highly contentious issues it does not accept any non-Korean interpretations. In a Foreign Policy article, VANK was described as being seen as "self-styled cyber fact-checkers" to those favourable to their cause but for others they are seen as "hyper-nationalistic spammers".

Although official foreign government agencies tend to endure its cyber harassment, numerous private organisations and websites surrender to silence VANK's clamour. An About.com spokesman, relating his company's decision to use the name "East Sea" to refer to the body of water otherwise known as the Sea of Japan, stated that they chose to use the name "not necessarily because it agreed with the South Korean geography activists but because the e-mail bombardment was annoying." In the About.com case, it received more than 20 e-mails per day for more than a year before it finally changed the name. Likewise, the National Geographic Society and other websites have changed their naming policies as a result of similar "e-mail and letter writing campaigns".

VANK has been accused of promoting Korea while attacking Japan. Critics claim that VANK has attempted to bully and discount Japan and Japanese culture, manipulate history during and after World War II and have other countries believe in distorted perspectives related to Japanese-Korean history that have a bias favoring Korea. VANK has also been accused of attacking China and Chinese culture.

Awards

 * 2010: Hong Jin-Ki Creator Award

title: Voluntary Agency Network of Korea


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Tōkai region

The Tōkai region (東海地方) is a subregion of the Chūbu region and Kansai region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes. Because Tōkai is a sub-region and is not officially classified, there is some disagreement about where exactly the region begins and ends, however Japanese maps widely conclude that the region includes Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectures.

The largest major city in the region is Nagoya and the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area (Nagoya Metropolitan Area) makes up a large portion of the region and has Japan's third strongest economy. The business influence of this urban area sometimes extends out into the outlying areas of the three prefectures centered on Nagoya which are Aichi, Gifu, and Mie; this area is sometimes referred to as the Chūkyō region.

Tōkai is a heavy manufacturing area and is one of the most industrial regions in Japan. Its coast is lined with densely populated cities with economies that thrive on factories.

The Tōkai region has experienced a number of large earthquakes in the past, including the two great earthquakes in 1944 (also known as the "Tonankai earthquake") and 1945 (also known as the "Mikawa earthquake"). Following the work of Kiyoo Mogi, it is predicted that there is a possibility that the area will be subject to a shallow magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the near future. Nagoya, Shizuoka, and other large cities would be greatly damaged, with potential casualties in the tens of thousands. The Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction designated the region as an Area of Specific Observation in 1970, and upgraded it to an Area of Intensified Observation in 1974.

Railroads
Central Japan Railway Company, an arm of the former national railway Japan Railways Group, operates in an area roughly coextensive with the Tōkai region. In fact, JR Central's official Japanese name is Tōkai Railway Company, abbreviated to JR-Tōkai ("JR Central" is the English name). JR Central operates the Tōkaidō Main Line between Atami and Maibara stations, as well as the Tōkaidō Shinkansen high speed line between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka, and many conventional lines joining with the Tōkaidō Main Line.

Economy
Economy of Tōkai subregion is largely based on the Chūkyō metropolitan area that lies within its borders. Note that the Chūkyō metropolitan area is also known as Greater Nagoya as the largest and most influential city of the metropolitan area is Nagoya. Automobile giants Toyota and Suzuki are located in Tōkai subregion. Yamaha corporation is also located in Tōkai subregion.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, and, Tōkai subregion much like Chūkyō metropolitan area has experienced continuous population growth throughout the 20th century.

Since around 2010 though, the Tōkai subregion has experienced population decline.

Major cities

 * Designated city
 * Hamamatsu City: (designated city)
 * Nagoya City: (designated city, the capital of Aichi Prefecture)
 * Shizuoka City: (designated city, the capital of Shizuoka Prefecture)
 * Core city
 * Gifu City: (core city, the capital of Gifu Prefecture)
 * Special city
 * Yokkaichi City: (special city)
 * Other major cities
 * Tsu City: (the capital of Mie Prefecture)

Other major cities

 * Toyota City: a core city
 * Okazaki City: a core city
 * Toyohashi City: a core city
 * Ichinomiya City: a special city
 * Kasugai City: a special city
 * Fuji City: a special city
 * Numazu City: a special city

Companies

 * Toyota Motor Company
 * Yamaha
 * Kawai Musical Instruments
 * Suzuki
 * Roland Corporation

Universities

 * Nagoya University
 * Nanzan University
 * Nagoya Institute of Technology
 * Gifu University
 * Mie University
 * Chukyo University
 * Toyohashi University of Technology
 * Nihon University College of International Relations
 * Shizuoka University

Airports

 * Chūbu Centrair International Airport
 * Nagoya Regional Airport
 * Shizuoka Airport

Baseball

 * Chunichi Dragons

Football

 * Júbilo Iwata
 * Nagoya Grampus
 * Shimizu S-Pulse
 * F.C. Gifu
 * Honda F.C.
 * F.C. Kariya

Basketball

 * San-en NeoPhoenix
 * SeaHorses Mikawa
 * Nagoya Diamond Dolphins

Power generation
The Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant is located within the Tōkai region.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Tōkai region


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Tumen River

The Tumen River (, река Туманная, ; Korean pronunciation: [ tumanɡaŋ] ), also known as the Tuman River or Duman River, is a 521 km long river that serves as part of the boundary between China (left shore), North Korea (right) and Russia (left), rising on the slopes of Mount Paektu and flowing into the Sea of Japan. The river has a drainage basin of 33,800 km2.

The river flows in northeast Asia, on the border between China and North Korea in its upper reaches, and between North Korea and Russia in its last 17 km before entering the Sea of Japan. The river forms much of the southern border of Jilin Province in Northeast China and the northern borders of North Korea's North Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces. Paektu Mountain on the Chinese-North Korean border is the source of the river, as well as of the Yalu River. The two rivers and the region of Paektu Mountain between their headwaters form the border between North Korea and China.

The name of the river comes from the Mongolian word tümen, meaning "ten thousand" or a myriad. This river is badly polluted by the nearby factories of North Korea and China; however, it still remains a major tourist attraction in the area. In Tumen, Jilin, a riverfront promenade has restaurants where patrons can gaze across the river into North Korea. The Russian name of the river is Tumannaya, literally meaning foggy.

In 1938 the Japanese built the Tumen River Bridge, where the Quan River meets the Tumen River, between the villages of Wonjong (Hunchun) and Quanhe. Important cities and towns on the river are Hoeryong and Onsong in North Korea, Tumen and Nanping (南坪镇, in the county-level city of Helong) in China's Jilin province.

In 1995, the People's Republic of China, Mongolia, Russia, North Korea and South Korea signed three agreements to create the Tumen River Economic Development Area.

Noktundo
Noktundo, a former island (now effectively a peninsula) at the mouth of the Tumen, has been a boundary contention between Russia and North Korea. The Qing Dynasty ceded the island to Russia as part of the Primorsky Maritimes (East Tartary) in the 1860 Treaty of Peking. In 1990, the former Soviet Union and North Korea signed a border treaty which made the border run through the center of the river, leaving territory of the former island on Russian side. South Korea refuses to acknowledge the treaty and demanded that Russia return the territory to Korea.

Fishing
There are several popular species of fish endemic to Tumen river, such as Tumen lenok and bighead gudgeon. In 2016, China released 800,000 salmon seedlings into Tumen river in order to expand the regional fishing industry and meet the increasing demand for sea products.

Illegal crossings
The Tumen has been crossed for years by North Korean refugees defecting across the Chinese border. Most refugees from North Korea during the 1990s famine crossed it, and most recent refugees have also used it, as it is far easier than crossing the Amnok River. The Tumen is the preferred crossing because, unlike the swift, deep and broad Amnok River that runs along most of the border between the two countries, the Tumen is shallow and narrow. In some areas it can be crossed on foot, or by short swims. It freezes in winter, allowing dry crossings. Defectors wishing to cross the Tumen often ignore its pollutants and dangerous border patrol, and spend weeks if not months or years waiting for the perfect opportunity to cross. "Long, desolate stretches of the Chinese-North Korean border are not patrolled at all", according to a New York Times article.

Refugees rarely cross the Tumen into Russia. This is because Russia's short stretch of the river is far better patrolled than China's stretch. In addition, the rewards for doing so are not as high since the ethnic Korean community in Russia is far smaller to receive sufficient support from, as opposed to China, which has a larger Korean population. Lastly, North Korean authorities have been known to infiltrate Russia looking for defectors and those who collaborate to assist them; the 1996 murder of Choe Deok-geun in the border city of Vladivostok prompted South Korean authorities to be very reluctant to provide defectors with any assistance.

The Tumen is also crossed illegally by soldiers and others seeking food and money. Some Chinese villagers have left the border area because of the attacks.

