Argument to ponder

[TJ Webelo]

What I really like about Terminal Boredom is what i also hate about it.....bands that are mimicking the past (that I love, based on my own tastes) aren't necessarily held in high regard, even if the reviewer really digs it.

But here's my question....

Why is the term "punk" still being held in such high regard then? The term is what, 40 years old now? If bands that mimmick the past aren't as praised as a band trying something new, then why is an OLD term being used to describe something that's trying a new approach?

I'm drunk and pondering this.

[2 Cold Scorpio]

Every band is basically mining the past.  Some bands are just out and out carbon copies of a particular style.  I don't think anyone is holding the idea of "punk" on a pedestal.  It's one thing to have influence but it's another to be totally derivative.  If band A sounds exactly like I dunno...The Saints....then I think I'd rather just listen to the Saints.

[TJ Webelo]

Every band is basically mining the past.  Some bands are just out and out carbon copies of a particular style.  I don't think anyone is holding the idea of "punk" on a pedestal.  It's one thing to have influence but it's another to be totally derivative.  If band A sounds exactly like I dunno...The Saints....then I think I'd rather just listen to the Saints.

That makes sense. But at the same time, many bands in the 70's that got the punk tag just sounded like bands from the late 60's/early 70's.  in 1977, the Damned were considered a copy of the mc5, for example. DMZ is just a hard rock version of the Sonics...and so on. Punk was the new term for that....30 years ago. So why is it still being carried on?

[TJ Webelo]

i should also point out that this really stems from something i read not too long on this board regarding Hardcore. Someone said something along the lines of "talking about the latest hardcore album is the equivilent of talking about the latest doo wop album".

[bruce]

if you can't figure out what is good for your self, please do not bother me with your opinons

[lexdexter]

i should also point out that this really stems from something i read not too long on this board regarding Hardcore. Someone said something along the lines of "talking about the latest hardcore album is the equivilent of talking about the latest doo wop album".

What a good thread and fair question.  I was blogging just today about how I don't think a lot of people actually like "rock," so zeroing in on punk is a bit less unwieldy.   In the early 90s, I remember feeling over-saturated with Dinosaur, SY and Du ripoffs and wondering, "where are the bands that sound like Wire or Gang of Four"?  Careful what you wish for, huh? By the 2000s it was all post-punk and post-rock as earlier rocking fuck-punk from SST waned.  Now we're in a moment, which still feels great, I think, in which Killed By Death has eclipsed Nuggets as the Bible (or Anthology of American Folk Music) for 48 states' worth of gnarly post-GG bubble-psych. 

In other words, I think the resilience of "punk" as a rallying genre-bugle can best be explained by the fact that punk has been subject to major changes in form and content.  Is that radical aesthetics or flexible marketing tactics? I dunno.  Over time it's not as one-dimensional as civilians suppose, although at any given moment I believe it tends towards the monochromatic.  I worry about that now, but there are always outliers, right?

Also, there's always the historical re-enactors and the "punk's not dead!!!" industry.  Chances are our favorite contempo-punks - mine are Cola Freaks and GG King, let's say - don't attract the yobs or the bucks that this first tendency does.  As much a hoax as the POW-MIA "you are not forgotten" lie, the assertion that punk's dead is hardly as relevant as the one about God being a shitty worm-corpse.  Still, people defend, I dunno, The Ramones and Sham 69 kind of like tea party caucasians defend themselves like they were in a targeted minority. 

Anyway I'll stop now. We allow the meaning of punk to change in part so we can celebrate its resilience and continuity with everything.  It's a fantasy that great records ride in on every day.

[BRACE]

 nothing about any of this crap makes any sens

[bradxxx]

punk is such an all encompassing term, its like rock n roll, its just an easy and almost meaningless word.  what is punk?  the clash?  tapeworm?  blink 182??? 

its just an easy way to describe an attitude and approach i guess.  to many people it still means sex pistols and social distortion though...

[TJ Webelo]

Look....i'm a fucking drunk. I'm drunk right now. This is just something i was thinking about earlier. If people think it's a stupid thing to ponder, or even if it just doesn't make any sense, I totally understand that.

it's just something I was thinking about earlier. it's an old term....and the older it gets, I can't help but feel like the term "punk" is just another way of explaining rock'n'roll to people who understand rock'n'roll (another outdated term) is supposed to be about.
yet at the same time, the longer time goes on....i can't help but wonder when the term "punk" itself will become  meaningless.

 i completely accept every answer so far.

[Swampy]

i should also point out that this really stems from something i read not too long on this board regarding Hardcore. Someone said something along the lines of "talking about the latest hardcore album is the equivilent of talking about the latest doo wop album".

I bought 49 (counted em') 49-cent 45's today, mostly old rock'n'roll, country, soul, polka... mostly well-known stuff, but some obscurities... about 6 of em' were doo-wop records... and I'm really glad I bought those doo-wop records because they are really fucking good and I don't know what my point is besides that I'm essentially just a senile old coot and could just ramble on about nothing whatsoever to do with this pointless thread...

[TJ Webelo]

if you can't figure out what is good for your self, please do not bother me with your opinons

not my point at all.

[Swampy]

These newer members of the board posting these wack-ass threads must of had older brothers in emo bands or something. Really touchy-feely about their nonsense or something. Now I must get back to whittling on the porch and, heck, this here beer ain't gonna drink itself, unless of course it does...

[Swampy]

if you can't figure out what is good for your self, please do not bother me with your opinons

not my point at all.

What is your fucking point then, NOOB?

[bradxxx]

Look....i'm a fucking drunk. I'm drunk right now. This is just something i was thinking about earlier. If people think it's a stupid thing to ponder, or even if it just doesn't make any sense, I totally understand that.

it's just something I was thinking about earlier. it's an old term....and the older it gets, I can't help but feel like the term "punk" is just another way of explaining rock'n'roll to people who understand rock'n'roll (another outdated term) is supposed to be about.
yet at the same time, the longer time goes on....i can't help but wonder when the term "punk" itself will become  meaningless.

 i completely accept every answer so far.

it was meaningless when it started, television, talking heads, blondie, all were considered punk. 

i always liked lemmys stage banter about THIS is rock n roll, perhaps you have been misinformed about what rock n roll is...

[lexdexter]

Look....i'm a fucking drunk. I'm drunk right now. This is just something i was thinking about earlier. If people think it's a stupid thing to ponder, or even if it just doesn't make any sense, I totally understand that.

it's just something I was thinking about earlier. it's an old term....and the older it gets, I can't help but feel like the term "punk" is just another way of explaining rock'n'roll to people who understand rock'n'roll (another outdated term) is supposed to be about.
yet at the same time, the longer time goes on....i can't help but wonder when the term "punk" itself will become  meaningless.

 i completely accept every answer so far.

I'm glad you apologized for asking an intelligent question.  You NEED these people to like you - some of them even have CASSETTE labels, or just own cassettes - and you really should worship them. They have no choice but to enter into threads they don't like and remind you that asking questions is for people with inadequate record collections.  You should be either scanning these folks' discogs lists or memorizing their inside jokes. Who the fuck likes talking about music? That's why the phrases "that shit's awesome" and "that shit fucking sucks" were coined.