I used to say the
exact opposite to anyone who called me a
punk, but I've learned that being such a
cynical asshole is no way to be.
Anarcho-peace-hippie-insert-buzzword-here punks Crass said the same thing I did in
1978 when punk was just getting started for most of the world (in fact,
I stole it from them, I did):
"
Yes that's right, punk is dead
It's just another cheap product for the consumers head"
This of course earned them the wrath of
The Exploited, who retaliated with "
Punk's Not Dead", which was to become a
battle cry for many. Was one side right? No, but neither side was wrong either. Both had good points and bad. Perhaps Crass' declaration of punk being
dead on arrival was a bit hasty and melodramatic. Crass hated the
Sex Pistols and
The Clash, who were selling loads of records in the
UK. But that was due to a different factors: with the
'Pistols,
shock rock won the day. They frightened
England and attacked her sensibilities. Thus, they sold records. Meanwhilst,
The Clash's appeal stemmed from a
furious attitude and
genuine songwriting ability, not to mention early signs of
fusion between punk rock and reggae. The whole notion of punk, which already starting to become a "
stale cartoon" then, had nothing to do with it.
Meanwhile,
The Exploited sought to cling to the idea of punk, instead of rejecting the label as Crass did. This would lead to the current
state of affairs in the USA, where a whole generation of punks are reviving this idea, clad in
black leather covered with patches of none other than
The Exploited, and torn with scissors rather than thru actual
wear and tear, while they blast their
Casulaties records and pick up some
Manic Panic Midnight Blue to re-dye their
8 inch trihawk. It seems as if some of the
trailblazing done in the 80s has been forgotten - bands like the
Dead Kennedys,
Operation Ivy,
Black Flag, and
The Descendents tossed
conventional ideas of what punk is in the garbage and created their own art. Unfortunately, in some cases, this pioneering has been
mutated into something horribly sinister - the inception of
hardcore by bands like
Minor Threat,
Bad Brains, and the
Gorilla Biscuits has led to the wasteland of
sludgy, Victory Records-style tuffguy metalcore touted by bands like
Earth Crisis and
Hatebreed, and
The Descendents beautiful "
I'm a nerd, but I don't care, so fuck you" rock has been co-opted by
generic emo and geek rock. It's really a sad place we're in now . . . but hey, change could be coming soon: if
Bush is elected, it could spawn a similar
furious explosion of musical creativity and originality to that that the
Reagan years brought.
Interesting how such a simple phrase could conjure up so many
words and thoughts.