The history of conflict in the area (examples include incidents during the Battle of Lake Khasan) was alluded to in singer Kim Jeong-gu's song 'Tearful Tumen River (눈물 젖은 두만강)', which became an ode to families separated by such tragedies and by defections during the Korean War. The humanitarian crisis along the Tumen River was dramatized in the 2010 feature-length film Dooman River.

title: Tumen River


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Talk:1964 in music

Untitled
Could somebody explain more cleary what "Simon and Garfunkel form to record for Columbia Records, marking first time that ethnic names are used in pop music." means? Neither name strikes me as being ethnic in the way I would use the word (which would be Shakur, Kenyatta, Ghandi, Hirohito, for example -- or even Sinatra is Italian, right?), but I wasn't part of the record-buying public in 1964... I just don't get it. Tokerboy

albums released - alphabetical order
Dear 60s and 70s music fans out there in wikiland (or is that wikispace?)

For want of an easier way of doing things, and following a question raised on another talk page, I am in the process of putting the albums released sections of the 60s and 70s in music pages into alphabetical order.

Whilst I realise this may not be the best or most popular way of listing stuff, I reached the conclusion that other than going directly to an artist's article page, it was probably the most efficient/effective way to find that album that we want to check up on and compare it to its contemporaries. By way of example, if we were to put the following album in artist name order:

 * Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 - Jackson 5

we would [probably] have to include it twice on the same list: once under each of the named artists, whereas if we list it alphabetically there's no possible confusion(?).

I'd appreciate some feedback on this, and in the hope that y'all agree with me (as you can imagine this is taking up quite a bit of my wikitime), I'm posting this note on all the relevant discussion pages. Please bear in mind I am only suggesting this for the albums released sections and NOT for any other kind of list. Thanx. 83.180.133.119 23:08, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

1964 in music says the album was released in 1964, while A Love Supreme claims it was released in 1965. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.155.165.4 (talk) 17:58, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
 * A Love Supreme

Bands formed
"Them" formed twice that year or different Bands? --92.224.63.54 (talk) 16:48, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:1964 in music


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Barrel racing

Barrel racing is a rodeo event in which a horse and rider attempt to run a cloverleaf pattern around preset barrels in the fastest time. In collegiate and professional ranks, it is usually a women's event, though both sexes compete at amateur and youth levels. It requires a combination of the horse's athletic ability and the horsemanship skills of a rider in order to safely and successfully maneuver the horse around three barrels placed in a triangle pattern within a large arena.

History
Barrel racing originally developed as an event for women. In early barrel racing, the pattern alternated between a figure-eight and a cloverleaf pattern. The figure-eight was eventually dropped in favor of the more difficult cloverleaf.

It is believed that competitive barrel racing was first held in Texas. The Women's Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) was founded in 1948 by a group of women from Texas who were trying to find a place for women in the wider sport of rodeo. When it began, the WPRA was called the Girls Rodeo Association (GRA). It consisted of 74 members, with about 60 approved tour events. The Girls Rodeo Association was the first body of rodeo developed specifically for women. The GRA changed its name to Women's Professional Rodeo Association in 1981, and the WPRA still provides women competition opportunities in several rodeo events, but barrel racing remains the most popular. Even so, the sport of barrel racing is played by large numbers of both boys and girls, especially in rural and remote areas.

Modern event
Today, barrel racing is a part of most rodeos, and is also included at gymkhana or O-Mok-See events, which are generally amateur competitions open to riders of all ages and abilities. In amateur competition other related speed events (such as keyhole race and pole bending) may be added. Barrel racing at this level is usually an event in which riders are grouped by age. There are also open barrel racing jackpots, some open to all contestants no matter their age or gender.

The main purpose of barrel racing is to run a set pattern as fast as possible. The times are measured either by an electric eye, a device using a laser system to record times, or by a judge who drops a flag to let the timer know when to start and stop the clock. Judges and timers are more commonly seen in local and non-professional events. The timer begins when horse and rider cross the starting line, and ends when the barrel pattern has been successfully executed and horse and rider cross the finish line. Success depends on several factors, most commonly the horse's physical and mental condition, the rider's horsemanship abilities, and the type of ground or footing (the quality, depth, content, etc. of the sand or dirt in the arena).

Beginning a barrel race, the horse and rider will enter the arena at top speed, through the center entrance (or alley if in a rodeo arena). Once in the arena, the electronic timer beam is crossed by the horse and rider. The timer keeps running until the beam is crossed again at the end of the run.

Modern barrel racing horses not only need to be fast, but also strong, agile, and intelligent. Strength and agility are needed to maneuver the course in as little distance as possible. A horse that is able to "hug the barrels" as well as maneuver the course quickly and accurately follow commands, will be a horse with consistently fast times.

Rules and pattern
In barrel racing, the fastest time wins. Running past a barrel and off the pattern will result in a "no time" score and disqualification. If a barrel racer or her horse hits a barrel and knocks it over there is a time penalty of five seconds (sometimes more), which usually will result in a time too slow to win. There is a sixty-second time limit to complete the course after time begins. Contestants cannot be required to start a run from an off-center alleyway, but contestants are not allowed to enter the arena and "set" the horse. At professional rodeos, it is required that the arena be harrowed after twelve contestants have run. Barrels are required to be fifty-five gallons, metal, enclosed at both ends, and of at least two colors. Competitors in the National Barrel Racing Association (NBRA) are required to wear a western long-sleeved shirt (tucked in), western cut pants or jeans, western hat, and boots. Competitors are required to abide by this dress code beginning one hour before the competition.

Standard barrel racing patterns require measured distances between the start line and the first barrel, from the first to the second barrel, and from the second to the third barrel.

Usually the established distances are as follows:

 * 90 ft between barrel 1 and 2.
 * 105 ft between barrel 1 and 3 and between 2 and 3.
 * 60 ft from barrels 1 and 2 to score line.

In a standard WPRA pattern, the score line begins at the plane of arena, meaning from fence to fence regardless of the position of the electric eye or timer.

In larger arenas, there is a maximum allowable distance of 105 ft between barrels 1 and 2, and a maximum distance of 120 ft between barrels 2 and 3, and 1 and 3. Barrels 1 and 2 must be at least 18 ft from the sides of the arena — in smaller arenas this distance may be less, but in no instance should the barrels be any closer than 15 ft from the sides of the arena.

Barrel 3 should be no closer than 25 ft from the end of the arena, and should be set no more than 15 ft longer than the first and second barrel. If arena size permits, barrels must be set 60 ft or further apart. In small arenas it is recommended the pattern be reduced proportionately to a standard barrel pattern.

The above pattern is the set pattern for the Women's Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA), and The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA).

The National Barrel Horse Association (NBHA) use the following layout for governing patterns:

 * A minimum of 15 ft between each of the first two barrels and the side fence.
 * A minimum of 30 ft between the third barrel and the back fence.
 * A minimum of 30 ft between the time line and the first barrel.

Competition technique
The approach to the first barrel is particularly critical. The rider can decide whether to go to the left or the right barrel first. Each turn in barrel racing is, ideally, a relatively even half-circle around the barrel that takes about three strides. It is best to use the inside leg while going around the first half of a barrel, and the outside leg in the second half. In approaching the second barrel, the horse must do a flying change of lead and rider must identify the correct spot to approach the turn around the second barrel. The turn around the third and final barrel is in the same direction as the second barrel. Completing the third and final turn, horse and rider race for "home", the line that stops the timer and ends the run.

As the horse sets up to take the turn, the rider must be in position as well, sitting deeply in the saddle, using the inside hand to guide the horse through and around the barrel turn. The rider's leg to the inside of the turn is held securely along the girth to support the horse's rib cage and give them a focal point for the turn. The athleticism required for this maneuvering comes from optimum physical fitness of the rider and especially the horse. Improper preparation for such a sport can cause injury to both horse and rider. Injury can be avoided by using the proper protection for both horse and rider.

Associations and sanctioning bodies

Since its beginnings, the sport has developed into an organized, well-governed sport. The main sanctioning body of professional female rodeo athletes is the Women's Professional Rodeo Association. The WPRA has over 800 sanctioned tour events with an annual payout of more than $3 million. The WPRA is divided into twelve divisional circuits. Average and overall winners from their circuit compete at the NFR Open. In the United States, two national organizations promote events for barrel racing alone: the National Barrel Horse Association and Better Barrel Races. The WPRA is co-sanctioned with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) to allow women to compete in PRCA-endorsed rodeos. Without the co-sanction, barrel racing would be removed from PRCA rodeos and the National Finals Rodeo (NFR). The WPRA world champion barrel racer is decided at the NFR. Barrel racing has been part of the NFR since 1967.

Horses
The American Quarter Horse is the most commonly used horse breed.

Purchase price of a high caliber barrel racing horse can easily reach $25,000, depending on the ability and individuality of the horse. While breeding is one major influence in the sale price of a horse, athletic ability, intelligence and drive, as well as the overall state of the economy, all play a role. Prices can vary a great deal depending on market conditions. The highest-selling barrel racing horse sold at a public auction in 2009 sold for $68,000.

