Woo! A thread for me. I'm honored.
First of all, I'm going to re-post a bit about music that I wrote on the body mod thread:
I think that bands like MC5, The Ramones, The Stooges, even New York Dolls are American bands that really were the pioneers of Punk music. Weren't the Sex Pistols, after all, the British "answer" to the Ramones. I mean, it's possible (and probable) that there was an underground scene of punk in England well before the Sex Pistols.
There were bands like The Exploited (more political), Crass, (political), GBH, Subhumans, etc. They were against Thatcher, while their American counterparts were against Reagan (such as DK).
Then of course there was the 80s hardcore movement, which had little or nothing to do with the British punk scene. That's my favorite era of punk. Minor Threat, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Husker Du (early), Negative Approach. I love OLD pop punk like Descendents, Bad Religion, All, Dag Nasty, Operation Ivy (which has the best lyrics of any punk band, ever). I also love Rancid, which is getting more toward the new, but their attitude and style is so unique, and really pulls from a lot of different genres.
I also like the pre-post-punk like Television (so awesome), and the post-pre-post-punk like Mission of Burma, and the post-post-punk like Fugazi.
Johnny Rotten got into the post-punk scene, he had PiL, and of course there was Joy Division, who turned into New Order (after Ian Curtis died), and that was loved and appreciated by Europeans and Americans alike. There were bands that transcended all sorts of subcategories, stuff that everyone could relate to. That really was the New Wave of the underground... but I also love New Wave!
Clean and crispy, brand new "punk" rockers. Yeah, I agree, it's so fake. It's a fashion trend. There is a difference between people who look the part, and people who take the part seriously. What the hell is Blink 182, or My Chemical Romance or Davy Havoc (yeah, what IS that?) anyway!??! It's so silly it makes me cringe, but then I just have to laugh.
I'm one who takes paying my bills seriously, so I fall into neither category... I just LOVE music!!!!!!
Then, he started this thread, so we could talk a bit more about music. I
My introduction to punk music was in my early 20's ('95-'96), but the punks I came to know and love listened to much older stuff.
To me punk will always be defined by bands such as Operation Ivy/Rancid, old AFI (not the new emo glam shit they do now), Black Flag, Fifteen (same time and place as Green Day but their music was heavier), NOFX, Circle Jerks, Big Daddy Meat straw (local band), anyway you probably get my flavor. I definitely believe the Brits did a fantastic job, but haven't had the pleasure of listening to much.
I don't know, I've been sort of disenchanted with "punk" music, since I've gotten older and I've sort of realized what it's like to work for a living. The music is still very important to me, even though I don't always agree with the lyrics I'm shouting along to anymore (maybe I never really did).
I really love Black Flag, Op Ivy, Rancid, those are some bands we have in common. I've always thought Fifteen was more "Emo" (yeah... that term existed back then... and it wasn't about cutting yourself and wearing women's pants... actually, come to think of it, that was 70s glam, and Iggy Pop).
I'm not really into punk rock as much as I'm into other kinds of indie music; basically punk is just a sub-genre for me, and it's part of the mix. I use to take it very seriously when I was a teenager, but then I started to fall behind, because everyone was listening to grind-core. I couldn't get into bands like Econochrist, Failure Face and Brother Inferior... I liked 80s hardcore punk, and of course the mainstream punk bands of the time (like DK, Bad Religion, Descendents, Rancid, Op Ivy, Pennywise... but definitely not NOFX.).
As I said though, I'm into all sorts of indie music, and punk is just a genre in the mix.
