Ken (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} shadowplay2) wrote,@ 2006-09-21 15:56:00 |
|
punk
From Portland, with an hour to go til my next flight:
There's an article in the Arts section of todays New York Times on hard-core punk, about a recent documentary. Strange reading, because I've met all but two of the guys quoted in the article, or actually a pair of articles. Knew one of those guys very well, and have written/published about three of them myself, but haven't seen any of them since 1982.
The article makes an interesting point, calls hard core a response in part to the dilution of the earlier first wave (actually at least two or three but with overlap) of punk and post-punk. True enough. Most of us just left when the world discovered our music, and the hard core kids instead kept going by appropriating one very narrow niche and taking it to extremes. I was gone by the time their thing really took off, although I did cover the earliest days for one of the 'zines. Too negative for me, too many angry young men pissed off at the system but not willing or able to propose alternatives to actually change anything.
Funny, this sudden interest in hard core. Probably because it's a very well defined, not particularly complex sub-genre, easy to write about in catchy and easy to quote one-liners. Last month I did an interview for NPR on punk, and they kept coming back with hard core questions even though I kept talking about the broader implications of the entire early scene. They want me to return for a follow up interview next month, so apparently I haven't completely confused them yet.
From Portland, with an hour to go til my next flight:
There's an article in the Arts section of todays New York Times on hard-core punk, about a recent documentary. Strange reading, because I've met all but two of the guys quoted in the article, or actually a pair of articles. Knew one of those guys very well, and have written/published about three of them myself, but haven't seen any of them since 1982.
The article makes an interesting point, calls hard core a response in part to the dilution of the earlier first wave (actually at least two or three but with overlap) of punk and post-punk. True enough. Most of us just left when the world discovered our music, and the hard core kids instead kept going by appropriating one very narrow niche and taking it to extremes. I was gone by the time their thing really took off, although I did cover the earliest days for one of the 'zines. Too negative for me, too many angry young men pissed off at the system but not willing or able to propose alternatives to actually change anything.
Funny, this sudden interest in hard core. Probably because it's a very well defined, not particularly complex sub-genre, easy to write about in catchy and easy to quote one-liners. Last month I did an interview for NPR on punk, and they kept coming back with hard core questions even though I kept talking about the broader implications of the entire early scene. They want me to return for a follow up interview next month, so apparently I haven't completely confused them yet.