Tack and equipment
There are no specific bits required for barrel racing, although some bits are more common to barrel racers. The type used is determined by an individual horse's needs. Bits with longer shanks cause the horse to stop quicker than normal due to the additional leverage on the poll and jaw, while bits with shorter shanks provide better control for turns. Curb chains, nosebands, and tiedowns are used as needed.

Typically, reins used in barrel racing competitions are a single looped rein. This allows the rider the ability to quickly recover the reins if dropped, unlike split reins. Leather reins are widely used. These can be flat or braided, but both varieties have a tendency to become slippery when wet. Reins made of synthetic materials are also available.

A lightweight western saddle with a high pommel and cantle is ideal. Forward hung stirrups also help to keep the rider's feet in proper position. Typically, riders choose a saddle that is up to a full size smaller than he or she would normally use. Most importantly, it must fit the rider's horse properly. Saddle pads and cinches are chosen based on the horse's size.

Camas Prairie Stump Race
The Camas Prairie Stump Race is a barrel race which is also a match race: two horses race against each other on identical circuits opposite the start-finish line; the riders start beside each other facing in opposite directions, and the first horse and rider back across the line win the race. The races continue until all but the last is eliminated. It is not a timed event. It is one of five game classes approved for horse club shows by the Appaloosa Horse Club. The ApHC rules state that racing competition is traditional to the Nez Perce Native American people. However, it is unclear if this particular competition is derived from any traditional competition.

Injury issues
Commonly, protective boots are worn on the horse's front and hind legs to decrease the risk of potential injury. Injuries can occur when horses or riders collide with a barrel, fall on a sharp turn, or have an accident in the crowded gate area outside of the arena. Although equestrian helmets are not traditionally worn by riders, their use is slowly increasing, particularly since one championship-level rider debuted helmet use at the 2014 National Finals Rodeo.

The metacarpophalangeal joint is the most frequently injured area in barrel horses. Owing to the nature of the tight turns of the pattern and abrupt changes of speed, the right forelimb appears to be subjected to more stress than the left, yet in radiographs, the left shows more abnormalities. At the fetlock, the medial sesamoid bones are more likely to suffer inflammation than the lateral. Over time, some horses develop osteoarthritis. There are few studies on lameness in barrel horses, and most only examined horses known to be lame.

title: Barrel racing


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Saccadic masking

Saccadic masking, also known as (visual) saccadic suppression, is the phenomenon in visual perception where the brain selectively blocks visual processing during eye movements in such a way that neither the motion of the eye (and subsequent motion blur of the image) nor the gap in visual perception is noticeable to the viewer.

The phenomenon was first described by Erdmann and Dodge in 1898, when it was noticed during unrelated experiments that an observer could never see the motion of their own eyes. This can easily be duplicated by looking into a mirror, and looking from one eye to another. The eyes can never be observed in motion, yet an external observer clearly sees the motion of the eyes.

The phenomenon is often used to help explain a temporal illusion by the name of chronostasis, which momentarily occurs following a rapid eye-movement.

Mechanism
A saccade is a fast eye motion, and because it is a motion that is optimised for speed, there is inevitable blurring of the image on the retina, as the retina is sweeping the visual field. Blurred retinal images are not of much use, and the eye has a mechanism that "cuts off" the processing of retinal images when it becomes blurred. This phenomenon is called saccadic masking or saccadic suppression. There were two major types of saccadic masking claimed: flash suppression (the inability to see a flash of light during a saccade ) and saccadic suppression of image displacement (characterized by the inability to perceive whether a target has moved or not during a saccade). Testing since then has revealed that these two theories may not be correct. Within-saccade movement detection was proven and detailed in a paper by Richard Schweitzer and Martin Rolfs at Humboldt University in Berlin.

Because saccadic suppression starts before the actual onset of the saccade, it cannot be triggered by retinal motion and must be centrally activated by the brain. Supporting this idea, a significant reduction of the cortical signals retinotopically encoding stimuli briefly presented immediately before the execution of a saccade has been found as early as in primary visual cortex.

Intrasaccadic perception: relationship with saccadic movements and motion blur
Saccadic masking is not fully related to the saccade itself. Saccadic masking starts with onset of the saccadic motion of the eye and the onset of the associated blur. Yet, it finishes as soon as the image on the retina has stabilized, whether due to finishing of the saccade itself or not. There are many ways in which the image on the retina during a saccade could be artificially stabilised to get rid of motion blur and thus finish the saccadic masking.

In the laboratory, this is typically studied by presenting a striped pattern that moves too fast to be seen, so that, when the eyes do not move, it appears as a homogeneous surface. But when the participant makes an eye movement in the same direction as the pattern movement, the velocity of the eye movement briefly matches that of the pattern movement. As a result, the pattern, which is normally invisible, briefly becomes stabilized on the retina, and consequently becomes visible. This phenomenon is known as intrasaccadic perception.

Outside of the laboratory, you can experience this as well, for example when riding on a train or on the lower deck of a bus. Assume one is looking straight out of the train car's window at the adjacent track. If the train is moving fast enough, the track one is seeing will be just a blur - the angular speed of the track's motion on the retina is too fast for the eye to compensate with optokinetic tracking. Then, one starts looking to the left and right along the track - just as if one was to catch something that was either speeding past on the track or lagging behind. Looking right and left along the adjacent track in fact means that one alternates the gaze between the left and right portions of the track. Changing the point of gaze is done as saccades. If, due to the car's motion, the track is 'escaping' to one's left, a left-going saccade will try to 'catch up' with the track's motion.

Saccadic velocity, plotted against time, is a bell-shaped curve. If the peak velocity of the saccade (height of the peak of the curve) is at least as large as the angular velocity of the adjacent track, there will be at least one point in which the velocity of the eye is the same as the velocity of the track. Imagine a bell shaped curve (velocity of the saccade) intersecting a horizontal line (constant velocity of the track). For a very short period of time (about a thousandth of a second), the eye follows the track closely enough. Thus, the image on the retina gets stable for a fraction of a second. As soon as the image is stable, there is no more blur, and the saccadic suppression switches off. This situation does not last long — since a saccade doesn't have a constant velocity, very soon the eye is moving either faster or slower than the track, and the blur reappears in a course of a millisecond. Yet, that millisecond (or so) is long enough for a snapshot of the retinal image to be stored, and to enable its further processing. In another quarter of a second, after the image has been processed by the brain, one actually 'sees' the freeze-frame image of the adjacent track—without any blur—to the extent that one easily notices details such as gravel, dirt in between the tracks, and so on.

A fragment of the possible timeline of the experiment follows. Although it is not known exactly how long a retinal image snapshot takes, it is assumed here that it is less than 10 ms.

title: Saccadic masking


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Site-specific art

Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork. Site-specific art is produced both by commercial artists, and independently, and can include some instances of work such as sculpture, stencil graffiti, rock balancing, and other art forms. Installations can be in urban areas, remote natural settings, or underwater.

History
The term "site-specific art" was promoted and refined by Californian artist Robert Irwin but it was actually first used in the mid-1970s by young sculptors, such as Patricia Johanson, Dennis Oppenheim, and Athena Tacha, who had started executing public commissions for large urban sites. For Two Jumps for Dead Dog Creek (1970), Oppenheim attempted a series of standing jumps at a selected site in Idaho, where "the width of the creek became a specific goal to which I geared a bodily activity," with his two successful jumps being "dictated by a land form." Site specific environmental art was first described as a movement by architectural critic Catherine Howett and art critic Lucy Lippard. Emerging out of minimalism, site-specific art opposed the Modernist program of subtracting from the artwork all cues that interfere with the fact that it is "art",

Modernist art objects were transportable, nomadic, could only exist in the museum space and were the objects of the market and commodification. Since 1960 the artists were trying to find a way out of this situation, and thus drew attention to the site and the context around this site. The work of art was created in the site and could only exist and in such circumstances - it can not be moved or changed. Site is a current location, which comprises a unique combination of physical elements: depth, length, weight, height, shape, walls, temperature. Works of art began to emerge from the walls of the museum and galleries (Daniel Buren, Within and Beyond the Frame, John Weber Gallery, New York, 1973), were created specifically for the museum and galleries (Michael Asher, untitled installation at Claire Copley Gallery, Los Angeles, 1974, Hans Haacke, Condensation Cube, 1963–65, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Hartford Wash: Washing Tracks, Maintenance Outside, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1973), thus criticizing the museum as an institution that sets the rules for artists and viewers.

Jean-Max Albert, created Sculptures Bachelard in Parc de la Villette related to the site, or Carlotta’s Smile, a trellis construction related to Ar. Co,’s architecture Lisbon, and to a choreography in collaboration with Michala Marcus and Carlos Zingaro, 1979.

When the public debate over Tilted Arc (1981) resulted in its removal in 1989, its author Richard Serra reacted with what can be considered a definition of site-specific art: "To move the work is to destroy the work."

