Tables Are Awesome When One Wants To Put Shit On Other Shit
I experienced the best metaphor for modern punk at the Dillinger Four concert on Monday: I walked up to the Logan Square Auditorium to find a group of teens in their Ramones T-Shirts they bought at Hot Topic and their buttons with snappy, unoriginal sayings on them and their meticulously messy hair in various standard colors. Typical concert stuff, you know. I had never been to Logan Square before, so I didn't know how the place worked. Were doors open yet? I wasn't sure; everyone was standing outside. I look around for a while, and decide to go up the stairs to the doors to see what was going on. I get to the top and doors are open and tickets are being sold. I turn around, and the entire group of kids standing outside are suddenly in line behind me. Damn. These people are practically experts at following.
And in response to the ever popular "Punk's Not Dead" buttons and stuff people like to wear: When you see a large-breasted bleach-blond teenager wearing oversized gold sunglasses, ass-hugging pants, and a pink low-cut mass-produced t-shirt with the words "punk metal rock" written in stamp form walking down the aisles of the mall with an Abercrombie bag, then yes. Punk is dead, my freinds. (And yes, I have actually seen this exact person.) Punk was originally a movement, an attitude, a general "fuck-you" to established forms of mainstream culture. Now it has been adopted into that culture and is nothing more than a fashion. If a hairdresser sets to make a hairstyle "more punky", or a teenager buys a $25 t-shirt at the mall with a slogan thought up by a stuffy old white prick middle-manager, it is a representation that punk no longer has the same pull. It has been co-opted by corporations and now is a practice in conformity. At this very small punk show I went to back in Minnesota (No Compliance at Indi's Cafe) my freinds and I were chastised by the "true punks" for not calling our moshing "slam dancing". Wow. You know the terminology, good sir. Congragulations. Glad to see that subscription to Spin Magazine is paying off. Our group were the only people not dressed to the nines in studded jackets and perfectly quaffed tri-hawks. I was wearing my Johnny Rotten- inspired orange womens jacket I got at a garage sale for a dollar. It may not be "punk fashion", but I seem to remember a time when there was no such thing as punk fashion, when the concept was do-it-yourself wardrobes and unique outfits.
Aagh, I tend to go on tirades too often. That's kinda what I'm using this blog for: to rant into the air without having to actively bother anyone. Tables do rock though.
And in response to the ever popular "Punk's Not Dead" buttons and stuff people like to wear: When you see a large-breasted bleach-blond teenager wearing oversized gold sunglasses, ass-hugging pants, and a pink low-cut mass-produced t-shirt with the words "punk metal rock" written in stamp form walking down the aisles of the mall with an Abercrombie bag, then yes. Punk is dead, my freinds. (And yes, I have actually seen this exact person.) Punk was originally a movement, an attitude, a general "fuck-you" to established forms of mainstream culture. Now it has been adopted into that culture and is nothing more than a fashion. If a hairdresser sets to make a hairstyle "more punky", or a teenager buys a $25 t-shirt at the mall with a slogan thought up by a stuffy old white prick middle-manager, it is a representation that punk no longer has the same pull. It has been co-opted by corporations and now is a practice in conformity. At this very small punk show I went to back in Minnesota (No Compliance at Indi's Cafe) my freinds and I were chastised by the "true punks" for not calling our moshing "slam dancing". Wow. You know the terminology, good sir. Congragulations. Glad to see that subscription to Spin Magazine is paying off. Our group were the only people not dressed to the nines in studded jackets and perfectly quaffed tri-hawks. I was wearing my Johnny Rotten- inspired orange womens jacket I got at a garage sale for a dollar. It may not be "punk fashion", but I seem to remember a time when there was no such thing as punk fashion, when the concept was do-it-yourself wardrobes and unique outfits.
Aagh, I tend to go on tirades too often. That's kinda what I'm using this blog for: to rant into the air without having to actively bother anyone. Tables do rock though.
posted by MC Harv at 8:22 PM
1 Comments:
The Big J be layin' down some real fresh talk.
Thomas Frank does the best job, in my opinion, describing the conquest of rebellion and revolution into marketable products and strategy (see: Conquest of Cool). It's like the Che shit, ridiculous.
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