Well said, and a great read. And timely for me as I'm still laughing about the laughable bashing some communist sympathizer gave my band's album in Maximum Rocknroll this week. "Libertarian conspiracy theories" aren't punk rock. HA!
So true. As a touring indie folk artist years ago, I learned so much from guys I opened for and wrote songs with. Folk has punk roots too. Now I’m as geeky as I was then about musicians as I am with badlands writers and shows now. It’s an edge that’s alive and awesome!!!!
As a soon to be 60 yr old, former punk rock fan, I am still aligned with the punk of all punks. John Lydon’s trajectory has been similar to mine. Well thought out article! Thx
Thanks Ryan. Another perceptive piece , weaving together disparate voices to create a whole. See through the trees. The touch of the music business is the touch of death. Few, if any, survive.
I know the music business well, having been in it. Most were liberal, but they didn't really care that much. I wouldn't 'sell out' or whatever phrase they are using today. A well-known friend did, his music was heard everywhere and in many countries. His time with the Hassles, a forgotten step to glory.
When I read the title to this article the first song that came to mind was, “You’re Not the Boss of Me” from the tv show “Malcolm in the Middle.” It might be a good theme song for conservatives. Unfortunately for previous generations who protested through their music and comedy this new generation has latched onto the ideas of Marxism without considering beyond the end of their noses the consequences of lost freedoms. What goes around comes around. Someone out there is looking at a group they want to exterminate which could be the group doing all the persecuting now. Foolish rhetoric leads to inflated egos and a superior opinion of oneself. There are many weak dunderheads who latch onto such ignorant views and to feel so powerful. Parents your children are out of control due to your ego. Your child may feel so special because they were brought up to believe what you told them. Either you don’t love your children enough to explain the facts concerning human nature or you are busy yourself rubbing elbows with fools.
It's sad but most of the musicians who were 80s "punk rock" are NPC leftists; in retrospect, their rebellion against "the man" or "the system" was actively promoted by establishment outlets to further their own goals. And now that phenomenon has manifested as: https://i.ibb.co/cDxSC7q/a12338.jpg
Great Read! I recently came across a rapper named Tom McDonald. He went totally Indie and is funding his own stuff. Youtube vids, sells his cd's. His parents, siblings and girlfriend help him package and mail them out. And now he is very rich! He is absolutely awake and not woke. Never been a rap fan but this guy doesn't hold back when calling out the left! Worth a listen or two.
I can now look back at the decades I spent in the punk scene as one of the most counter-productive and self-defeating things I've ever done.
For me, punk fostered a divisive and apocalyptic worldview that fed my anger, amplified my fear, and bred a distrust of my fellow humans, who I saw as mindless slaves exploited by an unjust system. Punk mirrored my dismal prophecy of a future full of war, oppression, and ecological ruin.
In decrying these atrocities and angrily agitating for change, I thought I was helping the world and liberating myself. I was wrong.
Sure, on the positive side, punk gave me the courage and determination to speak up for what I saw as wrong in the world. It encouraged me to question authority and the mainstream version of reality. Punk gave me an ethic based on thinking for myself, standing up for my beliefs, and building my own skills. It gave me permission to express my individuality and introduced me to fun and creative people who would become great friends. For this, I am grateful.
But there was a dark side. Punk kept me focused on everything I hated about the world, orienting my worldview to be against everything without really knowing what I was fighting for. Record cover after cover, song after song overwhelmed my senses with the very things I wanted to change. Instead of feeling empowered, I felt besieged and full of blame for those who were playing the game. I started to identify as a victim.
As anxiety and despair closed in on me, I did what nearly everyone else in the punk scene did: I reached for the bottle. Sure, I drank for the fun of it, but also for the relief it offered, the numbing of pain. Buzzed on cheap beer, I charged and shoved in the mosh pit, violently acting out my inner aggression. In the drinking and violence, punk became the vehicle of my self-destruction.
In my heart, I was an idealist who never fully gave up on the future. But I believed rebellion was the path to freedom and a better world. I didn’t understand that rebellion could never make me free from what I was rebelling against. By pushing against it, I was giving it my attention and staying in a loop with it, which only fed my pessimism and discontent, hurting me more than it ever hurt the systems I despised. The anger and resentment I carried, fostered by listening to aggressive and dystopian music, squeezed out compassion and hope.
That was the paradox that got me. In feeding me images and sounds of a hell on earth, punk reinforced a negative and hostile worldview that iced over my heart and instilled a sense of subjugation and separation that gave rise to a lot of pain for me and the people around me. In my anguish, the system had won and I had lost.
Only as I got older and did the inner work did I realize that freedom and happiness are of my own making and mine to give myself. It was in understanding my own agency and the power of shifting my thoughts toward what I want instead of what I don’t want and embracing the light instead of dancing with the dark that I found the freedom and truth I had been searching for and it looked nothing like the vision of the many misled idealistic progressives that dominate the punk scene.
The last punk show I went to was full of teenage kids in Crass masks. The sad fucking irony. "Who do you think they're fooling?"
Well said, and a great read. And timely for me as I'm still laughing about the laughable bashing some communist sympathizer gave my band's album in Maximum Rocknroll this week. "Libertarian conspiracy theories" aren't punk rock. HA!
So true. As a touring indie folk artist years ago, I learned so much from guys I opened for and wrote songs with. Folk has punk roots too. Now I’m as geeky as I was then about musicians as I am with badlands writers and shows now. It’s an edge that’s alive and awesome!!!!