Examples
Outdoor site-specific artworks often include landscaping combined with permanently sited sculptural elements; it is sometimes linked with environmental art. Outdoor site-specific artworks can also include dance performances created especially for the site. More broadly, the term is sometimes used for any work that is more or less permanently attached to a particular location. In this sense, a building with interesting architecture could also be considered a piece of site-specific art.

In Geneva, Switzerland, the Contemporary Art Funds are looking for original ways to integrate art into architecture and the public space since 1980. The Neon Parallax project, initiated in 2004, is conceived specifically for the Plaine de Plainpalais, a public square of 95'000 square meters, in the heart of the city. The concept consists of commissioning luminous artistic works for the rooftops of the buildings bordering the plaza, in the same way, advertisements are installed on the city's glamorous lakefront. The 14 artists invited had to respect the same legal sizes of luminous advertisements in Geneva. The project thus creates a parallax both between locations, and messages, but also by the way one interprets neon signs in the public realm.

Site-specific performance art, site-specific visual art and interventions are commissioned for the annual Infecting the City Festival in Cape Town, South Africa. The site-specific nature of the work allows artists to interrogate the contemporary and historic reality of the Central Business District and create work that allows the city's users to engage and interact with public spaces in new and memorable ways.

title: Site-specific art


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Psychobilly

Psychobilly (or punkabilly) is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ramp[ing] up its speed to a sweaty pace, and combin[ing] it with punk rock and imagery lifted from horror films and late-night sci-fi schlock,... [creating a] gritty honky tonk punk rock."

Psychobilly is often characterized by lyrical references to science fiction, horror (leading to lyrical similarities to horror punk) and exploitation films, violence, lurid sexuality, and other topics generally considered taboo, though often presented in a comedic or tongue-in-cheek fashion. Psychobilly bands and lyrics usually take an apolitical stance, a reaction to the right- and left wing political attitudes which divided other British youth cultures. It is often played with an upright double bass, instead of the electric bass which is more common in modern rock music, and the hollowbody electric guitar, rather than the solid-bodied electric guitars that predominate in rock. Many psychobilly bands are trios of electric guitar, upright bass and drums, with one of the instrumentalists doubling as vocalist.

Psychobilly has its origins in New York City's 1970s punk underground, in which The Cramps are widely given credit for being progenitors of the genre and the first psychobilly band to gain a following. The music gained popularity in Europe in the early 1980s, with the UK band The Meteors, but remained underground in the United States until the late 1990s. The second wave of psychobilly began with the 1986 release of British band Demented Are Go's debut album In Sickness & In Health. The genre soon spread throughout Europe, inspiring a number of new acts such as Mad Sin (formed in Germany in 1987) and the Nekromantix (formed in Denmark in 1989), who released the album Curse of the Coffin in 1991. Since then the advent of several notable psychobilly bands, such as the US band Tiger Army and the Australian band The Living End, has led to its mainstream popularity and attracted international attention to the genre.

History
The evolution of psychobilly as a genre is often described as having occurred in waves. The first wave occurred in New York City in the 1970s and reached Britain in the early 1980s, the second wave took place at the end of that decade and spread through the rest of Europe, and the third crested in the late 1990s with the genre finding international popularity.

Precursors
The wildly theatrical shock rock aesthetic of Screamin' Jay Hawkins in the 1950s, and the outsider music of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy in the late 1960s have been cited as a precursor to what would become psychobilly. The members of the Meteors and the Cramps both cited the song "Love Me" (1960) by the Phantom as the first song in the genre.

Origins in the United States

In the mid- to late 1970s, as punk rock became popular, several rockabilly and garage rock bands appeared who would influence the development of psychobilly. The term "psychobilly" was first used in the lyrics to the country song "One Piece at a Time", written by Wayne Kemp for Johnny Cash, which was a Top 10 hit in the United States in 1976. The lyrics describe the construction of a "psychobilly Cadillac using stolen auto parts."

The Cramps, who formed in Sacramento, California, in 1972 and relocated to New York in 1975 where they became part of the city's thriving punk movement, appropriated the term from the Cash song and described their music as "psychobilly" and "rockabilly voodoo" on flyers advertising their concerts. The Cramps have since rejected the idea of being a part of a psychobilly subculture, noting that "We weren't even describing the music when we put 'psychobilly' on our old fliers; we were just using carny terms to drum up business. It wasn't meant as a style of music." Nevertheless, The Cramps, along with artists such as Screamin' Jay Hawkins, are important precursors to psychobilly. The Cramps' music was heavily informed by the sound and attitude of 1950s American rockabilly, including Hasil Adkins, whose song "She Said" they covered on 1984's compilation album Bad Music for Bad People, along with other songs from the Sun Records catalog. Their 1979 album Songs the Lord Taught Us is influential to the formation of the psychobilly genre.

First wave in Britain
Although the Cramps have been recognized as an "early" or "pioneering" psychobilly band, About.com calls The Meteors "the first true psychobilly band", noting their blend of the "themes of horror, punk and rockabilly". They were the first band to use the term 'Psychobilly' as a description of their music. Formed in South London in 1980, their albums In Heaven (1981) and Wreckin' Crew (1983) are recognized as landmarks of the early years of the genre. "Starting in the neo-rockabilly scene, the Meteors were quickly shunned for being too different. Excuses for exclusion from rockabilly concerts varied from the band having too extreme of a sound to their drummer having green hair." The Meteors blended elements of punk rock, rockabilly, and horror film themes in their music. Another commentator argues that The Misfits' "American Nightmare" may have been the first psychobilly song.

The Meteors also articulated psychobilly's apolitical stance, a reaction to the right- and left-wing political attitudes which divided other British youth cultures. Fans of The Meteors, known as "the Wrecking crew", are often attributed with inventing the style of slam dancing known as "wrecking", which became synonymous with the psychobilly movement. The short-lived Sharks, formed in Bristol in 1980, followed closely behind The Meteors with their influential album Phantom Rockers. Demented Are Go are a Welsh psychobilly band that was formed around 1982 in Cardiff. They were one of the earliest in the initial wave of bands to mix punk rock with rockabilly, and as a result, are highly influential to the psychobilly scene. Another significant British band were the Guana Batz, formed in Feltham, Middlesex in 1983. Their first album, 1985's Held Down to Vinyl at Last, has been described by Tiger Army frontman Nick 13 as "the most important release since the Meteors' first two albums."

The Klub Foot nightclub, opened in 1982 at the Clarendon Hotel in Hammersmith, served as a center for Britain's emerging psychobilly movement and hosted many bands associated with the style. Johnny Bowler of the Guana Batz describes the club as "the focal point for the whole psychobilly scene. You'd get people from all over at those gigs. It built the scene." Representatives from record labels such as Nervous used the Klub Foot as a recruiting ground to sign up new bands. A live compilation album entitled Stomping at the Klub Foot was released in 1984, documenting the club's scene and the bands who played there. At the same time psychobilly bands were forming elsewhere in Europe, such as Batmobile who emerged in the Netherlands in 1983, released their debut album in 1985, and soon began headlining at psychobilly festivals and at the Klub Foot.

Second wave in Europe
The second wave of psychobilly is noted as having begun with the 1986 release of British band Demented Are Go's debut album In Sickness & In Health. The genre soon spread throughout Europe, inspiring a number of new acts such as Mad Sin (formed in Germany in 1987) and the Nekromantix (formed in Denmark in 1989), who released the album Curse of the Coffin in 1991. The Quakes formed in Buffalo, New York in 1986, but had such difficulty building a following in their hometown that they moved to London the following year, where they released the album Voice of America in 1990. Another significant release of this era was the compilation album Rockabilly Psychosis and the Garage Disease, which acknowledged the genre's roots in rockabilly and garage rock. The second-wave bands broadened the music's scope, with the introduction of new and diverse musical influences into the sound. Record labels such as Nervous and Crazy Love helped the genre to expand, although it still remained largely unnoticed in the United States, where the albums were poorly distributed and most psychobilly bands preferred to play weekenders than to tour. Nick 13 states that while other British youth trends such as scooter riding, the skinhead subculture, and 2 Tone ska crossed over to the United States during the 1980s, psychobilly did not.

However, one American act that emulated the style was The Reverend Horton Heat, formed in Dallas, Texas in 1985. Their 1990 single "Psychobilly Freakout" helped introduce American audiences to the genre. The band was heavily inspired by The Cramps, and original Cramps members Lux Interior and Poison Ivy have both identified The Reverend Horton Heat as the latter-day rockabilly/psychobilly band most closely resembling the style and tone of The Cramps. Horton Heat noted that the lack of audience awareness of the band was in some ways a benefit: "Somehow, as a band, we continue[d] to fly just below the radar of the whole music business. Which means we g[o]t to concentrate on being [touring] musicians, not recording artists."

