Devo and Television were part of the punk scene, but they didn’t play punk music. Really they didn’t. Television would have been considered a prog-rock band if they had hung out at a different club.
I note that this thread has already degenerated from a discussion about music to bickering about one’s punk credentials. snif Ah, it takes me back to the good ol’ days!
Now let’s start some fights about how punk is totally different than “new wave” and why Blondie are sellouts.
The problem with punk these days is that there are so many subgenres; you have emo, which often bleeds over into punk, and then hardcore, etc. I’d say that the quintessential idea behind punk is that of a middle finger aimed towards all that’s accepted. Take the Sex Pistols; if the pop scene had been different, they could have played classical music and still remained punk in its truest essence. However, the times called for an anti-rock god, rough around the edges, distorted-to-all-hell sound, and that’s what they provided. I would go so far as to say that punk is dead now, though. Punk once was all about going against the grain as brutally as possible; now, punk has such a hierarchical form, that the original idea has been lost. Don’t get me wrong; the DIY attitude is still very much there, but modern punk has lost the plot. I was at a party about four months ago with a bunch of punk people in attendance; I’m a mod, so I didn’t fit in so well, and as a result, I caught very pugnacious glares from several people there. It was so bad that I actually had to leave the party. And why? Because I looked different. THIS is what punk has unfortunately come to. In short, Blink-182 dug the hole, and the punk scene threw in the dirt. Oh well; the idea lives on!
This ain’t about punk cred, it’s about what punk was like and why it’s different now. It’s a whole different world for kids today that grew up with Nirvana and Megadeth, than it was for us that grew up with crap Top 40 music.
For your edification, I will now list the US Top 30 singles appearing in a randomly selected magazine from my collection, Melody Maker Jan 14, 1978, just about the peak of the punk era. The cover blares in a 2 inch headline “Pistols Shock USA!” above a full page photo of the Pistols US tour. And inside:
Just LOOK at some of that CRAP! Hearing THAT stuff on the radio all the time, over and over until you wanted to PUKE, that is what made you a punk.
Punk rock is music made for punkrockers.
Really, go to a show, and see if the people there are punk rockers. There are some bands that sound only borderline punk (like my beloved Mr.T Experience), but who are most definatly considered punk rock. There are other bands out there that sound punk, but arn’t really, like Blink182. The difference is in the people. At MTX shows you see mohawks, homemade T shirts, purple hair and sweaty kids. At Blink182 shows (and I know, because I had to endure one in order to see Madness play) you see girls in platforms and tight clothes(at a show, for the love of cheese), guys with atheletic shirts on and drunken sweaty stupid kids.
And for anyone that claims punk is dead, I’ll take you to the next MTX show and show you different.
That’s just the sort of people I saw at a Ramones gig at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go in about 1988. That’s when I knew punk was dead.
I was born in 1978, and the Dead Kennedys play the music of my soul. I am not a punk. There is no punk scene anymore. That which once could have been called punk has been appropriated by the record industry and transformed into a commercially productive medium of “dissent.”
But I grew up with Michael Jackson and New Kids on the Block in the background. I heard that stuff until I was doubled over with agony. Have you read Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War? Well, guess who the only fucking kind in the school was who wouldn’t fill out index cards saying:
I love NKOTB!
…in order for a chance to win free tickets for the school to a concert. Fucking kids were filling out cards by the thousands. Can you imagine the shit I took?
I hate, and continue to hate, this bullshit. It made me want to puke when I was a kid. I listen to the Dead Kennedys. I was at Joey Ramone’s birthday party, which he was sadly unable to attend.
So what am I?
I agree with most that the punk “scene” has faded almost into oblivion, but I think punk music is alive and well, just in a little different form than it used to be.
The rock music of now and the rock of 20 years ago are incredibly different, but it’s all still rock music. Rap is one of the newest genres, and it’s changed a lot too. However, it’s still rap.
The punk “scene” is so different, it can’t really be called that anymore, but the music is close enough to still be alive and kicking in a lot of the bands that have been called non-punk here.
I think Blink 182 is pop-punk. Sure, it’s commercial and really shitty, but the actual music does sort of fit the description of punk music. A lot of ska bands sort of lean into punk territory too, as well as some rock bands.
Just because punk doesn’t sound the exact same as it did with the Ramones doesn’t mean that it’s not punk anymore. Maybe that should be given the new name “classic punk.” 