Rumor of Pabst Blue Ribbon as the "punk" beer seems to have been started as a marketing campaign targeting hipsters. Side eye to all the younger punks in town drinking PBR.
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I had kind of gotten out of the local "scene" while the kids were young, and when I did, I was surprised by all the PBR. Back in the 80s, we were just drinking what were could steal from our dads. Generic beer was really more prevalent than PBR, and PBR wasn't any more prevalent than other domestics in the same price range. The PBR craze didn't make sense to me. (And not just because it tastes like shit.)
Of course, pledging allegiance to any branding based on perceived popularity is not very punk, so a lot of younger punks must have started life as "Chickenshit Conformists" (to quote the DKs).