Third wave internationally
The third wave of psychobilly began in the mid-1990s, with many acts incorporating influences from genres such as: hardcore punk, indie rock, heavy metal, new wave, goth rock, surf rock, country, and ska. Psychobilly became popular in the United States, particularly in southern California, where punk rock had thrived and remained popular since the 1970s. The area's large Latino community, which revered early rock and roll icons, also played a part, as did the popularity of bands like the horror-influenced Misfits and country/rockabilly-inspired Social Distortion, as well as a celebration of hot rod and motorcycle culture. In the mid to late 1990s European bands Demented Are Go, Godless Wicked Creeps and The Hangmen each played their own US live tours, motivating the fledgling US scene.

Tiger Army, formed in Berkeley in 1996, became the dominant American psychobilly act following the release of their 1999 self-titled debut. Their touring in support of the album helped to establish a foothold for psychobilly across the United States. Los Angeles-based Hellcat Records, run by Rancid's Tim Armstrong, became home to many psychobilly acts, including Tiger Army, Devil's Brigade and the Danish groups Nekromantix and HorrorPops, both of whom relocated to southern California in the early 2000s.

Guana Batz members Pip Hancox and Johnny Bowler relocated there as well, moving to San Diego where they sometimes perform with Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats under the name Guana Cats. Another notable California psychobilly band formed in the 1990s was The Chop Tops. They have toured with bands like German psychobillies Mad Sin and the Nekromantix, and have opened for the Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, Dick Dale, John Lee Hooker, and Chuck Berry.

The genre remained vital in Europe, where new acts continued to appear. In 1992, the Kryptonix emerged in France while the Godless Wicked Creeps formed in Denmark the following year, The Sharks re-formed in Britain, releasing the album Recreational Killer, The Snakes formed in Italy in 2004. Psychobilly also expended to new continents Battle of Ninjamanz formed in Japan in 1994 and Os Catalepticos formed in Brazil in 1996.

In the UK however most bands had split up, The Hangmen – who had formed after the first and second waves – became reliant on live events that did not specifically cater to the much depreciated Psychobilly audiences, resulting in the genre being introduced to a wider audience and the band acquiring a more diverse following that included punks and bikers.

Canada
Psychobilly also spread to Canada. Stylistically, Déjà Voodoo (who sometimes described themselves as "sludgeabilly") and Condition, both from Montreal, are an early forerunners of the genre. As early as 1983, both bands issued recordings that displayed the rockabilly and garage punk influences of psychobilly, as well as a lyrical tendency towards horror and dark themes, often presented with humour.

Although it was not acknowledged as such at the time, Montreal's Mongols likely came closest to true psychobilly. From the somber Cramps-ish original title track to the covers of deranged rockabilly (Hasil Adkins), fifties rhythm 'n' blues (via psychobilly forefathers The Sonics), sixties garage rock by Quebec teenage sensations Les Lutins, and obscure, off-kilter instrumentals (one by The Nautiloids), their mini-LP Sleepwalk (1986) runs the gamut of all the musical bases of the genre. In addition, a few years later, The Mongols had their only other recording, "Bébé Cadavre" (Cadaver Baby), included on the Lachés Lousses compilation (1990).

Edmonton's Dusty Chaps might also be seen as an early exponent of the style with the inclusion of their sinister "Psychopath of Love" on Nervous Records' compilation Boppin' In Canada (1991). Following in those tracks, in the mid-nineties, were Vancouver's Deadcats. Their guitarist, Mike Dennis, had previously played in hardcore punk bands The Bill Of Rights and Forbidden Beat. Besides his own band, Dennis also issued early recordings by Montreal psychobillies The Alley Dukes, and Bloodshot Bill – who is also sometimes associated with the genre – on his Flying Saucer Records label.

The Gutter Demons were a band formed in 2002 in Montreal, Quebec, who became one of the most recognizable Canadian psychobilly bands, their live debut came supporting The Hangmen from the UK on their Canadian Tour of that year. The Brains is a band from Montreal.

The Creepshow is a band from Burlington, Ontario, Canada. which formed in 2005; they write the majority of their songs about horror films. The Switchblade Valentines are a Canadian psychobilly band from Victoria. Big John Bates is known as "one of Vancouver's most notorious musicians" (Globe & Mail - Toronto). The band re-branded in 2011 as "Americana Noir" (a rustic offshoot of the dark cabaret genre) when the Gretsch-endorsed Bates was joined by Montana's Brandy Bones on Hofner upright bass and cello. Lauren Spike is a band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who have played many large shows such as Amnesia Rockfest.

Musical style
Musically, psychobilly is rooted primarily in two genres: late 1970s punk rock and 1950s American rockabilly. Tiger Army frontman Nick 13 explains: "The number-one misconception people have is that psychobilly is the same thing as rockabilly. Rockabilly is on the family tree, but it's a totally different sound and attitude." Psychobilly progenitors The Cramps acknowledge their music's deep roots in American blues, rhythm and blues, and traditional rock and roll. Alternative Press writer Ryan Downey notes that contemporary psychobilly also draws from other rock genres and subgenres: "Driven by the rhythmic pounding of a stand-up bass, the music swings with the snarl of punk rock while sometimes thrashing alongside speed metal or crashing headlong into country icon Hank Williams." Craig Brackenridge lists other sources of inspiration: 1960s garage punk, glam rock, revival rock 'n' roll, and heavy metal. Nate Katz states that "[w]hile traces of glam, metal, and punk can be found in psychobilly, at its core, psychobilly emerged from rockabilly, particularly the neo-rockabilly movement [in] London during the late 1970s". Katz states that "The Sharks brought in elements of new wave music to their sound." Moreover, "[i]n the song 'Take a Razor to Your Head,' they clearly seek out those breaking away from neo-rockabilly into psychobilly".

Downey acknowledges that contemporary psychobilly's roots extend into 2 Tone ska, garage rock, hardcore punk, street punk and Oi!. Hilary Okun, publicist for Epitaph and Hellcat Records, notes: "The music appeals to fans of punk, indie, metal, new wave, goth, rockabilly, surf, [and] country." The influence of heavy metal on the psychobilly style resulted in the Nekromantix's 1994 album Brought Back to Life being nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of "Best Heavy Metal Album".

Psychobilly is commonly played with a simple guitar/bass/drum/vocal arrangement, with many bands consisting of only three members. Often the guitarist or bassist will be the lead vocalist, with few acts having a dedicated singer (Mad Sin being one of the examples with a dedicated singer).

Psychobilly guitarists often play rockabilly-style hollowbody archtop guitars with f-holes and a tremolo bar. Guitarists may play punk-style power chords one moment, and then shift into rockabilly-style fingerpicking and rockabilly guitar-style seventh chords, with a heavy focus on minor chords and palm muting. Notes are often bent, either by pulling the string down or by using the tremolo bar. Gretsch hollowbody guitars are a popular choice. Guitarists often use 1950s-style tube amplifiers such as by makers such as Fender and it is common to see stacks of two speaker cabinets. As with rockabilly guitarists, the overdrive tone usually comes from what is produced naturally by overdriving the tube amp, rather than by plugging into a distortion pedal.

An upright double bass is often used instead of the electric bass found in most rock bands (though an electric bass is sometimes optional). The use of the upright bass is influenced by 1950s rockabilly and rock and roll musicians, particularly in the use of walking bass lines and the use of slapping. The bass is often played in the slap style, in which the player snaps the string by pulling it until it hits the fingerboard, or hits the strings against the fingerboard, which adds a high-pitched percussive "clack" or "slap" sound to the low-pitched notes. Kim Nekroman and Geoff Kresge are two examples of psychobilly bassists who have developed a rapid, percussive slap bass technique. This live Nekromantix song showcases Kim's rapid percussive slapping. This live Tiger Army song shows Kresge's rapid slap bass technique.

Psychobilly bassists often use gut strings, to get the deep, low 1950s tone. Like rockabilly bassists, psychobilly bassists often use both a bridge pickup and a fingerboard pickup, with the latter being used to pick up slapping and percussive sounds. Psychobilly bassists often decorate their basses by painting them with retro pin-up style images or designs or by putting stickers on them.

Some acts have made their upright bass the centerpiece of their stage shows; some psychobilly musicians elaborately decorate their upright bass, such as Nekromantix frontman Kim Nekroman, whose "coffinbass" is in the shape of a coffin, with a headstock in the shape of a cross. Nekroman created his original "coffinbass" from an actual child-sized coffin, and has since designed new models to achieve better acoustics, as well as collapsibility for easier transportation. Another notable act to use a coffin-shaped bass is the Brazilian psychobilly band Os Catalepticos. HorrorPops frontwoman Patricia Day also uses an elaborately painted and decorated double bass.

