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My views:
Punk in it's original form was about a DIY attitude, and a rejection of the necessity for traditional musical talent. I can happily enjoy music on both sides of the divide, but many musos dismiss punk as a talentless racket.
In my view punk returned rock music to the energy & excitement of the birth of rock & roll, and proved that ideas & attitude are at least as important to good music as musical prowess.
Discuss......
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To be sure, punk itself is a very simple form of music... Three chords, simple basslines, and elementary drumming played at fast speeds, usually for no longer than three minutes... I think a lot of the coat tail punk bands were fairly talentless, but punk has changed in a lot of ways since the days of the Sex Pistols and The Ramones. The early 80's had the post punk movement, music that had the sort of punk attitude but utilized in a more atmospheric way... If you look at The Birthday Party, a premier post punk band... They've influenced musicians in all areas of music, be it as technical as progressive rock or as simple as the noise rock (punk) of the early 90's/late 80's. You can't forget Black Flag's influence on punk and music in general... And if you listen to their later stuff, the actual music became complicated with its more blues/jazz influenced musical style.
I don't think you can really place punk in the same league as a lot of other types of music, merely because it is supposed to be a way of removing the pomposity out of music, just as post-modern visual art was supposed to (even though they're selling avant-garde paintings at galleries for thousands of dollars now; don't get me wrong, I love avant-garde art, but that removes the purpose of it). Perhaps in a musical sense, punk takes little to no musical talent; I do think it takes talent to make captivating music within the parimeters of punk rock, though.
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Tiggi Wrote:My views:
In my view punk returned rock music to the energy & excitement of the birth of rock & roll, and proved that ideas & attitude are at least as important to good music as musical prowess.
Discuss......
Agreed. It could be said about some classic rock as well. Sorry, but Jagger's voice isn't exactly great. However, the attitude was there and it went a long way.
Punk was about rebellion, anarchy and the like. Anyone who dismisses it just doesn't get it and doesn't deserve to. 
If you can't be a wonderful example, be a horrifying reminder.
Punk music is the best music in the world! I think you should listen to this kind of music because it makes our world better.
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"Talent" isn't always down to the actual music playing ability, it is also down to how the lyrics are, the emotions it causes, and whether people like it or not. Rancid, good example, not the hardest songs to play, but they have many many many fans, that itself, is a talent.
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In terms of influence, punk was an important genre, but it should never have anointed itself the savior of rock, because rock didn't need to be saved at that point.
By the mid-70s, rock had evolved to a nice place, yet punk rejected it outright. Most of the punk of the late 70s/early 80s was too generic, and put attitude, politics, image, and cliques ahead of the music. It was in no position to replace what the Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Zeppelin, etc. had built.
To me, the grunge era was when some the promises of the punk influence were delivered. By that time, there was indeed a lot of gloss and excess which needed to be stripped away and replaced with something listenable, yet authentic and true to the raw, simple spirit of rock.
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yes, punk was made to rebell but what is it today?? ........ how do you rebell against a world of acceptance lof everything? societies don't care anymore. so how do you make societies care? you do something outrageous! which is hard to do today. if you do something THAT bad you get into some major trouble or you get some (and i'm not racist or predjudice in any way!) homosexual or mexican or whatever trying to sue you because you have offended them. so what is punk today? those people who get in trouble or the collective old punk that has evolved into what it was fighting- a bland, correct, popular art form.
please help me find the answer!
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I don't think punk was shocking for more than a few minutes when it was actually happening.
The lasting effect has been that Rock was pulled back from the brink of heading down a particularly horrible dead end, and whilst musical indulgence can still be found pretty readily, at least there is a very healthy alternative to be had these days.
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i still think punk is only called punk because that's what it was... not what it is. i really don't think that there is "new punk". only old punk coming out in the world of today. although some punk stuff is obscene enough to be classified on my version of "new punk". maybe there is hope yet.
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trbc08 Wrote:To be sure, punk itself is a very simple form of music... Three chords, simple basslines, and elementary drumming played at fast speeds, usually for no longer than three minutes... I think a lot of the coat tail punk bands were fairly talentless, but punk has changed in a lot of ways since the days of the Sex Pistols and The Ramones. The early 80's had the post punk movement, music that had the sort of punk attitude but utilized in a more atmospheric way... If you look at The Birthday Party, a premier post punk band... They've influenced musicians in all areas of music, be it as technical as progressive rock or as simple as the noise rock (punk) of the early 90's/late 80's. You can't forget Black Flag's influence on punk and music in general... And if you listen to their later stuff, the actual music became complicated with its more blues/jazz influenced musical style.
I don't think you can really place punk in the same league as a lot of other types of music, merely because it is supposed to be a way of removing the pomposity out of music, just as post-modern visual art was supposed to (even though they're selling avant-garde paintings at galleries for thousands of dollars now; don't get me wrong, I love avant-garde art, but that removes the purpose of it). Perhaps in a musical sense, punk takes little to no musical talent; I do think it takes talent to make captivating music within the parimeters of punk rock, though.
Punk is 10% talent, 90% genius... it doesn't take much to play the songs, but it takes brain power to write something simple yet captivating...
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