Did you hear? Punk has officially met its demise. Murdered, so to speak. I found out this last Sunday night via the Grammy’s. I should preface that with the fact that I don’t actually care for the gratuitous self-congratulatory awards shows of that nature. But the wife does and as I lazed on the couch, doing what I do, it was mere background noise to me. That was until I heard about the demise of Punk. Like a doctor announcing the time of death of a patient, the guest emcee announced Green Day performing a song from their upcoming Broadway musical. Excuse me? Did I hear that right? Thanks to the modern marvel of a DVR I rewound. Sure enough, I had heard right. It was official. Punk died January 31, 2010.
Sure the genre has been on life support for quite some time now. But really? Did we the have to pull the plug on it with a Broadway freaking musical???
Let’s take a moment to reflect on the life and times, shall we?
In the late 70s, defying the mainstream of Disco and the likes of Leo Slayer and Carly Simon, Punk exploded on the scene with three chord riffs and heart pounding beats. I was oblivious to the sound due to the fact that I was still at the age of playing Star Wars figures. But in the summer of ’86 I got my first skateboard and after that things took a different turn for me. An older kid who we hung out dubbed me a copy of Bitchin’ Camaro by The Dead Milkmen. Although technically not Punk it was a far different sound that I was accustomed to and I could sense the angst and sarcasm in the lyrics. It opened my ears to the fact there was another world out there. While other kids were listening to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, I was listening to the likes of Minor Threat, The Ramones and The Clash. Soon my programmed nature of dressing to fit in was abandoned for spray-painted and ripped T-shirts and spiky hair. To me Punk was rebellion. Giving the finger to the fat cats of authority.
That is what was at the scarred heart of Punk. Rebellion. An anti-establishment mentality. So what happened? I guess at some point the machine won. Sid Vicious died. Some traded in their raggedy threads for suits and decided that money trumped ideals. Others still looked the part, but were just tourists in a pseudo-punk world. In 1989 retailer Orv Madden incorporated a fledgling store called Hot Topic. The store would give young suburban teens easier access to Punk by selling the fashion in malls of America, an absolute contradiction if there was ever one. In 1996 the company went public and trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol HOTT. Punk traded amongst the mutual funds and hedge funds of Wall Street America. Yet another contradiction.
So, the demise of Punk has been a long time coming. It really shouldn’t be a surprise to me or the rest of the lost generation weaned from The Sex Pistols and The MC5 that the day would come when we would have to eulogize Punk. But a freaking musical?
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