What Does "Punk" Mean?

The following is a little snippet from an article that's being developed about the cultural shifts of punk culture and the margins. This bit addresses the meaning of the term "punk" and what it's come to connote in modernity.

Punk culture is not occupying the margin anymore. The center has now 'discovered' the margin much like Columbus discovered the Americas. It's acquired all the real estate it can manage. It now resides there. Once a marker of the Other, punk is now a symbol of what it means to be cool. It's in and most show their interest in it by appropriating it. For punk has come to epitomize our Zeitgeist. Only this is not the punk of the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Ramones. This is a heteronormativity-nuanced punk; it's loved and supported by the majority.

If punk used to refer to marginal and marginalized groups and subcultures that stood for the opposite of normativity, it now stands as yet another synonym of what it means to be au currant, socially relevant, something you want to follow on Twitter and friend on Facebook.

Punk hasn't arrived anywhere. It's been co-opted. The center has co-opted it as only it knows how. Punk has been colonized by SUV-driving adults who will soon have to swap their big American-made and bankruptcy-swallowed GM for a Japanese-made Prius.

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Green Day Doing a Punk Musical?

I was just informed that Green Day will be going musical. As in the genre. Green Day's superb album American Idiot, now a musical, will run in the 2009-10 season from Sept. 4 through Oct. 11.

I approve of Green Day. Let's face it. The Killers and a plethora of other indie bands in the US and on the other side of the pond, would not be the bands they are without the very solid Green Day influence. And I enjoy the kind of androgyny that Billie Joe Armstrong sports.

Now, I don't do musicals. It's a genre that says nothing to me. Generally, if I don't like or approve of something, I show my lack of interest and dislike by not discussing it or not including it in any way in my own discourse. Ignoring something is kinder than verbally addressing it negatively, I find. Ergo, the extreme economy of speech on this genre.

Let me explain why I don't do musicals. My musical diet since basically childhood consisted of the opera and rock. As a teenager, I fell in love with punk and, well, c'est tout. With this kind of conditioning and acquisition, there is no room for musicals. To me, musicals ooze a kind of affectation I can't tolerate. They actually vex me.

Having said that, I would see the Green Day musical. Why? Because it's Green Day. And because it's in California. And those who know me, know that the latter is reason enough!

So, if the musical goes punk, and it seems to be going punk with this particular project, I will have to definitely support it.

"The punks are invading the theater. A new musical production adapted from “American Idiot,” the best-selling album by the punk band Green Day, is scheduled to make its debut in September at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in California.

Berkeley Rep is to announce Monday that the new work, also titled “American Idiot,” will have its premiere as the first production of the theater’s 2009-10 season, and run from Sept. 4 through Oct. 11.

The musical is a collaboration between Green Day — the Bay Area rock trio consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool — and Michael Mayer, the Tony Award-winning director of “Spring Awakening.”

The project is also causing some shock to the band members, who acknowledge that they had grand aspirations for “American Idiot” but perhaps not quite this grand."

Read more here.

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Punk Before Punk Was Punk

We didn't know much about this before this article. Maybe some of you do.
A good new discovery.

"Forgotten except by the most fervent punk rock record collectors — the band’s self-released 1976 single recently traded hands for the equivalent of $800 — Death would likely have remained lost in obscurity if not for the discovery last year of a 1974 demo tape in Bobby Sr.’s attic. Released last month by Drag City Records as “... For the Whole World to See,” Death’s newly unearthed recordings reveal a remarkable missing link between the high-energy hard rock of Detroit bands like the Stooges and MC5 from the late 1960s and early ’70s and the high-velocity assault of punk from its breakthrough years of 1976 and ’77. Death’s songs “Politicians in My Eyes,” “Keep On Knocking” and “Freakin Out” are scorching blasts of feral ur-punk, making the brothers unwitting artistic kin to their punk-pioneer contemporaries the Ramones, in New York; Rocket From the Tombs, in Cleveland; and the Saints, in Brisbane, Australia. They also preceded Bad Brains, the most celebrated African-American punk band, by almost five years."

