What the Punk?

Remember 1977?

Remember the Ramones, the Clash, Patti Smith, the Damned?

Remember 1982?

Remember the Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, X, Ism, the Minutemen, the Dicks?

What do you listen to today?

Do you consider it to be punk?

Green Day? Not so much.
Fall Out Boy? Not at all.

Punk is an attitude, a way of living, a way of thinking and a way of rejecting the status quo.

It is not a fashion, despite what the record companies and design houses want you to think.

I stumbled across a fashion magazine the other day and between the gloss of J.Lo and Fall Out Boy there was a section dedicated to "alternative" fashion in music.

The punk section reads, "not much has changed since the 1970s ..." Which is fact for the true punk. But only a poser would invest $1000 to look the part. A real punk finds their clothes at the Salvo, the thrift store or the ultimate cool place, the trash.

To think you are punk because you buy the marketing and clothes is really posing and defeating the whole concept of punk.

Same for Goth.

A real goth is morose and finds their clothing in second hand shops, looking for that 19th century feel. When I found that the "goths" being offered for fashion were wearing $15,000 Ralph Lauren dresses, I had all I could do to keep from vomiting.

And I can't even go into Rave. Any self-respecting club kid would retch at the thought of actually paying $10,000 for a shirt. Real club kids put their look together from second hand bits, trash and whatever. Designer rave takes all the creativity and joy out of it.

Punks, goths, ravers all formed as a way to say FUCK YOU to the system. Tragically, the posers don't really understand that. They sacrifice spirit and inner truth for high couture and demean all those who have that true attitude in their hearts.

Hey ... did you hear that? That was Joey Ramone spinning in his grave. Of course it was a 4/4 beat at hyperspeed.