1991: The Year Punk Broke
1992 film by Dave Markey
1991: The Year Punk Broke, released theatrically in 1992, is a documentary directed by Dave Markey, featuring American alternative rock band Sonic Youth on tour in Europe in 1991. While Sonic Youth is the focus of the documentary, the film also gives attention to Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., Babes in Toyland, Gumball and the Ramones. Also featured in the film are Mark Arm, Dan Peters and Matt Lukin of Mudhoney, and roadie Joe Cole, who was murdered in a robbery three months after the tour ended. The film is dedicated to Cole.
Several scenes in the film involve re-enactments and references to scenes from the Madonna tour documentary Truth or Dare, such as Gordon complaining about "industry people" in the front row, or Cobain, introduced as "Costner", telling Sonic Youth that their show was "neat". At a screening of the film at the 2008 All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Monticello, New York, Markey mentioned that the working title for the film was Tooth or Hair, as a further play on this connection.
Cast
Sonic Youth
Kim Gordon
Thurston Moore
Lee Ranaldo
Steve Shelley
Babes in Toyland
Lori Barbero
Kat Bjelland
Michelle Leon
Dinosaur Jr.
Mike Johnson
J Mascis
Murph
Gumball
Don Fleming
Jay Spiegel
Eric Vermillion
Mudhoney
Mark Arm
Matt Lukin
Dan Peters
Nirvana
Kurt Cobain
Dave Grohl
Krist Novoselic
Ramones
C. J. Ramone
Joey Ramone
Johnny Ramone
Marky Ramone
Others
Nic Close
Joe Cole
Dave Kendall
Courtney Love
Dave Markey
Craig Montgomery
Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü
Susanne Sasic
Peter Van Der Velde – tour manager
Dave Evans – driver
Songs included in the film
The songs included in the film are:
Sonic Youth – "Schizophrenia"
Nirvana – "Negative Creep"
Sonic Youth – "Brother James"
Nirvana – "School"
Sonic Youth – "Teen Age Riot"
Dinosaur Jr. – "Freak Scene"
Babes In Toyland – "Dust Cake Boy"
Sonic Youth – "Dirty Boots"
Nirvana – "Endless, Nameless"
Sonic Youth – "I Love Her All The Time"
Gumball – "Pre"
Dinosaur Jr. – "The Wagon"
Sonic Youth – "Mote"
Nirvana – "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
The Ramones – "Commando"
Sonic Youth – "Kool Thing"
Nirvana – "Polly"
Sonic Youth – "Expressway To Yr.
The public source identifies “1991: The Year Punk Broke” as 1992 film by Dave Markey. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Year, Punk and Broke.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q208618. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 1992 and 2008.
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This entry incorporates text from “1991: The Year Punk Broke” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.