Is Punk officially dead...

tomofson

I have been a fan of punk for a long time now I am 24 got into it when I was about 12, I can remember going to tower records back then up to my mid teens and buying punk cd's every so often and there was quite a big category of Punk stuff there with a lot of selection. Now I don't think their is even an individual punk category anymore unfortunately it seems like the end is at least nearing if not already here for punk music...

I know that the Punk scene is more or less dead, when was the last time you seen punks in town??? Years for me anyways.

bassey

Whats the last gig you went to?

tomofson

bassey wrote: »

Whats the last gig you went to?

I don't go to gigs.

bassey

shnip

LunarSea

Here's the thing, what is punk music to you? Lads wearing boots, denim and having mohawks is not punk. **** like Green Day and The Sex Pistols = also not punk

I'm not being funny, but from the posts you're putting up here your knowledge of music doesn't seem great (and the fact you just admitted you don#t go to gigs - crikey!), genuinely curious to what you think punk is...

tomofson

LunarSea wrote: »

Here's the thing, what is punk music to you? Lads wearing boots, denim and having mohawks is not punk. **** like Green Day and The Sex Pistols = also not punk

I'm not being funny, but from the posts you're putting up here your knowledge of music doesn't seem great (and the fact you just admitted you don#t go to gigs - crikey!), genuinely curious to what you think punk is...

You don't have to go to gigs to know about music you imbecile

And yes that is punk

Joe_ Public

LunarSea wrote: »

Here's the thing, what is punk music to you? Lads wearing boots, denim and having mohawks is not punk. **** like Green Day and The Sex Pistols = also not punk

I'm not being funny, but from the posts you're putting up here your knowledge of music doesn't seem great (and the fact you just admitted you don#t go to gigs - crikey!), genuinely curious to what you think punk is...

I'm quite certain punk culture died in 1978, when the shops started selling punkwear.

Punk music died with the breaking of the pistols.

bassey

tomofson wrote: »

You don't have to go to gigs to know about music you imbecile

But you do if you're going to start spouting off that punk is dead when there's gigs on nearly every week of the year

tomofson

bassey wrote: »

But you do if you're going to start spouting off that punk is dead when there's gigs on nearly every week of the year

Well I wish I knew about them.

Pickpocket

bassey wrote: »

fùck off

Classy.

LunarSea

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yeah, the last time I saw Johnny Rotten he was advertising butter, last time before that they were headlining Electric Picnic for a nice big paycheque and playing to a field full of people that that would look at you like a deer in headlights if you said Dead Kennedys, Crass, Discharge, Minor Threat, X, Bad Brains, etc. to them.

They were also very carefully marketed by Malcom McLaren, with a carefully controlled image. Sid Vicious couldn't even play his damn instrument!

Anesthetize

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm quite certain punk culture died in 1978, when the shops started selling punkwear.

Punk music died with the breaking of the pistols.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcIOTRDswF8

Yes that's right, punk is dead
It's just another cheap product for the consumers head
Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors
Schoolboy sedition backed by big time promoters
CBS promote the Clash
Ain't for revolution, it's just for cash
Punk became a fashion just like hippy used to be
Ain't got a thing to do with your or me

Movements are systems and systems kill
Movements are expressions of the public will
Punk became a movement cos we all felt lost
Leaders sold out and now we all pay the cost
Punk narcissism was a social napalm
Steve Jones started doing real harm
Preaching revolution, anarchy and change
Sucked from the system that had given him his name

Well I'm tired of staring through **** stained glass
Tired of staring up a superstars arse
I've got an arse and crap and a name
I'm just waiting for my fifteen minutes fame

Steven Jones, you're napalm
If you're so pretty vacant, why do you smarm?
Patti Smith, you're napalm, your write with your hand
But it's Rimbaud's arm

And me, yes, I, do I want to burn?
Is there something I can learn?
Do I need a business man to promote my angle
Can I resist the carrots that fame and fortune dangle
I see the velvet zippies in their bondage gear
The social elite with safetypins in their ear
I watch and understand that it don't mean a thing
The scorpions might attack, but the systems stole the sting
PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD

LunarSea

tomofson wrote: »

Well I wish I knew about them.

