Long Live Punk

Whenever I think of rebellion for some reason the American Revolution just pops into my head. I bet it’s because that’s what was always drilled into my head as a child was that rebellions were just fights between people with guns. While this is true, a rebellion is actually just “the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention” (Kittrie). For those days you are just really feeling like a badass you can refuse to take out the trash just because someone told you, so hardcore, and that simple act would be rebelling. Yes, that act of rebellion is pretty pointless and makes you seem kind of lazy (we are all a little lazy) there are other acts of rebellion that aren’t just a fight that have real merit, things like punk rock music. Punk rock music is based on the idea of fucking the system and doing whatever you think is right. Sometimes those things can be doing something stuff like naming your album Dookie (STILL stuck on that). Or we can even talk about My Chemical Romance’s entire album about vampires, but I will spare you that because not even I want to listen to that. Punk rock music as a genre does what it wants. If it wants to slam the government, it will no questions asked. When a genre that is popular with youth is so uniquely themselves it has the ability to form and shape the young. The genre instills ideas through out about politics, thinking for yourself, and being who you are. It is way more than a whole bunch of idiot kids screwing around in a garage, it’s people who are brave enough to say what everyone else is thinking while also encouraging people to change what they don’t like or as Gandhi would say “be the change you want to see in the world”.

Children are impressionable. They tend to look up to people that they idolize and then begin to agree with their statements. This is because during teenager years’ kids are trying to individualize themselves from their parents. But they still need someone to look to for guidance and this is when children turn to celebrities (Ravitz). This is why punk rock helps shape youth. Everyone had a punk rock phase, I really think that is a fact. We all tried it, there are those embarrassing pictures that seem to keep popping up. While it wasn’t the best time for your looks, this time frame helped generated ideas about politics and thinking for yourself. But then also in the typical Fall Out Boy kind of songs about romance it tells youth that you are enough, and that it is okay to be who you are.

Punk bands have been lashing out about politics since the genre was even created. I mean are you even punk if you don’t have something to say about the government? But man. I love it when I listen to a punk band just calls out HUGE flaws in the government.  It points out things that some people are just blind too or are just too apathetic to pay attention too. Or people agree and are just to scared to voice their opinion on something so controversial. OR people completely don’t agree and hate the ideas. OR you are just a kid singing along. The first options challenge the way that you think and why you believe what you believe. The songs offer another viewpoint that you may have never thought of before. But the last one about just humming along to a song still influences thinking. While as a child, you may not really understand what the lyrics mean you are at least being exposed too it. An example of a song that makes people think is NOFX’s “The Decline”. Here are just a few lines from the 16-minute song, “America's for sale And you can get a good deal on it And make a healthy profit Or maybe, tear it apart”. You also have this kind of material released from Green Day, Rise Against etc. All bands that have went platinum and are huge with teenagers. Teenagers may not be paying attention to the lyrics but the fact that they are still being exposed to these ideas is huge. I used to listen to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” all the time and I had no clue it was a political statement. Eventually though when listening the meaning will hit a teenager and it will again make them think.

While punk rock may not be the most musically talented genre it does make you feel something. The lyrics and music paired together evoke things in the listener. Being challenged the way that punk music challenges your ideas makes you think. When someone is yelling at you talking about how lazy America is it makes you wonder if you are one of those lazy people. It makes you want to change. Not many things can make people feel something to the point that they want to actually do something about it. But punk music does this. It inspires youth especially, who are young enough to still believe that they can the world. That is why it should be valued. That is why I will always say long live the punks. While they may be spikey haired, vans wearing, little brats they make good points that make you question what you believe in.

Now not every punk song is talking about politics, I know that. But even the punk songs about heartbreak and pity relationship fights should be valued. I can say that most of my generation grew up listening to listening to more of this cookie cutter punk. But even this cookie cutter punk STILL teaches youth something. When you grow up jamming to music that tells you to screw people and that you should just be who you are (even if the boy/girl doesn’t like you) made an impact on the people we grew into. As kids we are all so impressionable and will believe anything that anyone tells us, especially music stars. Punk rock made the impression to be yourself and to think independently. I can say that from growing up in this generation I think that media I was exposed to (which was heavily filtered with this cookie cutter punk) probably fostered my beliefs about relationships which basically just consist of “oh you don’t like me? You can go ahead and fuck off”. Punk rock tells you to be yourself sending out positive messages into the world instead of making people feel like they aren’t enough.

Also the type of people that are in punk bands support the idea of being yourself.  The lead singer’s name is “Fat Mike”, no I’m not kidding. Someone actually lets people call him fat and is totally cool with it. If that doesn’t go against everything that the media teaches you then I don’t know what does. Now just look at their appearance. You have spikey hair in some crazy color, or any color that your mom would disapprove of. It’s different to have hair like that. It definitely draws attention to yourself. But as you can see time and time again they don’t give a fuck about what anyone else thinks. “Fat Mike” has even said it so many interviews that they are always just going to be true to themselves (Slater). It’s a message that we can all take something away from.   

So academics can sit on their high horse and say “punk rock is just a bunch of teenage idiots” but they are wrong. Punk rock is so much more than that. I have been trying to get at that idea all semester through all my feature posts but here you see the logic behind my reasoning. Punk rock music vocalizes the everyday simple opinion of the corruption that is in everyday life. They make huge problems more relatable to people and challenge them to start thinking for themselves, thinking about the world that they live in and what they want to do with it. They carry ideas similar to Gandhi but just expressed through music, kind of buried with a little bit of yelling and a lot of guitar, but still there. Everything about the genre is rebelling against the normal just being themselves; “The Decline” is a perfect example of punk rock at it’s finest making a statement and being worthwhile. It’s rebellion at it’s most simple definition: “the act or process of resisting authority” (Kittrie). They are defying the system and the corruption that is all around the world. They are helping shape the youth in a positive way. Punk rockers are telling kids to think for themselves and that they are enough. It may seem like a small act of rebellion but when you add up all of the people that this genre has inspired it adds up. It creates a movement, a positive one. Underneath all of the thrown together music stands the ideas that would make a better society. That’s what punk rock music is. So like I said LONG LIVE PUNK.

Kittrie, Nicholas N, and Eldon D. Wedlock. The Tree of Liberty: A Documentary History of

            Rebellion and Political Crime in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University                                   Press,1986. Print
Ravitz, Alan. "Why Teenagers Obsess Over Pop Stars." Child Mind Institute, n.d. Web. 09                                Dec. 2015.

Slater, Jenessa. “Sound Advice ft. NOFX”. Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 2 July 2014.

Web. 19 November 2015.