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Why Punk Rock Can’t Do the Talking For You
There are plenty of ways to get your point across these days—some better than others. Op-eds are fine; civil disobedience is better; taking personal responsibility every day of your life to avoid supporting things that are unjust, unsustainable, and destructive is the best. Protests, culture jamming, boycotts—these also send messages in ways the entire public can either get behind, defy, or at least discuss. The arts, however—once the sole venue outside of actual politics in which citizens managed to air controversial opinions—have long since been so thoroughly commoditized, subjugated, and padded with tacit approval that to effectively distribute a work unambiguously subversive enough to actually rattle some cages is virtually impossible. Music, while arguably the most revolutionary artistic medium of the late modern era, is not only included in that misfortune, but has suffered perhaps worst of all.
With generations of practice, the Man and his cultural-capitalist minions have successfully maneuvered all former musical rebellions into some pretty dang snug kid gloves. Having mastered the ability to view any cultural or political movement as a market, they know that when the time is right and the market is big enough, the most effective and profitable way of squelching its seditious potential is by no means to stifle it. To the contrary, they embrace, co-opt, promote, and sell it ’til it’s just another half-priced t-shirt on clearance at Wal-Mart.
With art, entertainment, and commerce so noxiously intertwined, whatever political views are expressed in popular music carry about as much weight as advice from a fortune cookie. As far as unpopular music goes—who cares? No one’s going to hear that stuff anyway. Folk, hip-hop, and, of course, punk rock remain the three genres most commonly associated with the idea of “political music,” and all three, in their best-selling guises, generally convey but gutted husks of slogans for the various upheavals they once represented. Yet even down here at Political Threat Level: Green, one genre’s bind is even more debilitating than the other two, in its continued futile attempts at political relevance.
For a quick and handy look at the efficacy of any political medium, the three most basic criteria to consider are its reach, its clarity, and its integrity. Without reach, no one hears it; without clarity (or accessibility, in the case of artistic expression), no one understands it; and without integrity, no one takes it to heart. If any one of these criteria falters, regardless of the other two, the message fails. Despite its twin reputations for fashionable mischief and frightening extremism, punk rock is the lamest of the above lame ducks, no matter how you cut it.
Folk music can fill a regal auditorium or massive festival field without compromise, just as hip-hop, too, fills corporate nightclubs, arenas, and cable TV channels on even philosophical ground, as neither genre ever formally, universally disavowed cooperation with big business as a part of its fundamental ethos. Not so for punk rock. Despite the Malcolm McLarens of this world, punk simply can’t indulge in the same conventional mechanisms for development and still retain its moral authority. The convention equals the corporation, and Punk Inc. has always been a contradiction in terms.
Punk’s real political nucleus is, and has always been, staunchly anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment, anti-status quo. Politically, punk rock becomes an automatic hypocrisy as soon as it compromises its fundamental resistance to the various venues of corporate control, no matter how badly it wants to widen its audience. It’s quite the catch-22, indeed. The way the industry works today, if you engage with it at any level, no matter how “indie” or underground a band purports to be or even truly believes that it is, there will always be some connection, somewhere along the line, just nefarious enough for someone to say, “Hey—you’re not punk rock. You’re a sellout, a phony, a fake!” And whether anyone pays attention to that person or not, most of the time, they’re right.
Plenty of so-called punk bands (or, spiky-haired, studded-belted cuties playing alternative/hard rock music derivative of punk rock) achieve mainstream commercial success despite the little wrinkle at their roots. None of them is a shining example of relevant political expression. Though I hesitate to even refer to it as “punk,” anyone who thinks Green Day’s multiplatinum American Idiot was an effective, worthwhile political statement are kidding themselves. Green Day are clowns; they stand for nothing. So feeble and toothless is the chart-topping punk of today, that some might say the Man only chose to propagate punk’s first mainstream wave back in the ’90s in order to keep white, middle-class teenagers away from the more potent revolutionary forces of black rap music, which was the most frightening trend gaining ground at the time. At this point, however, given the bang-up job the Man did on inoculating rap culture for passive mass consumption (Flavor Flav, anyone?), it’s safe to say that the only thing he has left to fear is fear itself. As long as he keeps absorbing all that scares him, he’ll be fine.
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10 Comments
say what you want about green day, American Idiot gave expression to a substratum of discontent in this country that NO ONE could figure out to tap as a political force.
so, sure, green day are sellouts (ho-hum). punk rock cannot save the world. oh but rap music is a potent revolutionary force? ha. good one.
if you can give me one example of any political activism of any type over the past 8 years having any effect, I will concede your point.
Political activism as you’re talking about it, in the ’60s mode, or the hardcore punk mode, or whatever outsider mode, does not exist anymore. The best way to enact change is from the inside. Get into an organization and bring five of your friends, and have them bring five of their friends, and take it over. The punk idea is idealistic, not concrete at all, for true political change.