Work at your office won't be suspended because the local punk heads are coming in to announce their gigs, you have to look for them.

But your location is down as Dublin, it's 2016 and I'm pretty sure typing "punk gigs Dublin" into Google isn't going to take up your whole day. Start going to gigs and you will hear about more events coming up too.

dregin

MOD: Take it easy with the language.

tomofson

LunarSea wrote: »

Work at your office won't be suspended because the local punk heads are coming in to announce their gigs, you have to look for them.

But your location is down as Dublin, it's 2016 and I'm pretty sure typing "punk gigs Dublin" into Google isn't going to take up your whole day. Start going to gigs and you will hear about more events coming up too.

Thank you.

LunarSea

tomofson wrote: »

You don't have to go to gigs to know about music you imbecile

And yes that is punk

Thanks for the iinsult.

I'm basing it all on the fact that (as per the other treads you start) you've only recently discovered the Red Hot Chili Peppers and think they're underrated despite the fact that they sell out stadiums, have sold upwards of 80 million records and have been on the go for almost three and a half decades and that your vote for "weirdst song" was a song that was pretty ordinary.

I'm not calling you an imbecile, I just think you know a lot about the subject at hand and are getting your back up when asked about it.

Joe_ Public

LunarSea wrote: »

Yeah, the last time I saw Johnny Rotten he was advertising butter, last time before that they were headlining Electric Picnic for a nice big paycheque and playing to a field full of people that that would look at you like a deer in headlights if you said Dead Kennedys, Crass, Discharge, Minor Threat, X, Bad Brains, etc. to them.

They were also very carefully marketed by Malcom McLaren, with a carefully controlled image. Sid Vicious couldn't even play his damn instrument!

And what could be more punk than a bass player who couldn't even play his instrument? At the start Mick Jones used to have to point out the notes to Paul Simonon during Clash gigs. Anyway, I've never seen a precise or definitive definition of what punk really is, but I'm pretty sure the Sex Pistols fit quite snugly into it. You can talk about post-punk, proto-punk or whatever-youre having yourself-punk after that. But they were the beginning (in the UK anyway) and, as somebody mentioned above, maybe even the end. Least as far as I'm concerned anyway.

tomofson

LunarSea wrote: »

Thanks for the iinsult.

I'm basing it all on the fact that (as per the other treads you start) you've only recently discovered the Red Hot Chili Peppers and think they're underrated despite the fact that they sell out stadiums, have sold upwards of 80 million records and have been on the go for almost three and a half decades and that your vote for "weirdst song" was a song that was pretty ordinary.

I'm not calling you an imbecile, I just think you know a lot about the subject at hand and are getting your back up when asked about it.

I don't care what you think, and I had been hearing of the red hot chilli peppers my whole life I just only got into them recently... I thought it was a weird song for my own reasons cause it didn't seem to set out to deliberately be weird. and weird is only an opinion anyway.

LunarSea

dregin wrote: »

MOD: Take it easy with the language.

A punk mod! Would have thought anarchy would be the desired outcome in here, or maybe the OP is right afterall :pac: :pac: :pac:

LunarSea

Joe_ Public wrote: »

And what could be more punk than a bass player who couldn't even play his instrument? At the start Mick Jones used to have to point out the notes to Paul Simonon during Clash gigs. Anyway, I've never seen a precise or definitive definition of what punk really is, but I'm pretty sure the Sex Pistols fit quite snugly into it. You can talk about post-punk, proto-punk or whatever-youre having yourself-punk after that. But they were the beginning (in the UK anyway) and, as somebody mentioned above, maybe even the end. Least as far as I'm concerned anyway.

Hey ho, we'll agree to disagree as The Sex Pistols to me are as punk as my elderly neighbour's flower bed.

refusetolose

tomofson have you listened to the ramones?

tomofson

refusetolose wrote: »

tomofson have you listened to the ramones?

Briefly but they certainly wouldn't be my favourite punk band...

LunarSea

tomofson wrote: »

I don't care what you think, and I had been hearing of the red hot chilli peppers my whole life I just only got into them recently... I thought it was a weird song for my own reasons cause it didn't seem to set out to deliberately be weird. and weird is only an opinion anyway.

