this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024
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the_dunk_tank
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This is why I always say, Punk is an aesthetic
It's not an ideology so much as the appearance of one
Plenty of self-described punks are leftist and do righteous shit, but so many are just angry middle-aged kids who want to seem cool
Hence why you always get the
Conservatism is the new Punkshit every copy of years or soI fucking hate my new phone's autocorrect
Smh don't you know phones are bourgeois decadence? Communism is when no iPhone, silly
But can I keep my vuvuzela though?
No vuvuzela, only grain
as a participant of DIY music scenes, that is a difficult pill to swallow. on the one hand principled individuals foster a sense of community around what they do with political outreach front and center, things as simple as pamphlets talking about veganism and such at house shows and vfw halls they themselves have organized.
on the other there are way more people who show up because it's something to do on a saturday night.
They tend to wash out after spending their summers day drinking at the show, hitting on all the underaged girls, and can only remember the style of clothing, and never engaging with any of the present political outreach that's ALWAYS THERE. They've only ever been a warm body that paid $5 to make people uncomfortable like the nihilism they cosplay for is about them as individuals instead of a social one that remains present even today. if they know anything about the history, it's idolizing Syd Vicious for some reason.
When they say
Punk is deadI tend to agree with them.DIY isn't exclusive to punk, tho. Punk definitely pioneered it, punk is also likely to still be the genre with the biggest DIY subculture, but DIY as a mode of minimum-capital, non-exploitative, cooperative cultural production that's available to everyone can work in any scene that has diehard, enthusiastic fans. Does that mean that people who organize underground raves are techno punks? Does that mean metal bands that put out records DIY and go on tour sleeping on their fans couches are metal punks?
idk, i'm inclined to say no because then you're at "everything is punk" again. I don't think punk can be meaningfully defined as anything but an aesthetic and a vibe, and that aesthetic and that vibe are very closely tied to DIY, but are also very closely tied to "what if we start DIY, but then it works out too well and we become actual capitalists", aka how indie labels start, something which was also pioneered by punks. And that aesthetic has also from the very start been something that has been co-opted and monetized by established capitalist actors within the cultural industry, sellouts and posers have been a part of punk since before people started to call it punk. As soon as punk became noticeable, there were corporate ghouls who realized that a movement built around aggressive contrarianism was something you can market to suburban teens with rich parents, just as there have always been kids who've genuinely needed punk as a first step to reject the norms of capitalist society.
Punk also always had a revolutionary, liberatory and inclusive side to it and it always had a toxic, nihilist and exclusionary side to it, these have clashed with each other since the very start. As soon as there was hardcore, there were both subversive queer kids who found they could be themselves at punk shows and violent meatheads who went to shows to beat people up and be sex pests in the pit. I agree that the latter should have no part in the scene, but it takes work to keep them out. You have to watch out for people when you don't want punk to be a space that's only safe for white cishet boys who can hold their own in a fight. Building a punk scene that isn't awful, violent shit requires active struggle.