are there still punks?

By 1977, it was already a uniform.

yawn

By 1977, it was already a uniform

True, which only underscores how staid said uniform is today.

so what? why can't they like the Exploited?

Did I say that they couldn't like the Exploited? I'm more just astounded that anyone listens to the Exploited anymore.

There are still plenty of punks but there isn't any punk any more.

Stew does have a miraculous way with words, and were I wearing a hat right now, I would take it off to him.

I'm astounded anyone did in the first place!

Never mind the hat, just slip out of those bondage trousers and come here, big boy.

So... yeah.

Oh, you mean the William Burroughs definition of "punk"? I'm sure they still exist too.

My favourite 'though was an extremely small T-shirt that said "Daddy, what's a Sex Pistol?".

It was almost enough to make me want to procreate, simply in order to dress some future little Stewart Jnr. in tiny little bondage trousers and DM's....

That was ALMOST.

Aja?

In some ways I want to be able to say say "Yeah, they're enjoying themselves and not really upsetting anyone - it's a bit of shame they can't think of something new and have to call what they're doing "punk" when it only bears the most superficial resemblance to punk, but what the fuck?".

At the same time 'though there's a bit of me that wants to jump up and down and start frothing at the mouth and screaming "what the fuck has this got to do with punk? Don't these little twats realise that trying to conform to some diluted and redundant image of something that's been dead for 25 years and has completely lost it's ability to shock anyone, instead of coming up with something of their own, is the absolute antithesisof punk?"

The public image belongs to me.

http://www.luckygoon.com/Graphics/Misc/ECLive78.JPG

Fine - but if so then why call themselves punks?

Lots of the kids I see dress different than the original punk "uniform"....it's more hoodies with patches and stuff and black baseball hats that they put spikes and studs on...it's a little more "homeless hip hop" or something....more tribally tattoos (lots of face tattoos)...It's not like they dress like Steve Jones or something.....even musically, the crust scene and stuff like that has as much to do with Slayer as it does Sex Pistols or the Clash (probably a lot more Slayer actually).

Fine - but if so then why call themselves punks?

Because they CAN, and it's THEIR punk, not yours.

xpost - Why? Punk works perfectly, a fairly generic reference to a youth-centered subculture with ties back to late-70s (mostly British) punk rock.

ILX in being blind to American Hardcore scene shocka!!

Hardcore?

heeeeeeeeeee

Yes, but we are very old now, and many are no longer visibly punk. Unless you count visibility (via recognizably coded hair and dress) as integral to being-punk, in which case I never really was, and you may discount this answer.

"They refer to themselves as punks because they don't spend a lot of time pining over the true meaning of punk. Leave that shit to the fogies, maaaaaan.
xpost - Why? Punk works perfectly, a fairly generic reference to a youth-centered subculture with ties back to late-70s (mostly British) punk rock."

That strikes me as a completely self-defeating argument: if they're not interested in what punk was about then why identify themselves as being punks? If it's really that random then why not call themselves something else like Parsnips or Geraniums or Microchips or Lizards or anything else for that matter?

If the term "punk" has indeed become "a fairly generic reference to a youth-centered subculture with ties back to late-70s (mostly British) punk rock." (and, sadly, I don't actually dispute that for a second) that can only because it's been diluted to the point of meaninglessness by it's continued association with all these people who've adopted the name without really having much interest in what it was all about! Plenty of modern music has ties back to late-70s (mostly British) punk rock - but it doesn't all call itself punk.

Of course the bottom line is that there's nothing you or I could do about it either way even if we wanted to.

Reeducation camps?

IIRC this had been quite successfully achieved by Crass and their ilk by about 1980.

Aaaah yes.

They could all be given tutorials in punk.

Except that unfortunately that in itself would of course be intrinsically un-punk.

Is it wrong for Ciara fans to say they listen to R&B? You seem to be assuming that punk rock always has to be what it was in 1977....so they can't win, right? Either they are "punks" that are just haplessly rehashing the sounds of 77 or they're not punks at all!

http://www.scratchonline.ca/submissions/1_sid_vicious.jpg

ok jon, whose?
...
i don't know much abt crass at all, but i see their logo all over these kind of kids, so yeah.

There's this thing called AllMusic.com...

But have you ever read Slug And Lettuce? This is a serious question, as per the original poster...

nope, no punks

"All it is is just another uniform now,....which, ultimately & ironically, was the very thing it arguably railed against."

yeah, I know the story. Same thing happened with mod. Weird that that is a retro look when originally its ethos was so anti retro, always trying to be a step ahead. The ethos of mod presumably switched into a different later youthcult that wouldn't label itself with a hasbeen timewarped label?

With punk though I thought it was about self expression but that does seem to have become ossified by '77 or possibly a little later when it fed and then fed off the Mad Max look.
I always think the idea of a 'Spirit of '77' movement capturing the height of punk is at least a year if not 2 late. Maybe that's the point the media and record labels got hold of it? I assume that most record label versions of 'the punk sound' were distortions/diffractions of band intentions, no matter how classic the lps concerned are viewed now.

I think a generic punk is as sad as a generic hippy would have seemed in '76 or whenever. But then I think a generic anything is not as good as an individualised one.

yer there still r punks..nd if u say ur a punk be 1 be a anarchist ns listn 2 the music

― sexpistol, Sunday, December 18, 2005 12:25 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

underrated post

i am a punk

i am eating ravioli & listening to black flag

still here, still punk

I picked up a new issue of Profane Existence the other day, and while the music reviews were depressing (derivative, uninteresting, everything compared to other older bands) I was pleased to see a number of good, thoughtful columns by their writers. Some nice pieces on growing older and disaster preparedness. And hey, it's free now!

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/7/2011/07/princewilliam.jpg

ska is dead t shirt! that was one of the first shows i ever went to

ha sleeve I just picked up a PE last week for the first time in forever