Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi gang, what ho or whatever, as you wish.
It's no secret or surprise that almost every time something new appears and strikes, in no time it finds itself surrounded by a sort of hype coupled with stereotypes worked out (sometimes invented) in order to "classify" and "attach a label, put in a box, a-ok". So what are the stereotypes about punk rock and punk rockers you've bumped into? Which of them have something to do with reality and which are based on a ground so thin that they fall down once you touch them with a little finger?
Just to start with, of course the list is far from being complete. Some of them "punk-shoulds", even though personally, i think the words "punk" and "should" are not likely to belong within the same sentence.
1. Punk rock is music played fast and loud by the guys who cannot really play.
2. A punk rocker cares for nobody but himself/herself.
3. A punk rocker is always against.
4. A true (huuuuh?) punk rocker should always stand for [insert your text here]...
5. A true punk rocker drinks cheapest booze and smokes cheapest cigarettes.
6. [Insert whatever about "true punk look" you've ever heard from somebody]
7. In no way a true punk band would sell out to a major label.
8. A true punk is always rude to everyone (uh-oh, yeah, i've been said that too, lol).
And so on.
Waiting for your suggestions and thoughts.
Yours truly,
SC.

I don't believe any of that nonsense. I know lots of punk rockers that are caring people that drink good booze and can play the hell out of their instruments. To quote the late, great D Boon, "punk is whatever we made it to be."

The best punks were around before the term was invented. Some of them a very long time before. I think it's a state of mind, and doesn't necessarily involve any of the popular stereotypes.

blueflamerick wrote:I don't believe any of that nonsense. I know lots of punk rockers that are caring people that drink good booze and can play the hell out of their instruments. To quote the late, great D Boon, "punk is whatever we made it to be."

Right you are. Actually, i laugh out loud when i hear any of these. It's just — i thought it could've been a funny thing to make a "collection" of that sort of nonsense. Um, anyway.

kiramdear wrote:The best punks were around before the term was invented. Some of them a very long time before. I think it's a state of mind, and doesn't necessarily involve any of the popular stereotypes.

We youngsters must start banging our head against the wall now. Kiddin'. Yeah, once a term appears to describe you, it's like you're said, "and now you've got to fit in with, kid". Allright, "call me whatever. Call me a night-stool, just please keep your natural deeds away from me" (© local saying).

Plus, you've got to consider that punk in the UK and Europe was different than punk in the US. There it was a movement while here it was a fashion statement.

Or is that also a stereotype?

Thinking you're a Punk today is the same as thinking you're a Hippie or a Mod.

That bus has left the station long ago.

(not a stereotype, but the truth).

johnnysain wrote:That bus has left the station long ago.

(not a stereotype, but the truth).

if that were the truth about the bus having left the station no world or life view like claiming to be a marxist or a buddhist or any view which was popular one time or another would be valid today either. I just have to disagree and think one can be a punk, or mod or hippie on various levels in this day and age.

I think the stereotypes are like, e.g., all hippies smoke pot and have free sex all of the time. People who're not part of the movement tend to magnify the aspects that shock or upset them most.

One great thing about "punk", and all of it's incarnations, is that great musicianship from a technical standpoint is not required. So the door is open to virtually anyone -- even to me! But that doesn't mean that punk rockers are not great, technical musicians. To me, the sound is all about the rhythm and feel, and technical chops become more difficult to define. So many great "technical" guitar players sound just awful. Anyway, I think that's where part of myth #1 originates.

johnnysain wrote:Thinking you're a Punk today is the same as thinking you're a Hippie or a Mod.
That bus has left the station long ago.
(not a stereotype, but the truth).

Truth? Huh. Okay. Now that's something i really couldn't care less about.

sowhat wrote:

johnnysain wrote:Thinking you're a Punk today is the same as thinking you're a Hippie or a Mod.
That bus has left the station long ago.
(not a stereotype, but the truth).

Truth? Huh. Okay. Now that's something i really couldn't care less about.

I'm happy to have "missed the bus" Never been a trendy and never will be!

I've said it before here, and I'll say it again. Punk rock is alive and well worldwide and just as relevant politically and socially as it ever was. There are numerous styles, attitudes, and approaches to it, and probably maintains the highest level of stereotypes of any scene. It has been both a movement and a way of life worldwide for people who feel it provides them an outlet and a forum in a world that is dead set against individual thought or action.

Just because punk isn't relevant to you doesn't make it null and void, or any less relevant to those involved.

Know what, Mike? I love you, man. I mean, in a friendly way, of course.
Great point about being/not being "trendy".

True and original meaning of the word "Punk":
Outsider..... or Prostitute....

emac.

I believe Jello spoke for us all when he said "Punks not dead it just deserves to die when it becomes another cartoon cult"

I'm more along the lines of Micky Fitz singing "don't fight each other, fight the real enemy"

whojamfan wrote:I'm more along the lines of Micky Fitz singing "don't fight each other, fight the real enemy"

oh my ... what memories the Business conjure up... ever seen 'em live??? it's like Skinhead karaoke