As a soon to be 60 yr old, former punk rock fan, I am still aligned with the punk of all punks. John Lydon’s trajectory has been similar to mine. Well thought out article! Thx
Thanks Ryan. Another perceptive piece , weaving together disparate voices to create a whole. See through the trees. The touch of the music business is the touch of death. Few, if any, survive.
I know the music business well, having been in it. Most were liberal, but they didn't really care that much. I wouldn't 'sell out' or whatever phrase they are using today. A well-known friend did, his music was heard everywhere and in many countries. His time with the Hassles, a forgotten step to glory.
When I read the title to this article the first song that came to mind was, “You’re Not the Boss of Me” from the tv show “Malcolm in the Middle.” It might be a good theme song for conservatives. Unfortunately for previous generations who protested through their music and comedy this new generation has latched onto the ideas of Marxism without considering beyond the end of their noses the consequences of lost freedoms. What goes around comes around. Someone out there is looking at a group they want to exterminate which could be the group doing all the persecuting now. Foolish rhetoric leads to inflated egos and a superior opinion of oneself. There are many weak dunderheads who latch onto such ignorant views and to feel so powerful. Parents your children are out of control due to your ego. Your child may feel so special because they were brought up to believe what you told them. Either you don’t love your children enough to explain the facts concerning human nature or you are busy yourself rubbing elbows with fools.
It's sad but most of the musicians who were 80s "punk rock" are NPC leftists; in retrospect, their rebellion against "the man" or "the system" was actively promoted by establishment outlets to further their own goals. And now that phenomenon has manifested as: https://i.ibb.co/cDxSC7q/a12338.jpg
Absolutely brilliant! It’s why I constantly share YouTube music videos too!
Great Read! I recently came across a rapper named Tom McDonald. He went totally Indie and is funding his own stuff. Youtube vids, sells his cd's. His parents, siblings and girlfriend help him package and mail them out. And now he is very rich! He is absolutely awake and not woke. Never been a rap fan but this guy doesn't hold back when calling out the left! Worth a listen or two.
YES!!!! Thank you for posting this. I whole-heartedly agree!!
Covered all the bases. 👏🏻
WOW ! Very Interesting Cultural Cut.
You sold it !
Kudos.
Ask yourself, “Do I dare?”
I'm "only" French 🇫🇷, but I wish I could take my courage in my hands and sign your Declaration of Independence!
Will you, the American People and supporters of the MAGA movement, dare to sign?
🇫🇷🙏🏻✝️🕊️🇺🇲
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/the-declaration-of-independence-project-challenges-the-american-public-to-sign-the-founding-document/
I can now look back at the decades I spent in the punk scene as one of the most counter-productive and self-defeating things I've ever done.
For me, punk fostered a divisive and apocalyptic worldview that fed my anger, amplified my fear, and bred a distrust of my fellow humans, who I saw as mindless slaves exploited by an unjust system. Punk mirrored my dismal prophecy of a future full of war, oppression, and ecological ruin.
In decrying these atrocities and angrily agitating for change, I thought I was helping the world and liberating myself. I was wrong.
Sure, on the positive side, punk gave me the courage and determination to speak up for what I saw as wrong in the world. It encouraged me to question authority and the mainstream version of reality. Punk gave me an ethic based on thinking for myself, standing up for my beliefs, and building my own skills. It gave me permission to express my individuality and introduced me to fun and creative people who would become great friends. For this, I am grateful.
But there was a dark side. Punk kept me focused on everything I hated about the world, orienting my worldview to be against everything without really knowing what I was fighting for. Record cover after cover, song after song overwhelmed my senses with the very things I wanted to change. Instead of feeling empowered, I felt besieged and full of blame for those who were playing the game. I started to identify as a victim.
As anxiety and despair closed in on me, I did what nearly everyone else in the punk scene did: I reached for the bottle. Sure, I drank for the fun of it, but also for the relief it offered, the numbing of pain. Buzzed on cheap beer, I charged and shoved in the mosh pit, violently acting out my inner aggression. In the drinking and violence, punk became the vehicle of my self-destruction.
In my heart, I was an idealist who never fully gave up on the future. But I believed rebellion was the path to freedom and a better world. I didn’t understand that rebellion could never make me free from what I was rebelling against. By pushing against it, I was giving it my attention and staying in a loop with it, which only fed my pessimism and discontent, hurting me more than it ever hurt the systems I despised. The anger and resentment I carried, fostered by listening to aggressive and dystopian music, squeezed out compassion and hope.
That was the paradox that got me. In feeding me images and sounds of a hell on earth, punk reinforced a negative and hostile worldview that iced over my heart and instilled a sense of subjugation and separation that gave rise to a lot of pain for me and the people around me. In my anguish, the system had won and I had lost.
Only as I got older and did the inner work did I realize that freedom and happiness are of my own making and mine to give myself. It was in understanding my own agency and the power of shifting my thoughts toward what I want instead of what I don’t want and embracing the light instead of dancing with the dark that I found the freedom and truth I had been searching for and it looked nothing like the vision of the many misled idealistic progressives that dominate the punk scene.
The last punk show I went to was full of teenage kids in Crass masks. The sad fucking irony. "Who do you think they're fooling?"
Get fucken real ...
Chrissie & Band, One Of The Originals.
https://youtu.be/HwfyZD3atOg
"I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government
That had no pride
The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced
By shopping malls
And Muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls"
~ C.H.