punkism

(Nate, perhaps you'd have had better luck starting this thread 6 hours ago.)

This seems to encapsulate it well. In a nutshell, I think it has more to do with the passing of "the moment." At their time, the Buzzcocks were entirely original (or at least relatively fresh)...a bracing blast of pop played with buzzsaw guitars and adrenalized velocity. It was new, exciting, genuine and relatively unprecedented, and it was a timely reaction against. Against boring, flabby, needlessly complicated, pompous sonic flab. Hell, to some, it was even considered dangerous. It was the sound of something brand new that renounced the seemingly inescapble sonic soylent green that farted out of mainstream radiostations.

But, that moment's gone. Punk Rock, like many other genres/movements before and after it -- hello, Hip Hop -- became subsumed by the establishment. It became de-fanged and housebroken. Now, sadly, Punk Rock has become just another style. Nothing especially new or dangerous about it. That's why bands like Green Day -- or their lesser offspring like Good Charlotte and Blink 182 etc. -- are worthy of such ire. They're not taking any chances, they're just putting on the uniform and following the earlier template. Yawn.

The ultimate "Punkist" statement (to use MC Transmanaicon's term) would be: "Punk Rock is dead. Sorry, but you missed it. Get your own youth culture" or "Hey buddy, 1982 called and wants its mohawk back."

But, this is more a matter of cumudgeonly oldsters like myself bemoaning the passage of time. As I've mentioned on another thread, i have an eleven year old nephew who is rabidly immersing himself in heavy metal and punk. I take great, imperious pains to point out the difference between "genuine"/old school punk bands like the Ramones and the Clash and meaningless newjack poser bands like Good Charlotte and Sum-41. He nods obediently, but ultimately doesn't give a fuck what I say about it (nor should he, really). To his unbiased ears, it all sounds good -- who cares which came first, etc.

Oh, wait.

...because Rockism is conservative (Rock and its values should prevail) and Punkism is progresseive (Punk is dead, move on).

(ps - this totally described me up until like 11th grade)

-- daavid (dvdmontie...), November 12th, 2004

Punkism is just as conservative.

So what??

Do you like your food pre-chewed, Kenny?

See, I dunno. I don't care about punk saving us from this dude, I've just never anything (including the song you name) from him which connected at all.

Some of the problem is that some of the rhetoric of the original punk movement was taken way too literally, even at the time, the same way Frenchy theory was taken literally in US universities, when across the Atlantic they were only joking and playing.

Conclusion: punkism is punk's punk.

What you gonna play know James?

Dee Dee, I don't know. But whatever I play, it's got to be punky. Can you count it off, can you count it off?

One-Two-Three-Four!

i said that on that other thread. i was kinda kidding. ijust meant rebel, really. but i don't really have a problem attaching recent definitions to people from the past. you can call people whatever you want. charles ives was a rocker!! Danbury Hardcore Lives!!!!!

"90's punk decries punk bands of today"

Actually when the Ataris recorded their candy-ass cover of "Boys Of Summer" (still the best song they've ever done, embarassingly) they changed the lyric to "Black Flag sticker."

I know alot of people that like punk very much that aren't nearly as doctrinaire as this thread seem to suggest. I'm somewhere in the middle....like I saw that Busted video and did get kinda angry for a bit Alex in NYC style, but I've always thought Green Day were a fantastic pop band, more in spirit with Cheap Trick, who I love lots (but not as clever or funny as Cheap Trick, which is probably a result of their "punkhood" more than anything else)....

I haven't given a shit about hardcore for a very very long time.

I know this was just an aside, but... that's just completely wrong on so many levels.

Lynott used to hang out with the Clash. I don't think he was necessarily desperate to reaffirm anything. If anything, Lynott was that rare breed of the old guard that was seemingly given a free pass by the cogniscenti of Brit Punk.

1) I can definitely see potential parallels between say Steely Dan and maybe Television (or the Minutemen!).
2) Phil Lynott singing about the Slits is like some weird, wonderful dream
3) Were the Stooges and the MC5 heavy metal from 1968-1975, and then starting in 1976 they were mysteriously "punk"? (haha Chuck Eddy to thread)

Phil Lynott played in a joke band 'The Greedies' with Steve Jones and Paul Cook. Despite the odd awful ballad, Lizzy exemplied the kind of swagger that gave Rockism a good name, and remain irreducibly cool.

http://www.zanorg.com/prodperso/punk.htm

"Talk In '79" by Phil Lynott, Solo In Soho

The Clash were headed for a head on collision
Crash for complete control
The Pistols left behind a swindle and a scandal
That nobody wished to handle
Sham 69 were left in a shambles
Generation X was next

Elvis and Nick Lowe
They had a go
With the help of the Attractions
And Joe Jackson said it wasn't his style
Dave Edmunds survived alive
On top of a Rockpile
Devo didn't know if they were men
Because they couldn't get no satisfaction
The Rats were caught in their own trap
Steve Strange began to change
Ultravox had a system
Kraftwerk nearly beat them
And the Yellow Magic Orchestra missed them
Eno rose for Lowe

The Slits became rasta
And the Buzzcocks played faster and faster with adrenalin
John Cooper Clarke he was smart
The Public Image became Limited
The Police were re-released and came out as a three piece

The Rocky Horror Show became the history of tomorrow
Nina Hagen, she was a German maiden
And the music press revealed their anger
When threatened by the Stranglers

This broadcast was brought to you in 1979
I'm just talking to you over these waves
Not just about another time and another place
And before we knew it
The old wave was gone and controlled

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(disclaimer: Emerson, Lake and Palmer is not a band I actually like or something)
-- MC Transmaniacon (natepatri...), November 12th, 2004.

OTFM