"
Punk is a
state of mind, not a
genre! When I was a kid, it encompassed all kinds of shit, from
Talking Heads to The Ruts to The
Stooges and
Ramones. If you reduce it to a stale genre, it just becomes another subsidiary of
The Man. At least
The Clash and
Wire had the sense to outgrow it and move on!"
I was 20 (with a couple of grey hairs) when I said that. Whenever I've seen some punk-nouveau vid on MTV over the subsequent years, I'm reminded of my long-ago rant.