Read more here.

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Current Reading: Understanding Punk Culture

I'm currently working on a modern article on the aesthetics of punk and, in the process, I have encountered some very interesting modern titles.

Might I recommend the following:

1) Daniel S. Traber's Whiteness, Otherness, and the Individualism Paradox from Huck to Punk

Traber's work attempts to elucidate such concepts as individualism, marginal identity, and what it means to be 'punk' in the realm of modern Americana. A high point is Chapter Five: "L.A. Punk's Sub-Urbanism," where Traber's discussion of the role of music is, for lack of a better term, attention-grabbing. A good line says:

"Music can open sites for people to negotiate their historical, social, and emotional relations to the world" (115). And that line was as good as any to hook a long attention span from me.


2) London: From Punk to Blair. Ed. by Joe Kerr & Andrew Gibson.

This book is a non-stop visual and lexical fest!

If punk culture and text were ever concepts you wished to explore, this 2003 edition would be a good Virgil to you. A solid line from the chapter: "Altering Images" says:

"The period that runs from Punk to Blair has been boom-time for - not to say the fetishization of - the London writer" (292).

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Amy Winehouse and Duffy Don't Quite Cut It

Very good paragraph from Carrie Bronstein over at Monitor Mix.
"So, I think what irks me about the new British "soul" singers is that they feel like a gimmick. Maybe enough time has passed so that few people know or remember the style in its earlier form. Maybe the oldies need a face lift. But does each generation need their own, updated and made-over version of the late greats? Shouldn't the late greats be met with the new greats? Personally, I'd argue for the latter."

I agree. Whatever happened to novelty? Whatever happened to truly great music that's informed by tradition but also dares to innovate and engender novelty.
Yes, Amy, Duffy et al., if I feel like listening to true soul, I'll turn to my Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. Don't get me wrong. I'm not against new artists relying on older art forms, Heck, I like punk rock which by definition lies on a bed of tradition. What I am also saying is that some measure of complete innovation needs to be provided as well. The audience is not gullible and truly great music is ingrained in our respective DNA. We do know what the oldies gave us. We just hope to see highly qualitative music from the new artists as well.
So, while Starbucks stores keep selling new ' British soul' CD's, I'll take a small measure of pride in the fact that other music lovers out there have not forgotten the genius of the oldies but goodies.
graph per monitormix

Coldplay's Viva la Vida Delivers!

Coldplay's new album Viva la Vida isn't relevant only to soccer fans.
Those who are following the UEFA or the Euro 2008 will get the reference.
Anyway, Coldplay has been a relevant band since the beginning of the millennium. Back in 2001, I was very much sold on their sound. And looks. I used to take pride in the fact that I had rightly 'diagnosed' to my friends Chris Martin's emo look as "way in" even seven years ago. But I digress.
When their 2001 album Parachutes hit the waves, I found myself reacting in a rather lukewarm fashion to their newer music. While I still supported their work by purchasing their albums, I tended to play them when working on, what I call, 'Class B' projects.
But fast forward a few years when their X&Y 'dropped' and well, how could I resist?
Coldplay is one of those bands that gets what it means to marry superior instrumental openings to existential lyrics. And if I'm at all one of those people with a flare for literature and new alt sounds, I'll be bound to react. When their stuff is good, it's not just good, it's a Totalkunstwerk. If there is any skepticism about this, just look at their Yellow, Fix You, and the new Lost!. It's sensitive, musically superior, intellectual, and truly rock&roll.
This takes me to their new Viva la Vida. It's a solid album. The vibrant instrumental ingredients accompany the main melodies most dexteriously well.
The opening of Viva la Vida is striking and familiar. It's the kind of opening worthy of a musical genius. And few bands have performed consistently and well over time the way these well-versed Brits have.
I am giving this new album a Class A seal of approval. Thank you, Coldplay.
And for more info on the commercial success of their Viva la Vida read the new Rolling Stone magazine bit on them.
graph per rollingstone.com