A Few Words About Punk Today
July 9, 2001
It's 2001, 25 years since punk broke through along with The Ramones, and you'd think the punk scene would be this great alternative-to-the-mainstream movement by now. I'm sorry to say it isn't quite what it could be. (Okay, in some areas and situations it is, but I'm not referring to success stories right now.) In the past few years, punk as I have witnessed it has been gradually disintegrating into a bunch of whining teenagers and college kids (and, occasionally, older punks) doing nothing but get wasted and bicker over who and what is and isn't punk.
Once upon a time, punk was, above all else, a state of mind that just happened to manifest itself in, among other things, how one dressed. (I won't get into the meaning of punk - just read Greg Graffin's "Punk Manifesto" and other essays on badreligion.com. He's a pretty smart guy and I think it's safe to say he knows what he's talking about.) With mainstream culture trying on punk rock for size (in the form of bands like Blink 182, the "I Love Punk" t-shirts sold for $30 at the mall, and other things), I can't say I blame anyone who was punk before punk was cool and is angry about it. They're just trying to hang on to what they never expected those damn annoying trendies to latch onto like the leeches that so many trendies are (I call 'em like I see 'em). But after a while, vainly trying to clearly define boundaries just comes down to snot-nosed nit-picking.
I don't look like a textbook punk rocker. I have relatively tame hair, no piercings besides my ears (yet), no tattoos (but someday I might), and because I actually know how to sew, most of my clothes aren't held together with patches and safety pins. I don't think Green Day or The Offspring are sellouts just because they've experimented with their sound and are no longer on itty-bitty indie labels (for the record, The Offspring put on a pretty amazing live show). I don't often bother making fun of trendies (in my humble opinion, the worst of them do a pretty good job of making asses of themselves).
My point is, bickering over what is and isn't punk is *not* what the subculture is about. It's a state of mind, not a state of dress. In due time, the trendies will latch onto someone else's thing, and things will (I hope) go back to the way they were. But in the meantime, constant fighting is only threatening to destroy what is left of punk. In the words of Kathleen Hanna (I highly recommend reading her Jigsaw Youth essay), "F*** that s**t, let's start talking for real."
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