rhythm of the heart

In this week's readings "Peruvian Punk as a Global Means of Underground Production", Shane Greene (2016) discusses the origins and intentions of punk music. He iterates the essence of punk as an intentionally underproduced subculture performed in retaliation to social norms and a mass society generated by global capital. I appreciated that Greene stressed the diversity found within punk culture despite the male centric spotlight shone by the global North.

As someone whose brother has been in punk bands for many years, I have been to my share of DIY shows. I have heard the underproduction, raunchy vocals, and small-scale venues for myself. Although these shows weren’t held in stadium you could fill the room ten times over with the support from the crowd, often filled with members from other bands on the line up moshing, chatting, and head-banging. My brother’s dream is to open up his own venue to host shows at. He currently puts together a small festival in Dallas called Plus Fest centered around Math Rock and Punk which I think is really cute he just loves music. Often with touring, smaller punk bands don’t get paid enough to cover the cost of travelling, so usually they play for exposure and because it’s what they love doing.

Although I have not ventured into punk music of different languages, I want to know how the subculture of punk expresses itself all over the world. My sister has full tattoo sleeves, bright orange hair, and face piercings. She enjoys metal and punk music with the same ferocity that she loves her body modifications. In her mind of people are put off by her visage, that says more about them than it does her. Most of the punks I have met are some of the nicest people I have interacted with at concerts or on the street. Recently in the punk community there has been a surge towards its anti-capitalist and anti-fascist roots as a need to disown people in the punk community expressing neo-nazi sentiments or the Neo-nazi’s use of punk aesthetics with the phrase from the Dead Kenny’s song “Nazi Punks F*** off”.

Regarding his closing question on asking if listening to vinyl is still punk, I think that what was controversial or “risky” about the method of distribution has lost meaning due to the high demands and production of this age. I also think it would be way more punk of him to not care and just do it because he wants to, he likes to, and he’s not hurting anyone because of it. To me that’s punk as hell.

This week my question for you is how do you think society views punks? How do you think punks view each other?