What is Punk, and Where Has it Gone?
Graphic by Amelia Seraph.
When you look at the punk charts in the year 2022, you see a-lot of what looks like punk, but in actuality, couldn’t be farther from the truth. The current mainstream punk landscape is full of music masquerading as “punk”, behind safety pins and distorted amps. Artists like Machine Gun Kelly, who spent the first 6 years of his career as a rapper, deemed corny and misogynistic by Eminem’s standards, are praised as the pinnacle of punk in the 21st century.
So, what is punk? And how did we fall so far from its origins?
Part of the reason it’s so hard to pinpoint what punk is as a genre of music, is because punk supersedes a genre. Punk is a style, a culture, an ideology, and an attitude.
The main problem modern punk faces is the fact that it relies too hard on recreating the images we associate with punk, without any of the opposition to the status quo that made punk what it was. A majority of the current artists attempting to emulate punk fall short by turning themselves into a Spirit Halloween version of the Sex Pistols or The Ramones, decked out in leather and hardware, failing to capture any of the spirit or essence of the time. What made those styles so iconic was the fact that they were original, mostly consisting of D-I-Y pieces inspired by raw emotion and experience. It wasn’t fashion for the sake of being trendy, it was a uniform for outcasts and contrarians who wanted to show the world they weren’t going to conform.
Punk has an essence that you can’t recreate on a red carpet in a Prada outfit, no matter how many holes or patches you add.
A prime example of this is Willow's recent appearance on SNL. While a lot of Willows music is good, their punk credibility immediately comes into question when you acknowledge that punk is anti-establishment. It’s hard to praise Willow in a genre about ‘doing it yourself; when their parents are Will and Jada Smith. At the end of their performance, Willow smashed a prop bottle, and shoved their guitar through a flimsy prop TV that was weak enough not to damage the prop or the guitar. This was an obvious call back to the iconic guitar smashing of rock legend, but it was so carefully calculated and safe that it failed to capture any of the bad-assery. Instead, it looked like a cheap parody. Even Phoebe Bridgers, who from an aesthetic and musical standpoint is nowhere near punk, had the balls to actually smash her guitar on the SNL stage.
Another missing piece to the current punk scene is the politics. Bands such as Bikini Kill, Bad Brains, and Black Flag were so iconic because they had a message, and found a way to call out and criticize society through their music. In the 70s, punk music had an ability to cut through all the crap, and speak directly in a way other, more commercial, genres couldn't do as viscerally. The novelty of songs like “Do They Owe Us a Living” and “God Save The Queen” came from the unprecedented honesty about current events they displayed. Now we live in an era where rap, folk, rock and even pop are largely expected to contain some political commentary. The discussion of racism, sexism, homophobia and politics are much more common in music, and don’t send shockwaves through mainstream culture in the way they once did. So punk artists looking for mainstream success have no real incentive to make political music. And I don’t blame them.
As someone who loves political punk music, I have no interest in hearing what Lil Huddy has to say about right wing extremism.
So, could punk ever come back? It seems that even the forefathers of punk have abandoned the movement. Sex Pistols Steve Jones admitted he no longer listens to punk, and now prefers Steely Dan. Johnny Ramone turned his back on the anti-Reagan sentiments of Ramones songs like “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg”, and was a staunch conservative until his death in 2004.
Punk as we knew it in the 20th century was young, rebellious and contrarian, but it’s aged.
It’s no longer radical and new, it’s retired into the record collections of moderate dads and emblems on over priced t-shirts. But punk, as an attitude still exists, just not in the cartoonish leather and metal way you’d expect. It exists in rappers like Death Grips and Rico Nasty, it exists in young rock groups like the Linda Lindas, and it exists in local pockets, like Riot Grrrl Records in Seattle.
So yeah, maybe punk as we once knew it is dead because the moment has passed. Any formulaic recreation of the energy created by CBGBs or SEX are fake, and by definition, not punk. But as long as artists are vocal about the things that matter to them, push back against oppressive norms, and take the time to encourage individuality, nonconformity and self reliance, then the punk mentality will never die.
GOOD PUNK
otoboke beaver (Japan)
mommy long legs (Seattle)
the linda lindas (california)
The Muffs
Sleater Kinney