[kj] OT: "Punk's Not Dead" documentary

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

The rampant historicizing of punk nowadays esp. in the endlessly-cranked 
out documentaries, biopics (Ina Curtis _Control_) and especially books 
sort of gets to me only because I think it creates the sense that 
everyone loved punk rock, post-punk, whatever, and younger people don't 
realize that for a lot of people being into punk was a kind of 
isolating, bizarre, fringe culture thing that was seen as very 
antisocial; many people found punk actually very frightening into the 
late 80s. It became associated with Satanism (the Satanic Panic) and 
schools I went to began instituting dress codes where you couldn't wear, 
for example, more than 50% black. The Sex Pistols Nevermind the Bollocks 
barely broke the Top 100 when it was released, and didn't go gold until 
the early 1990s, in the wake of Nirvana. Members of the respectable 
media and bands like The Who claimed they hated punk and usually did 
"scare the public" hit pieces on it, etc.

Now with all this glossy "let's look back" stuff it makes it seem like 
every one and their mother liked it, and ... sorry, it wasn't like that. 
People liked Bel Biv Devoe and C & C Music Factory. Where are the 
documentaries about that? About the morons and idiots? They were the 
majority. (Still are.) It sucks especially for some of us who were 
actually physically threatened etc by jocks at school for having weird 
hair, only to see the same jocks years later moshing and shit, when it 
became okay and safe to do that.

-Oliver




Leigh Newton wrote:

> We'd still like you even if you just got into it yesterday, Oliver. That's the attitude associated with punk rock (or any form of anything, for that matter) that bugs me the most. The underlying impression I get from all these recent biographies/docs is that if you weren't there when it initially happened, then you're just a poseur who gets all their shit at Hot Topic and is being ironic. There's nothing better than being an archeologist and uncovering all these gems from the past. Hell, only a few weeks ago did I finally get around to checking out Neu!

>

>   

>

>