Anyone who attended high school in the last 10 years has sewn ahomemade Black Flag patch on his hooded sweatshirt or at least knownsomeone who has. And the most commonly heard reaction to that patchwas most likely, “Dude, punks don’t live in the suburbs.”
If that’s the case, then what is punk?
In 1969, it was the Stooges and MC5. In 1977 it was the Clash,Wire and the Sex Pistols. In 1981, it was Bad Religion, X and theCircle Jerks. But aside from the same location (Detroit, the U.K.,and Los Angeles, respectively), the only thing that any of thesebands had in common was a penchant for playing loud and fast. Whilethe Clash and the Sex Pistols criticized British government, X pennedtunes about drinking, and Bad Religion made an effort to cram as manythousand-dollar words into two minutes.
Not only were the melodies different, but the messages were, too.
“To me, punk has always been about individualism and doingwhatever you wanted to do,” Social Distortion frontman toldAlternative Press in 1998. “It’s not what’s on the outside thatcounts — anyone can walk into any mall nowadays, buy a pair of DocMartens and basically form their whole image.
“Punk’s an attitude. It’s all about what’s inside.”
Punk has evolved over the years, however, expanding beyond thethree-chord rave-ups made famous by the Ramones. In the last decade,Washington, D.C. has turned out a crop of extremely talented andinfluential bands such as Fugazi, Jawbox, Burning Airlines and theDismemberment Plan. But if anything has been consistent of bands inthe D.C. scene, it’s that they’re constantly reinventing themselves,staying true to the punk aesthetic in spirit, rather than sonicallyor visually.
“To me, Fugazi, Jawbox, Shudder to Think and Nation of Ulysses aresome of the greatest bands I’ve ever seen in my life,” said TravisMorrison of the Dismemberment Plan, “even more so because they wereright in front of me.
“As music makers, they’ve been incredible inspirations, and someof them I’ve been able to meet as I got older. They’ve all beenreally interesting and resourceful, and they’re worthwhile people toknow. But when we started, we were definitely considered oddballs inthe scene.”
Other subgenres have also emerged, such as cowpunk, DigitalHardcore, and emocore. Of those three, emocore (“emo” referring toemotional punk rock) has gotten the most attention in recent years,due to bands such as the Promise Ring and the Get Up Kids makingappearances on MTV. But emocore is almost as hard to pigeonhole aspunk rock.
“I would never use that term,” said Promise Ring guitarist JasonGnewikow. “Somebody will say Fugazi is an emo band and somebody willsay the Get Up Kids. They don’t sound anything alike!”
With bands like Blink 182 and the Offspring being played oncommercial radio, and with emocore gaining credibility with thealternative rock crowd, one wonders if any of these bands deserve thelabel of “punk rock”.
“Somewhere along the line, someone decided that there was a set ofrules for what punk was and what was the acceptable way to marketit,” Bad Religion’s Greg Hetson told Alternative Press. “That goestotally against anything that I thought was punk.”
Certain purists disagree with the mass marketing of punk rock, butothers see it as an opportunity to expose it to those who may nothave been a part of any sort of “scene.” While bands such asPennywise, Rancid and the Explosion uphold the punk rock tradition ofyesteryear, a fresh, new batch of groups such as At the Drive-In, LesSavy Fav and the Dismemberment Plan are breathing new life into punkin ways that Johnny Rotten never would have imagined.
So what, exactly, is punk rock? Can it be Fugazi, Blink 182 andCrass all at once?
To be as general as to include teen pop sensations and theanti-commercial alike, albeit without any common musical thread,would be to render the word “punk” absolutely useless. You might aswell call it “rock ‘n’ roll” — whatever that means.
While it may seem somewhat hypocritical to dismiss something asnot being punk because of its mass appeal, there’s more to thiscriticism than just “selling out.” It’s safe to say that bands likeBlink 182 and the Offspring aren’t punk, simply because they arearguably just as formulaic as ‘N Sync. Still, one could say thatPennywise and Rancid are, too.
Punk rock was unique in the ’70s, primarily because no one wasmaking anything like it at the time. But if the whole purpose was tobe the antithesis of commercial radio pop, shouldn’t the sound haveprogressed by now?
Punk sure isn’t what it was 20 years ago. But as long as there arejaded teenagers, there will be a market for safety pins and hair dye.
The State of Music, Part Two of Four on Hip Hop and Rap will runon Thursday, Nov. 30.
