[Occasional Series] The Soulful Allure of Punk Music Continues to Elude Me[1]

[digitaldiscipline]

(A continuation of my occasional series, "Things Which Many People Like, But Which I Do Not")

etcet: How can the refrain/chorus of "Punk Rock Girl" be so catchy, while the verses suck so badly?

critus: IF YOU DON'T GO MOJO NIXON THEN YOUR STORE COULD USE SOME FIXXXXINNNNNN

etcet: See, exactly. If it's rhythmic deconstructionism in the name of the punk aesthetic, that's one thing, and somewhat understandable... but if it's an inability to have any sort of rhythm or rhyme... dude, get a day job.

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Maybe I'm just getting old[2]. No, that's not true... I've never liked punk. I can be angry and simplistic and bitchy and dissatisfied with the establishment all on my own, and a three-minute, four-chord polemic doesn't do a lot for me. I'd rather go deaf than listen to bands like The Cramps do songs like "Naked Girl Coming Down the Stairs."

This isn't to say that I don't hate the genre - there are some great songs there, but they stand on their own. The thing about punk is that a lot of it is so polarizing - love it or hate it - and a much larger proportion of it falls into the latter category for me, along with the subcultural folderol that goes along with it (skateboards, drugs, the bizarre fixation with the Union Jack).... I didn't/don't get it.

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Zombies and Punk Rock.... your guess is as good as mine as what's next in this litany of my bile.




[1] To paraphrase Oliver Wendell Jones

[2] I figure I've been twenty-seven for the last eighteen years, for what that's worth.

Comments

[megiddo-lj.livejournal.com]

<3 Mojo Nixon

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

See, I dig a lot of punk music, but largely don't care for punks. 'sprobably why I'm at the goth end of things. Gotta know what the rules ARE before you can break 'em meaningfully. That's why I like classic Jazz a lot: carefully-planned spontaneity.

[theonebob.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm just getting old[2].

Maybe you're too young, because the point you make is the very reason punk existed in the first place. At it's very core, punk was a rebellion against overproduced music, like disco and the pop-hits of the mid seventies. It allowed people who couldn't sing to form bands with people who never held instruments before in their life. It sounded like it was supposed to sound because if it was too polished, well-produced or musical it was not punk. Of course, that changed along the way. But you know all this and don't care.

Also, 80% of any popular music genre is crap, trite, derivitive, overblown, or overhyped. But you know that, too.

[fenixinthedark.livejournal.com]

Might have nothing to do with age, and everything to do with having an appreciation for real music.

Shrieking badly written lyrics with no discernable melody (or even harmony) line does not convince me to listen to anyones cause. As a musician, I think there are better ways to use music to express even anger.

[smaugchow.livejournal.com]

I think punk was destinied to be a flash in the pan to a certain extent due to the environment that produced it. As Uno says, punk was a rebellion against the music of the times, but it held no value in and of itself. Punk was about freedom (a good thing) and anger (we all have it, gotta get it out somehow) and a bit of anarchy (fine when you are a teenager and pissed at your parents, not so useful when you are 30-something and have a job.)

I see punk as a phase, like people go through in their late teens/early twenties, and most people grow out of it pretty quickly. The music industry may have needed the palate cleanser so it could move on and grow. A meket correction, so to speak.

In short, you are too bright to enjoy punk, aside from the occasional inspired single or classic tune or even a few visionaries who were great song writers/musicians, even if they did choose punk as their weapon of choice. I hate that crap too. I never understood punk. OK, so any fool can pick up an instrument and beat the shit out of it and he's a punk...so why should I listen to this talentless hack make noise? I'm supposed to idolize THAT guy? Not likely.