is punk dead? nah but a thought.

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Do you think it’s possible that punk or indie more precisely is dead? When the first post hardcore bands showed up they brought an air of original instact action to the table and lately it just seems like theres plenty of bands that are copies of the norm. Where is the unusual sounds of a nuzzle, the energy of early texas is the reason, or the new dance motions that the faint unleashed on us? they are covered up by copycats and bands happy to play a sound that is safe and secure. Sure every band has been influenced by the ones before them but it seems like the whole punk/indy scene is in danger of becoming as stagnant as pop music right now. When sites like pitchfork who used to report true underground sounds, now report the same thing as maxim, where are we to go to find out what the new sounds are. There has got to be creativity going on through out this country but whose house show can you find it at? What are the new genres that are developing to replace the synth, the emo, the hardcore as the next musical progression? i remember around 99 when so many ‘punk’ kids started becoming ‘ravers’ and i could see the trendy people right away. I felt a changing of the gaurd going on, but yet now the club kids are back in the shadows and the indy kids are all the rage. I kind of feel like the dance scene has benefited from this and the indy world is lost in a sea of megalabels, and publications more concerned with ad money than covering noteworthy bands no one has ever heard of. that was the point right? of sites like lostatsea, pitchfork and insound right? to let us hear new sounds. well now every band they cover can just as easily be read about in any newstand. whose sticking up for the little guy anymore? Who is the little guy and what in the world are you listening to? What is going to takeover and eventaully have me complaing about the same thing about them years from now. It’s bound to happen, it comes with being good, and being successful,
I just wish it didn’t leave such a bad taste in my mouth.

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1 thought on “is punk dead? nah but a thought.”

  1. kevin

    As cliche as it sounds, I think the internet has helped kill hardcore. There was a time when it took effort to find punk music, to find hardcore music, to find indie-rock. You had to be genuinely interested in the music and the philosophy of the subculture. Now you can affect a look and pretend to be part of something that doesn’t exist any more, or be part of something that doesn’t even know what existed before. so you have 16 year olds talking about “the scene” and being “hardcore” and not knowing about any bands outside of ones added on myspace.

    Sure, there are still genuine hardcore labels, but they have to keep up with the times. level-plane is so slick and professional you’d never guess it was a hardcore label. ebullition can keep up its same old schtick but that’s only because it’s such a well-known tradition, more or less. vinyl finally has a real threat of going bye-bye and it’s not because of cds, but because of the far easier availability of mp3s.

    so yeah, i think hardcore is dying. i can’t go to an underground show these days that’s not really a kegger with “some bands playing.” clubs were never the type of place to really experience punk rock, and there’s no solidarity between people outside of friendships that would have existed anyway. i can’t look at someone and nod my head secretly to him or her, knowing that we both are part of something secret and elite and precious to both of us. how can we tell who’s “punk” and who’s not? the look is so commercialized and diluted among 50-100 different sub-groups of punk and hardcore that it is totally impossible to know what’s up. and that is what will make it impossible for hardcore to continue or grow.

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