Is punk dead?
This is a controversial question that constantly looms over the punk scene like a dark cloud. People argue about it, get angry over it and a definitive answer that everyone can agree, or even agree to disagree, on doesn’t seem to exist.
I could try to approach this subject very carefully and tiptoe around any real answer that I seem to have, but that’s not how I like to do things, especially with this being my last column. In short, the best way to answer this question is both with yes and no.
What punk rock used to be in the larger sense has been dead for quite sometime. Pop entering the scene and being twisted into a genre, which in my opinion, can hardly be classified as punk music was just one factor leading to its demise.
The other aspect that seems to challenge my belief that “old punk” is still breathing is the passion in a lot of new bands seems to be gone. What was once about an attitude and sense of taking on the world has now transformed into nothing more than a mere fashion statement for a lot of people.
An attitude akin to communal unity has morphed into a battle of what is right and what is wrong. The individuals who look up to the old scene are forced to rely on the old bands who are still touring and it’s just not working anymore.
Of course punk fashion has always been a factor accompanying the music, but now being seen looking “punk” is more important than the actual music and message. The personality is being drained from the scene and replaced by an empty shell of what used to be. To put it in the lyrics of H20: “But now the biggest part is all about the image and not the art, fashion before passion … and it makes me mad that I should have to ask, what happened to the passion?”
Those negative things being said, I still have a bit of hope those remnants of old punk still exists. This forgotten attitude, passion and music are found in the individuals of our generation’s scene who keep it alive.
Those young bands that still look up to Dead Kennedys, Operation Ivy and the like are keeping the embers burning. The kids who throw house shows, the bands who play them for fun, not for image, and the people who attend them are all keeping the heart of the old scene beating.
Admittedly, there is no way to restore the full consciousness to the scene that once was. However, we can use the respect and love we have for that scene to carry pieces of it over into our own almost four decades later.
If people keep making music, attending shows, spreading the word and embracing the attitude, then we may not have the amazing counterculture that once existed, but we can have something that we helped survive, even if it is just a few pieces.
Merri Collins is a sophomore studying journalism and a columnist for The Post. Tell her what you think about the future of the punk scene at mc112609@ohiou.edu.
