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Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

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Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#61

I don't think I've yet to experience anything as incredible as the DIY punk scene in my teenage years. People from multiple communities around Chicago would show up at an abandoned transmission gallery and renovate enough of it to make it inhabitable for a show that night. The dedication was purely out of love for the scene itself and it's a shame I haven't found a parallel in modern adulthood.

Not modern adulthood, but electronic dance culture in the 1990s probably (from my point of view) was possibly close. Of course, I really don't know the early punk scene firsthand, which I heard was way more DIY in say the early 1980s, kind of like what you are talking about, vs when I played in a punk band in the 2000s (this is the impression I get when I talked to some guys who were in relatively known local bands in the 1980s).

I also don't know mmuch about the 1960s hippie culture firsthand, of course.

But my "impression" of the 1990s rave scene was that indeed it was in between the punk ethos (DIY, warehouse takeovers, some aggressive music styles like gabber/hardcore) and the hippie ethos (bohemian, some psychedelic influence, etc.) At any rate you did get that sense of "for the scene" with the rave community, something that is indeed special when you can find it.

For all I know there are some scenes similar to that still, but it's hard to keep up with this sort of thing -- it's hard to reconcile a late-hours youth culture with responsible 9-5 job culture. :( It would be interesting to know for sure what has taken its place.

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#62
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it has a lot of definitions. I still think of it as a reaction to overproduced rock and disco from the 70s, but it has evolved a lot since then. Surely someone has put together an introductory listening list that is searchable. No idea if there's a scene anywhere these days. I rather doubt it, but you never know.

Spotify has a couple of playlists that might help OP learn a bit more about the genre: The Road to Punk Rock: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWU0... Complete Chaos: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX1f... Punk Unleashed: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXdJ... Skatepark Punks: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX3M... New P…

I like the "late Risers Club" on MIT radio. 10am -12 EST. They stream and have archived shows.

http://wmbr.org/www/sched-mul#show5756

and http://laterisersclub.org/

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#63
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NOFX's El Hefe and Bad Religion's Greg Graffin come to mind, respectively in your sentence.

Good choices. I was thinking of Bad Brains, who started out as a fusion band, and Craig Finn's early stuff, but that probably gets into more post-punk.

Reagan Youth and Dave Rubinstein come to mind as well.

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#64

I don't think I've yet to experience anything as incredible as the DIY punk scene in my teenage years. People from multiple communities around Chicago would show up at an abandoned transmission gallery and renovate enough of it to make it inhabitable for a show that night. The dedication was purely out of love for the scene itself and it's a shame I haven't found a parallel in modern adulthood.

Not modern adulthood, but electronic dance culture in the 1990s probably (from my point of view) was possibly close. Of course, I really don't know the early punk scene firsthand, which I heard was way more DIY in say the early 1980s, kind of like what you are talking about, vs when I played in a punk band in the 2000s (this is the impression I get when I talked to some guys who were in relatively known local bands i…

>t's hard to reconcile a late-hours youth culture with responsible 9-5 job culture

I'm a founder at a startup trying to address this problem.

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#65

related -- this is an interesting read on sub-cultures and how (in the author's opinion) they are co-opted over time: https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths excerpt: Subcultures were the main creative cultural force from roughly 1975 to 2000, when they stopped working. Why? One reason—among several—is that as soon as subcultures start getting really interesting, they get invaded by muggles, who ruin them. Subc…

That was a wild read. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#66

I don't think I've yet to experience anything as incredible as the DIY punk scene in my teenage years. People from multiple communities around Chicago would show up at an abandoned transmission gallery and renovate enough of it to make it inhabitable for a show that night. The dedication was purely out of love for the scene itself and it's a shame I haven't found a parallel in modern adulthood.

Noisey (VICE) has a nice short (30 minute) documentary about the hardcore music scene from NYC in the 1970s to South Korean today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRoEdcBgH2Q

Ha, narrated by Tim Armstrong of Rancid fame -- until recently I hadn't listened to them since I was in middle school. Having lived in the Bay Area in the interim it was interesting to hear all of their references to Berkeley, San Francisco, Richmond, Campbell, etc. Half their songs seem to be about Bart stations.

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#67
Any recommendations of cross-cultural punk/metal bands?

Taiwanese: 滅火器 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOgNLY8nDxQ

http://www.chthonic.tw

Mongolian: 九大圣器 Nine Treasures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa7PfYfmoEo

杭盖乐队 Hanggai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nf1HKQNuQQ

Norwegian: http://www.folk-metal.nl

Celtic: https://celticfolkpunk.blogspot.tw

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#68
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it has a lot of definitions. I still think of it as a reaction to overproduced rock and disco from the 70s, but it has evolved a lot since then. Surely someone has put together an introductory listening list that is searchable. No idea if there's a scene anywhere these days. I rather doubt it, but you never know.

Spotify has a couple of playlists that might help OP learn a bit more about the genre: The Road to Punk Rock: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWU0... Complete Chaos: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX1f... Punk Unleashed: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXdJ... Skatepark Punks: https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX3M... New P…

Do you think The Road to Punk Rock playlist makes sense? It has some punk staples (Ramones, The Clash, etc.), but also blues, rock-n-roll, and even an old school country song.

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#69

related -- this is an interesting read on sub-cultures and how (in the author's opinion) they are co-opted over time: https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths excerpt: Subcultures were the main creative cultural force from roughly 1975 to 2000, when they stopped working. Why? One reason—among several—is that as soon as subcultures start getting really interesting, they get invaded by muggles, who ruin them. Subc…

It's an interesting piece, but it seems like sorts of things people would say when we actually had subcultures.

I often wrack my brain trying to think, what changed...

Was it the Internet sucking a lot of the money out of the music industry?

Was it the aging out of GenX?

Was it the long term structural effects of the GFC, with the shrinking of the middle class and the subsequent capital booms that QE created?

Was it a change in perspective in a generation coming up with a lot of economic and global turmoil happening? (no time for culture, time to get to work, economic security is fragile)

Was it the growth of online dating platforms and social media? (Was all of this just an incredibly complex system of mating calls?)

Was it the death of place? Did these cultures lose their luster when anyone could just read all about them online, consume them, and move on? Or perhaps a sort of centralization and homogenization of culture as a result of trends happening in the digital world (where everybody is reading the same things, thinking the same things, doing the same things, in any city)?

Was it the growth of burning man? A sort of Wal-Mart of subculture.

Was it rising real estate prices and the gentrification of cities globally? (Was this new global interest in urban living driven by the Internet in some way?)

Was it the fetishizing of Internet business? (Why do pop stars have Internet startups now, anyhow?)

...but yes, it is super interesting. American cities these days seem to be full steam ahead away from the weird and into the terrifyingly boring, and they have long been fertile grounds for the germination and growth of subcultures.

Does it really just all come down to $?

Re: Why punk keeps connecting people across space and time

#70
post #21
post #19

Vans Warped tour is in its final year after 23 years. Crowds aren't what they used to be.

Vans warped tour hasn't had much to do with punk culture for like 15 years, unless you consider using it as a marketing tool as what punk really is. I saw anti-flag and face to face at a free show in Montreal this summer and punk rock certainly felt alive. The US has punk in drublic fest going on which is probably quite authentic considering it's thrown by fat wreck chords.

US has Fest and Canada has Pouzza Fest.
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