The Cramps performed without a bass player in their early career, using two guitars instead. They did not add a bass guitar to their arrangement until 1986, and have used an electric bass since that time. Cramps guitarist/bassist Poison Ivy sees this as one of the distinctions that separate the band from the psychobilly movement: "I think psychobilly has evolved into a gamut of things... It seems to involve upright bass and playing songs extremely fast. That's certainly not what we do."

Samantha Von Trash's history of psychobilly lists 13 essential albums for people new to psychobilly: The Cramps: Songs the Lord Taught Us; Reverend Horton Heat: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em; The Misfits: Static Age; Social Distortion: Mommy's Little Monster; The Essential Johnny Cash; Cult of the Psychic Fetus: Funeral Home Sessions; Cult of the Psychic Fetus: She Devil; Demented Are Go: Satan's Rejects; 7 Shot Screamers: Keep the Flame Alive; Nekromantix: Curse of the Coffin; "Rockabilly Riot!" compilation; Thee Merry Widows' self-titled EP; Stray Cats: either Built For Speed or Rock This Town.

Stage shows
The performance style in psychobilly concerts emphasizes high energy and a lot of interactions between the band members and with the audience. The HorrorPops sometimes switch instruments for fun, and Kim Nekroman does stunts such as playing the fingerboard of his Coffinbass with his tongue. Demented are Go are known for their wild stage show, which included simulated on-stage sex with a vacuum cleaner. The Australian band Zombie Ghost Train were known for appearing on stage in "zombified" clothes, featuring rips and bloodstains, and zombie make up, complete with fake stitches across the face. The Phenomenauts are known for their inventive and fun-filled live shows, which often include smoke machines, the Streamerator 2000, and various on-stage theatrics. Big John Bates was banned in one venue due to concerns about their overly risque stage antics. Deadbolt is known for its use of power tools during their live sets, and it is customary for the audience to be showered with sparks of red-hot metal during their live shows. King Kurt, a 1980s band, was known for its infamous "food fight" gigs, in which eggs and bags of flour were thrown around on and off stage and audience members were given free haircuts. "King Kurt had a bad reputation for doing things that would make people question the band's stability. These included going on stage in dresses, dressed as Zulus, and playing drinking games on stage. Tabloids often accused them of mixing drugs ... into whatever they made people drink on stage, tossing dead animals into the crowds, and rampant sex occurring as they played."

"At any psychobilly show, you might see some dancing... only, it's not your average dancing. That would be what's called "wrecking". According to wreckingpit.com, wrecking is more like a demented hybrid of "slam-dancing and freestyle wrestling". It's basically the semi-official psycho happy-dance, hence the Nekromantix song, "Struck By a Wrecking Ball"." "Originally, the dancing was known as 'going mental' – this type of dancing eventually became known as 'stomping', and then finally took on its official name: 'wrecking. One definition of "wrecking" is "a strange form of dance that can best be described as a combination of slam dancing, swing dancing, and fistfights."

Lyrical style
Lyrically, psychobilly bands tend to favor topics and imagery drawn from horror, science fiction and exploitation films, violence, lurid sexuality, and other taboo topics, usually presented in a comedic or tongue-in-cheek fashion reminiscent of the camp aesthetic. Shawn McIntosh and Marc Leverette note that while rockabilly and punk scenes took their retro "nostalgia very seriously, striving for authenticity", in the psychobilly scene, the "aesthetics of kitsch, camp and cheese" are openly embraced.

Psychobilly bands drew on "all eras of horror, from Gothic novels and classic films to schlocky cold war flicks to psychological thrillers and splatter films." Psychobilly songs make reference to slashers (The Meteor's Michael Myers) and serial killers (e.g., The Frantic Flintstone's Jack the Ripper). Most acts avoid "serious" subjects such as politics. Original psychobilly act The Meteors articulated a very apolitical stance to the scene, a reaction to the right- and left-wing political attitudes dividing British youth cultures of the late 1970s and early 1980s. This attitude has carried through later generations of psychobilly. Nekromantix frontman Kim Nekroman describes: "We are all different people and have different political views. Psychobilly is all about having fun. Politics is not fun and therefore has nothing to do with psychobilly!" Nate Katz explains the rationale for psychobilly's apolitical stance as follows: 1980 was an important year for Britain. Recently elected Margaret Thatcher's policies led to a drastic decline in employment, especially among the blue collared and youth (Kim, 2005). A year later, there were five race riots within the London area... On a political level, London was incredibly tense. Fans of psychobilly (known as psychos) wanted none of this, or at the very least a break from the stress created by the political world. By establishing an unwritten rule that the music was to be apolitical, psychobilly music became a method of escape from the real world.

Katz notes that at the "same time [in the 1980s], the revival of the B-movie, particularly the return of horror movies, occurred...[,] such as The Howling, The Shining, a remake of The Thing, Friday the 13th, and An American Werewolf in London (All 80s Movies). Psychos gravitated towards these movies due to their lack of seriousness, mindless gore, and enjoyed the throwback to the original B-movies of the 1950s."

Fashion and subculture

According to Nate Katz, "in its early days, Psychobilly relied almost entirely on word of mouth to be spread throughout London... If your friends did not know of it [a band or gig], the odds were that you did not either." The then manager of The Meteors, Nick Garrard, produced a magazine called 'Cat Talk' which was heavy on Meteors content & their new style of Psychobilly music. One of the band's original fans (Proff) produced gig flyers with a heavy horror/Frankenstein theme. Roy Williams of Nervous Records created a newsletter that would be passed around known as 'Zorch News', which allowed fans to keep up with psychobilly news that specifically related to bands involved with Nervous Records. "Despite being starved of the oxygen of mainstream music press attention for more than 25 years, psychobilly has thrived in the underground[,] building a network of fiercely loyal followers and producing a huge number of bands who each peddle their own brand of the genre." Fanzines are one of the ways the psychobilly scene created a social network, with Deathrow being the "...only long running psychobilly fanzine."

Psychobilly musicians and fans, who are sometimes called "psychos" or just "Psychobillies", often dress in styles that borrow from 1950s rockabilly and rock and roll, as well as 1970s punk fashions. Long "Old Mans" overcoats, army trousers, bleached jeans & Dr Martin Boots were all part of the early "Psycho" uniform along with band logo T-shirts. Heavily painted and studded leather jackets were also worn. This was topped off by a 1950s style quiff or flat-top, often bleached with shaved back and sides. Psychobilly band members of both sexes often have prominent tattoos, often with a vintage theme. Psychobilly "tattoos followed the same general notions as band designs, being highly influenced by the same movies. Common tattoos were images of the macabre nature such as bats, skulls, gravestones, as well as the occasional pin-up doll and band logo." The goal of the psychobilly scene member is to "live fast, die young, and leave a (not so) beautiful corpse."

Other aesthetic later influences include the scooterboy and skinhead subcultures, although not all performers or fans choose to dress in these styles. Scooterboy fashion includes flight jackets, mechanic's jackets, and motorcycle jackets. "Skinheads brought in things such as Doc Martens and pilot jackets ... [and] Punks brought in clothes such as the leather jacket and tighter clothing[;] Beneath the jacket was often a band T-shirt or a tartan shirt taken from rockabillies" Psychos often cut the arms off of their leather jackets, converting them into vests, and decorate the jackets with horror imagery or band logos.

Men often wear brothel creepers or Dr. Martens boots and shave their heads into high wedge-shaped pompadours or quiffs, military-style crops, or mohawks. The Sharks song "Take a Razor to Your Head" articulated the early psychobilly scene's code of dress, which was a reaction to the earlier British Teddy Boy movement: Teddy boys had long, strongly-moulded greased-up hair with a quiff at the front and the side combed back to form a duck's arse at the rear. The Shark's song said: "When your Mom says you look really nice / When you're dressed up like a Ted / It's time to follow this cat's advice / Take a razor to your head". "Like most hairstyles of the 1980s, things were taken to the extreme. People [in the psychobilly scene] tried to get their hair as tall as possible and brought in streaks of strange colors."

title: Psychobilly


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Ildibad

Ildibad (sometimes rendered Ildebad, Ildebadus, Hildebad or Heldebadus) (died 541) was a king of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in AD 540–541.

Biography
Ildibad was a nephew of Theudis, an Ostrogoth king of the Visigoths in Spain. This relationship led Peter Heather to suggest that both belonged to a powerful, non-royal clan. In 540, the Ostrogothic king Witiges was taken prisoner by Belisarius in Ravenna. Ildibad's children were also taken prisoner. Ildibad was one of the Goths north of the Po river who still refused to surrender to Roman authority. Following Witiges' capture, however, Ildibad had attempted to negotiate terms of surrender with Belisarius, perhaps because of the fate of his children.