No need to be so defensive. I know you don't care what I think, but you're posting on a public message board so you're going to get opinions back whether you agree with them or not.

jd

Punks not dead and Paranoid Visions are still going strong. Maybe check them out if they are playing in town.

Joe_ Public

LunarSea wrote: »

Hey ho, we'll agree to disagree as The Sex Pistols to me are as punk as my elderly neighbour's flower bed.

Yeah no bother there. But I will say all punk bands, or those lumped in as punk, cared about their image. It was part of the package, whether it was the clothes or all that sh!t nazi paraphernalia they used as a sign of rebellion against the establishment. McClaren just did with the pistols what he'd learned with the dolls in NYC. It's punk to me, whether it's manipulated or not.

LunarSea

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Yeah no bother there. But I will say all punk bands, or those lumped in as punk, cared about their image. It was part of the package, whether it was the clothes or all that sh!t nazi paraphernalia they used as a sign of rebellion against the establishment. McClaren just did with the pistols what he'd learned with the dolls in NYC. It's punk to me, whether it's manipulated or not.

For me the difference is McClaren was a shrewd business man about it all.

My other main beef with the Pistols is the tunes aren't exactly rebellious. I guess I am listening to it outside of its original context and holding it up against hardcore, crust, grindcore, etc., but it all seems a bit twee. Even something like Stiff Little Finger's debut rips it a new one (but I guess that was too years later).

Joe_ Public

LunarSea wrote: »

For me the difference is McClaren was a shrewd business man about it all.

My other main beef with the Pistols is the tunes aren't exactly rebellious. I guess I am listening to it outside of its original context and holding it up against hardcore, crust, grindcore, etc., but it all seems a bit twee. Even something like Stiff Little Finger's debut rips it a new one (but I guess that was too years later).

YOu don't think God save the queen was rebellious in 1977, the jubilee year, then? Seems to me it's a strange kind of standard you're operating. Sid's Belsen was a gas sounds fairly rebellious to me too in a fairly odious kind of way. Plus they were so incredibly influential which has to be taken into account. Whatever you consider as real punk might still have come about without the Pistols, but they shaped the post-punk years more than any other band, I don't think that's in doubt.

I can agree about SLF though, one of the best debut albums ever, punk or otherwise. To be singing songs like that in 1970s Belfast, bascially telling all 3 sides of the war to go fck themselves took some guts. I think that's my perfect definition of punk right there.

AnimalRights

Punk is underground and that's the way I prefer it.
And to the guy who started the thread and then admits he doesn't go to gigs.....sigh.



ps OP check my threads here and you will see videos and Pics of many Punk gigs over the last several years.

tomofson

AnimalRights wrote: »

Punk is underground and that's the way I prefer it.
And to the guy who started the thread and then admits he doesn't go to gigs.....sigh.



ps OP check my threads here and you will see videos and Pics of many Punk gigs over the last several years.

Thank you

Timfy

I think that the OP is really asking "is the classic punk of the 70's dead" and in my own way I would say yes. Times change and rebels grow up!

However punk as a genre has grown and evolved. There are still classic bands out there, playing wonderfully discordant songs at sweaty gigs, but the influence has reached much further.

I would say that the punk influence can be heard in a lot of grindcore and black metal bands, but if you look further then the you can also find it in many other, at first glance far removed, musicians.

I have always found the harsh electronica of Aphex Twin to carry many punk motifs. (slow burn video... takes a minute to get going!)

Heading back in time a little, many bands of the classic goth era such as Bauhaus etc carried a lot of the punk movements energy - listen to the likes of Third Uncle to see what I mean.

Mainstream punk today is a kind of "punk lite" with American bands hamming it up for their respective labels and product tie ins however the true spirit and music of punk is still out there... you just have to dig a bit deeper than you used to.

FAQ

1) Yes, I am an old fart
2) I saw the Pistols live twice back in the day... they were caricatures of punk rockers even then but to say they weren't punk is just daft!
3) My tastes are eclectic and I suggest that no one ever ties their colours to just one genre as you may well miss the best of what that genre spawned.
4) Did I mention that I'm an old git yet?