Anarchy in the Makeup Scene is Punk Rock!
The 70's were the times of ultimate self-expression and experimentation; it's a decade where the wildest, loudest trends appeared, and artists were fearless. The Punk movement was one of the subcultures that came to make clear statements, and they used makeup as a way to stand out.
Punk, like most other movements, comes from the need to rebel to the norm, stand out, and be heard. To the punks, music wasn't cutting it; they had to involve almost every aspect of their lives into the punk ideologies.
It was all about doing things yourself, standing out, and being completely original, even being shocking at times. All of this applied to the fashion and makeup these people wore.
Punk makeup was characterised by being full of edges, so no blending for them, and either the darkness or how colorful and bright they were. These bold looks were paired by colorful hair dyes, lots of hair sprays and gels, and clothing that had been customised, embellished, or ripped and put back together with safety pins and zippers.
The big, bold looks in punk makeup were generally seen mostly on women, especially women that went to punk clubs to watch their favourite bands play. The punk aesthetic was definitely not just for the performers on stage, it was largely embraced by the fans of these musicians.
It was also not exclusively worn by women. While it's true that the punk look for men was more about the clothes and how gnarly one could make their hair look, there were a few punk performers in the 70's that used makeup as an advantage.
One of the most notable men in makeup during the era was Dave Vanian, lead singer of The Damned. Vanian would be a pioneer for the goth style that would appear a few years down the road, and many other men would later follow his choice of wearing black makeup on their eyes and lips.
The thing that made punk punk, at the end of the day, was never purely the aesthetics. What made the punk look genuine in the 70's was that most of these kids were making their clothes, and cutting their own hair, and expressing themselves, using their faces as canvases. These people were coming from the 60's, where everyone aspired to look the same, ion their little square mod dresses.
Punk was about breaking those molds, and doing whatever the heart wanted; while looking like a badass doing it.