After Witiges's capture, the leading candidate for the Ostrogothic throne became Uraias, who was Witiges' nephew, a skilled military commander and in charge of Ticinum (Pavia). Uraias, however, declined because his family lacked "royal fortune", and instead suggested Ildibad, who was at that time in charge of Verona. These were the only cities still held by the Ostrogoths at this time. After being elected king in 540, Ildibad moved his capital to Pavia. Ildibad again attempted to negotiate a surrender, but after Belisarius sailed to Constantinople along with Witiges and Ildibad's family, the war resumed. The Gothic territory at this time consisted only of a narrow strip of land between Pavia and Verona, while the army consisted of barely 1,000 men, although this number was growing.

The lack of coordination among the remaining Byzantine commanders enabled Ildibad to extend his authority throughout Liguria and Venetia. In AD 541 he was engaged outside the heavily defended city of Treviso by its military commander Vitalius and a sizable body of Herules. The battle was a decisive victory for the Goths, with Vitalius barely escaping while the Heruli leader was killed. His nephew Totila then became military commander of Treviso. Ildibad was subsequently able to extend his authority across the entire Po Valley. The victory gave him increased support among the Goths, while the ruinous Roman taxation of the provinces and lack of coordination among generals enabled him to acquire many Roman deserters.

In 541, Ildibad had Uraias murdered. According to Procopius, Uraias's murder had been instigated by Ildibad's wife, who felt insulted by the lavish lifestyle of Uraias' wife. Herwig Wolfram suggests that this is an invention by Procopius to "personalize" the causes of political events, and that the real reason for Uraias' murder was that the Witiges clan had allied with non-Gothic barbarians, including the Rugii and probably Gepids, to conspire against Ildibad's rule. In any case, in May 541, Ildibad was murdered at a royal banquet by his Gepid bodyguard Velas whose Gothic lover was married off to someone else by Ildibad while Velas was away. The lack of a suitable Gothic successor enabled the Rugians to make their chief Eraric king of the Goths. Eraric, however, betrayed the Goths and secretly offered to surrender the Gothic kingdom to the Byzantines in return for money. As a result, the Goths at Pavia offered Ildibad's nephew Totila the throne. Totila was at that point himself negotiating with the imperial commander at Ravenna, and demanded the killing of Eraric if he was to accept the throne. After Eraric was killed in October 541, Totila became king of the Ostrogoths, a title he held for more than ten years.

title: Ildibad


text:
World on Fire (book)

World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability is a 2003 book by American legal scholar Amy Chua. It is an academic study of ethnic and sociological divisions in the economic and political systems of various societies. The book discusses the concept of "market-dominant minorities", which it defines as ethnic minority groups who, under given market conditions, tend to prosper, flourish, and dominate economically, often significantly, over other, often ethnic majority groups in the country.

Summary
The concept of market-dominant minority was introduced by Chua in a 1998 paper Markets, Democracy, and Ethnicity. In the Philippines, Chua notes that the Chinese community comprise one percent of the population but control 60 percent of the private economy, with the result being resentment on the part of the Filipino majority against the Chinese minority creating an ethnic conflict. Similarly, in Indonesia the Chinese Indonesian community make up three percent of the population but control 75 percent of the economy. Similar patterns occur throughout other Southeast Asian economies.

Chua gives examples of the concept that she calls ethnic "market-dominant minorities" such as the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia; European diasporas throughout Latin America and Africa; Israeli Jews in Israel and the Middle East; Russian Jewish Oligarchs in post-Communist Russia; Croats in the former Yugoslavia; Overseas Indians in East Africa, Overseas Lebanese in West Africa and Mexico, and the Yoruba, Igbos, Kikuyus, Tutsis in Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda.

In the book, Chua discusses different reasons for the market dominance of different groups. Some groups inherited market dominance because of colonial legacies and apartheid. In other cases, it may be due to the culture and family networks of these groups. For many groups there is no clear single explanation.

Americans and the United States can also be seen as a global market-dominant minority, in particular when combined with their use of cultural soft power, military strength, economic might, and flaunting political hegemony, thereby causing resentment throughout the world.

Chua believes that democratization can increase ethnic conflicts when an ethnic minority is disproportionately wealthy, arguing that "When free market democracy is pursued in the presence of a market-dominant minority, the almost invariable result is backlash. This backlash typically takes one of three forms. The first is a backlash against markets, targeting the market-dominant minority's wealth. The second is a backlash against democracy by forces favorable to the market-dominant minority. The third is violence, sometimes genocidal, directed against the market-dominant minority itself." Also, "overnight democracy will empower the poor, indigenous majority. What happens is that under those circumstances, democracy doesn't do what we expect it to do – that is, reinforce markets. [Instead,] democracy leads to the emergence of manipulative politicians and demagogues who find that the best way to get votes is by scapegoating the minorities." She writes, "Ballot boxes brought Hitler to power in Germany, Mugabe to power in Zimbabwe, Milosevic to power in Serbia — and could well bring the likes of Osama bin Laden to power in Saudi Arabia."

Chua states that she is a "big fan of trying to promote markets and democracy globally," but that it should be accompanied by attempts to "redistribute the wealth, whether it's property title and giving poor people property, land reform ... Redistributive mechanisms are tough to have if you have so much corruption."

Reception
Chua's thesis and conclusions have been disputed by George Leef of the John Locke Foundation, who proposes that many other factors may account for ethnic violence, including the most simple motivation of pure racism. Leef argues in his review:

"Nothing does more to reduce violence and many other social ills than the rising standards of living that capitalism alone makes possible. What a tragedy it would be if nations were to forego the tremendous long-run benefits of capitalism out of fear that there might be violence in the short-run against those who take advantage of business opportunities the earliest. All that World on Fire proves in the end is that governments cannot be depended upon to prevent violence against people who have been, for whatever reason, demonized by others. That's nothing new."

Andreas Wimmer and Brian Min, criticizing the book, state:

"By contrast, our analysis shows that what has been observed in recent decades may simply be more of the same old story. Although history never repeats itself, the same process patterns may be operating at different times and in different historical contexts (cf. Collier and Mazzuca 2006). The dismemberment of empire and the formation of the nation-state have led to wars since the time of Napoleon. The patterns of warfare in the Caucasus and the Balkans in the 1990s resemble those on the Indian sub-continent in the 1940s, those of Eastern Europe during and after World War I, and so on. The return of the 'Macedonian syndrome,' as Myron Weiner (1971) has called the intermingling of ethnic conflict and irredentist wars, explains such recurrent patterns of war much better than any variant of globalization theory. To treat them as a fundamentally new phenomenon, brought about by the end of the Cold War or increased globalization, represents yet another example of the widespread tendency among social scientists to perceive their own times as unique and exceptionally dynamic (on 'chrono- centrism,' see Fowles 1974)."

They also note that several studies support a variant of the democratic peace theory, which argues that more democracy causes a general decrease in systematic violence, at least for the most democratic nations. However, intermediately democratic nations do have a higher tendency for conflicts such as civil war than autocracies.

International law scholar Tom Ginsburg states: "the wide appeal of Chua's argument does not mean that she is correct. When one looks at the trees rather than the forest, many of the phenomena tied together by her theory do not in fact belong there... The book lacks the methodological rigor that must ultimately support any compelling conclusion about the complex relationships between democracy, development and ethnicity."

Accolades
World on Fire was selected as one of The Economist "Best Books of the Year 2003".

title: World on Fire (book)


text:
Cowpunk

Cowpunk (or country punk) is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom and Southern California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in its sound, lyrical subject matter, attitude, and style. Examples include Social Distortion, The Gun Club, The Long Ryders, Dash Rip Rock, Violent Femmes, The Blasters, Mojo Nixon, Meat Puppets, The Beat Farmers, Rubber Rodeo, Rank and File, and Jason and the Scorchers. Many of the musicians in this scene subsequently became associated with alternative country, roots rock or Americana.

Etymology and terminology
The term "cowpunk" is first attested in 1979, as a blend of "cowboy" and "punk". The term "country punk" has been proposed as an equivalent term. Both terms are sometimes hyphenated, especially in late 1970s or early 1980s sources (e.g., cow-punk or country-punk).

In 1984, Robert Palmer wrote in the New York Times on the emerging aesthetic acknowledged "cowpunk" as one of several catch-all terms critics were using to categorize the country-influenced music of otherwise unrelated punk and new wave bands. The article briefly summarized the music's history, at least in the United States, saying that in the early 1980s, several punk and new wave bands had begun collecting classic country records, and soon thereafter began performing high-tempo cover versions of their favorite songs, and that new bands had also formed around the idea. By 1984, there were dozens of bands in both the U.S. and England "personalizing country music and making it palatable for the MTV Generation."

A New York Times writer stated that one issue with the "cowpunk" term was that "...no single term really describes the music of all these bands." Another author called the term "cowpunk" a critic-coined "misnomer" in 1985. A 2018 article looking back at the 1980s trends states that the "...diversity of styles beyond punk proper" in cowpunk, "...for some, made the category...suspect, [or] at least misleading."