Dewar,
I feel your pain, but defeatist political fatalism is exactly what the dominant systems of power are counting on. Blowing off steam by listening to Green Day and by no other means = to consume the latest opiate of the masses. People do have power, and yet we do also have to go to work every day, etc; There’s not space enough here to go into how deep-seated the systems are that dissuade us from taking action. Suffice it to say that real change would require a pretty dang massive paradigm shift — an entire overhaul of the collective psychological state of American society, perhaps — which the entertainment market certainly does nothing to encourage. This is not to say real change is impossible, but it takes time, and action, and heaping load of nonstop personal responsibility. At any rate, the handiest example of recently successful political activism, though just outside the 8 year limit, I would say is the Battle of Seattle.
As to your other point, I only stated that rap was potent in comparison to the mainstream punk that emerged “coincidentally” around the same time, or in its wake. “Fuck tha Police”, “Fight the Power” … … “Ruby Soho”? “Come Out and Play”?
And now I’m to believe that American Idiot tapped a certain substratum of discontent “as a political force?” Is the status quo changing? Or are people just buying things? In an interview with MTV published October 1, 2004, Billie Joe Armstrong says “I’m surprised that more quote-unquote ‘hard rock bands’ haven’t gotten more outspoken [against Bush].” Do you think he was still surprised two and a half weeks later, when MTV published a second interview with the same reporter, in which he said, “We don’t really have an agenda or anything like that, so we really want our live shows to be about having a good time. That’s the most important thing”? To this, drummer Tre Cool added (reportedly with “a smirk”), “We’re leaving it up to you, the fans, to stick it to the man!” That’s right, kids! For a mere $40 to Ticketmaster and maybe another $21.99 to Reprise via Kmart, you too can stick it to the Man; “it” in this case being money, power, and control.
Anyhoo… Bono:
Spoken like a true believer in the system. While I agree that a certain level of communication needs to exist between rulers and revolutionaries in order to potentially minimize the strain of change, by sitting down at a table with the corrupt leaders of systems that equate to inequality and destruction, and basically beg these for change, only leaves the power in their hands and legitimizes their systems. They’re never going to say “woops, you’re right, I’m wrong, let’s start over.” Spending decades preparing yourself and then working your way up the ranks in McDonalds Corporate with the idea of finding some way to change it for the better only equals decades spent nodding, legitimizing, and keeping the machine rolling on. The punk idea, at its roots, is the “I want change and I don’t trust you” idea. It’s basically the “revolution” idea. Those ideas are still important. The current mainstream punk line of products, however, I definitely agree are not concrete at all in terms of change for anything whatsoever, except maybe some 15-year-old’s wardrobe.
As soon as someone identifies themselves as an “Activist” of any sort, my eyes glaze over, and I just want them to clutch their throat and die.
“Though I hesitate to even refer to it as “punk,” anyone who thinks Green Day’s multiplatinum American Idiot was an effective, worthwhile political statement are kidding themselves. Green Day are clowns; they stand for nothing.”
Correct me if I’m wrong here, bub, but I don’t think Green Day ever claimed to stand for anything. It’s called Pop-Punk for a reason. American Idiot was as much a political record as Icky Thump or Blonde on Blonde, which is to say not at all. If you insist in keeping it negative, perhaps you would be better served putting down bands whose lyrics you can comprehend.
“Politically, punk rock becomes an automatic hypocrisy as soon as it compromises its fundamental resistance to the various venues of corporate control, no matter how badly it wants to widen its audience.”
By this logic, any band that signs a record deal is automatically compromised. You’re aware that there are musicians from all genres, not just punk, that have had their lyrics censored by their labels in order to attain wider distribution, right? I’m not trying to be harsh, but I’d suggest you learn a lot more about how the industry operates before making such bold pronouncements.
The sentiments expressed in this article remind me I won’t ever give a shit about punk rock ever again (bad music aside).
You’re assuming that the end goal of punk rock is to enact social change and make a relevant statement. Back in my day as a Crawdaddy writer, I found that few of the punk bands I interviewed really cared very little about commenting on politics. More often than not, it’s a mode of venting frustration or relieving boredom, no? When I was younger, I got caught up in this notion of “changing the world one person at a time,” but — like many other Gen-Xers — I inevitably fell into the same disillusion and apathy.
You don’t know anything about punk rock. Listen to Propagandhi more.
Monkey House: Thanks for sharing.
Anonymous: as to your 1st point, see my comment of 8/24 below. 2nd pnt, see 3rd paragraph of article.
Griffinkay: Punk rock is still awesome music, worthy of attention. It’s just not a substitute for action, nor can it really be, politically.
Jennn: Some punk wants change, some just wants to rock. Like folk and hiphop, obviously not all is political. But of all genres commonly associated with political stances, these are simply the top three, punk being a contender for #1 — erroneously.
Casey Swenson: Send your Propagandhi tapes to the judge in the SHAC 7 case. While you’re at it, ask the average Green Day fan if they’ve ever heard of Propagandhi.
shit same old tired ideas ….Strumer said his music was a news broadast….True but why violence or disobedeance””” It is each and everyone responsibility to feed the hungry….clothe the naked ……give shelter to the homelesss….and comfort the sick and dying……polotics is just a filter to foster non action……we should take these responsibilities upon ourselves””””””’…….. not whine about rotten politians…lame music….our high ideals……LETS SEE ACTION