Style
The cowpunk clothing style is a stereotypical U.S. rural, working class, western wear form of dress. Cowpunks may wear anything from a vintage western wear look, including checked shirts, bib overalls, worn jeans, and cowboy boots, to a more industrial look with wifebeater shirts, trucker hats, and work boots. Women's hair follows no single style, but men can have anything from a crew cut to long hair, or the exaggerated quiff pompadour hairstyle. Facial hair is also common.

Precursors
The first cowpunk bands in the late 1970s "...were inspired not by mainstream country but classic country, a more authentic-sounding music but also historically distant enough to be non-mainstream by default..." There were precedents for blending country and related genres with rock or other styles. For example, all through the 1970s, country rock and southern rock were popular. However, by the early 1980s, the outlaw country trend had "worn out its welcome". Another factor that made country music unappealing to many youth in the early 1980s was that it was perceived as being on the "wrong side" in the "culture war", as country music was associated with conservative political values and highly-produced commercial music.

Don McLeese said the ways that youth associated country music made them not realize that it had youthful, exuberant "hillbilly music" roots in earlier eras. Joey Camp says he was turned off country as a teen in the early 1980s because he mistakenly thought that the "...countrypolitan fare" then popular on commercial radio, such as "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton, and "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson" was the extent of country music.

Music writer Peter Doggett has stated that there has been a "difficult relationship between punk and country" since musicians from the two genres first encountered each other, but they did manage to meet and blend their styles. As well, some new wave bands "displayed blatant country influences".

Early cowpunk bands were more appealing to alternative, non-mainstream youth from the 1980s, as some cowpunk bands explored "queer" themes in their lyrics, or identified or appeared in an androgynous manner. By the early 1980s, punk audiences did come to appreciate a blend of punk and rockabilly, when the new subgenre of psychobilly emerged, with bands such as The Cramps.

1970s
In 1978, Rosie Flores led Rosie and the Screamers, a band that one author calls a "cow-punk" group. T. Tex Edwards, the singer for Dallas area punk band The Nervebreakers, which opened for the Ramones in 1977 and the Sex Pistols on their 1978 US Tour, went on to cowpunk and other country-influenced groups. After The Nervebreakers, influenced by The Cramps and Gun Club he started Tex & The Saddletramps.

1980s

In the early 1980s, punk groups such as L.A. band X, "...began to lean toward the twangy side, providing a subgenre that became known as cowpunk". The L.A. cowpunk bands like X tended to be as intentionally sloppy, against "slick" production values, and anti-commercial as the punk genre they had "morphed" from, often from "blitzkrieg bands" (for example, The Dils became cowpunk band Rank and File). In the 1980s, Rosie Flores left the Screamers and joined a cowpunk all-female band called Screamin' Sirens.

UK groups include the country-tinged pop band Boothill Foot Tappers and the tongue-in-cheek new wave outfit Yip Yip Coyote.

There are a number of U.S. bands: X, the Blasters, Meat Puppets, The Beat Farmers, Rubber Rodeo (which "juxtaposed countrypolitan elements and more conventional rock postures" in homage to "a pop-culture west rather than a geographic or historic one"), Rank and File (playing "an updated version of 1960s country-rock"), Jason and the Scorchers (with "authentically deep country roots"), Tex & the Horseheads, Blood on the Saddle 1984), Dash Rip Rock, Drivin' n Cryin', Fetchin Bones (from North Carolina), The Rave-Ups, Concrete Blonde, Great Plains (from Ohio), and Violent Femmes (at that time incorporating "mountain banjo, wheezing saxophones, scraping fiddle, twanging jew's harp, and ragged vocal choruses").

The Del-Lords formed in New York City in 1982, founded by The Dictators' guitarist Scott Kempner. The band's cowpunk sound combined elements of 1960s garage rock with country, blues and folk influences. They were one of the early originators of urban roots-rock. The band members were Scott Kempner, Manny Caiati, Eric Ambel and Frank Funaro.

Nine Pound Hammer is an American hardcore-cowpunk band formed in 1985 by vocalist Scott Luallen and guitarist Blaine Cartwright in their hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky. They were one of the first rural hardcore punk bands to incorporate rural blue collar motifs into the hardcore sound. Their lyrics (suggestive of outlaw country) featured themes such as alcoholism, rural poverty, and violence. In contrast, most of the urban, experimental cowpunk bands of 1970s/80s Los Angeles and the UK were roots rock, folk rock or New Wave bands, and they incorporated country music instruments and influences as a secondary (sometimes temporary) aspect of their sound.

In Social Distortion's album Prison Bound (1986–1988), the band makes a notable style change, exploring a country/western flavor. This record marks the start of the band's entrance into a cowpunk style. Country legend Johnny Cash and a honky tonk style became more prominent influences and there are references to Cash.

Lone Justice is a Los Angeles cowpunk band. SPIN magazine also named Long Ryders, Danny & Dusty, and Mekons as from the genre.

In Canada, prairies singer K.D. Lang was called a "Canadian Cowpunk" in the 20 June 1985 issue of Rolling Stone. In the late 1980s, Edmonton-based Jr. Gone Wild has been called a "[c]risp, cheerfully honest" example of ,"...that "cowpunk" thing, sure — but really it's just the sugary-yet-direct indie rock of its time, poppy and looking back more than a little at the Gram Parsons side of the Byrds."

In 1987, the independent film Border Radio was associated with the cowpunk scene. The film, which is directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, is about two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid who rob money from a club and one of whom flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind. It features music from the Flesh Eaters, Green on Red, John Doe, the Divine Horsemen, X, and the Blasters.

Cowpunk made its mark on mainstream country radio for a brief period from 1987-1990 with the emergence of super-duo Foster & Lloyd. The video for their debut single Crazy Over You received extensive airplay on CMT. The radio single peaked at #4 on Billboard and #1 on the now defunct Radio & Records chart.

By the late 1980s, high-end firms tried to capitalize on the cowpunk trend by selling expensive country western-themed merchandise. In 1989, The Washington Post reported that "...the biggest trend, especially at NM [Neimen-Marcus], is Madison Avenue cowpunk—costumes for trust-fund Cowboy Junkies ranging from hand-stenciled "Indian" deerskin jackets by Ralph Lauren for her ($2,200) to western-style yoke-front tuxedos ($1,975) that are the visual equivalent of a Lonesome Strangers song. There's a Busch commercial/"Young Riders" yellow duster in lambskin ($1,200) that quite outshines the honest canvas one from J. Peterman ($184)."

1990s

In 1990, SPIN magazine called The Dead Milkmen a cowpunk band, also noting that they have been called "scruff rock". In 1991, a reviewer called The Vandals a cowpunk band, while noting that by this year, the band was moving away from cowpunk towards a mix of metal with a touch of pop.

Dan Baird is an American singer-songwriter, musician and producer best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist from the chart-topping 1980s rock band The Georgia Satellites, who is often credited as one of the pioneers in cowpunk and alt-country music, as his songs combine elements of rock music, country music, outlaw country, and punk rock.

Goober & The Peas were a cowpunk band from Detroit, Michigan, active from 1990 to 1995, known for blending odd humor to a darker side of country music and indie rock (and for Jack White of The White Stripes having served as drummer for a period). The band was known for their frenetic live shows.

The Damn Band is the cowpunk-influenced backing band of Hank Williams III. It was formed in 1995 and consists of acoustic guitar (played by Williams), steel guitar, fiddle, bass, drums, electric guitar and banjo.

Steve Kidwiller, the former guitarist of punk rock band NOFX (on their 1989 and 1991 records) subsequently joined cowpunk band Speedbuggy USA. in 1994.

Following the breakup of Nine Pound Hammer in 1997, guitarist Blaine Cartwright formed Nashville Pussy, a Grammy-Nominated American rock & roll band from Atlanta, Georgia that has been called a mix of cowpunk, psychobilly, Southern rock, and hard rock, as well as "sleaze rock".

The American rock and roll band Supersuckers' fourth studio album, Must've Been High (1997) was called their first cowpunk album. It was released on 25 March 1997, via Sub Pop.

2000s to present
In the 2000s, Those Darlins were called a cowpunk act.

Black Stone Cherry were formed in 2001 by Chris Robertson and John Fred Young, the son of Richard Young of the Kentucky Headhunters. Their unique musical style combines southern rock with heavy metal and grunge.

Vandoliers, a band formed in 2015 by Joshua Fleming, following the dissolution of his Fort Worth-based punk trio The Phuss. He met members from The Marty Stuart Show and learned more about the similarities between punk and country. The band's album The Native is noted for ushering in a cowpunk resurgence.

In the 2010s, both Bloodshot Records artists Lydia Loveless and Sarah Shook's band were classified country-punk or cowpunk.

Other cowpunk groups of the 2000s and 2010s included Old Crow Medicine Show, Those Darlins, The Waco Brothers, 7 Shot Screamers, and Blackfoot. Danish hellbilly group Volbeat specialise in heavy metal infused covers of classic country songs.

title: Cowpunk