If DragKing is a punk band what does that mean?
The origins of punk are the subject of a continuous debate. There are many histories of punk. And whether the MC5, the New York Dolls, the Stooges, the Ramones or the Sex Pistols were the first punk band is largely unimportant. But claims to punk authenticity often refer back to the origins of punk for validation. Because punk encouraged anyone and everyone to start a band or a 'zine or make a film or create their own clothes, their are precedents for almost anything within the punk cannon. But where punk has become a predominantly straight, macho, homophobic subculture, it has denied it's heritage as unashamedly gay, multicultural, and feminist.
Often people confuse punk's reputation for violence with macho posturing. Those who try to use punk as a macho pose miss the point. A "Punk" was originally a prison term for the recipient of gay sex. Punk revelled in being the most despised, the most scorned, the most rejected. As Iggy Pop says, "I've been dirt and I don't care". In fact it's a badge of honor. Dick Hebdige described punk's collage of symbols by refering back to the "bricolage" of Jean Genet(the gay French writer who spent much of his life in jail). Punk bands like M.D.C. have written explicitly gay protest songs like "America's so straight...", and the Dead Kennedys used photos from the gay riots in San Francisco which followed the assasination of Harvery Milk on their first album cover. More recently punk has spawned Queercore and Homocore and other expressions of gay pride.
When early punks claimed that, "anyone can do it" many women took up the challenge. Punk has always had women at its forefront, like Patti Smith, The Runaways, The Slits, Gaye Advert, Poly Styrene of the X-Ray Spex, and Penelope Houston of the Avengers. Rockin' Rina has developed an entire web site devoted to the Women of 1970's Punk. As far as I know it is the only website in existence dedicated to all the women of the 1970's punk rockscene. It includes sections on the bands(with Real Audio
clips for many of the featured groups), their music (discographies for many of the featured groups), the fashion, the history, an annotated bibliography (including movies and videos). More recently punk gave us riot grrrrl and the lesbian bands, Fifth Column, Team Dresch and Tribe 8.
Punk often appears these days to be an overwelmingly "white" product, it's African influences bleached out. But from it's very beginnings punk has been built with the cultural forms of the African diaspora. Of course Rock n' Roll itself is undeniably rooted in African American culture, and if contemporary punks forget their debt to Reggae, Blues, Jazz, Hip Hop, not to mention the many Black musicians who built punk, they do themselves a disservice. Punk has always been willing to borrow from other styles and cultures. As Julie Burchill reports in The Boy Looked at Johnny(published in the U.K. by Pluto Press in 1978, and subtitled "The Obituary Of Rock And Roll") , "punk junked up any Rastafarian connection it could score, becoming so addicted to Rasta in toto that throughout 1977 and 1978 every 'punk' show was preceded by interminable Rasta music".
Punk is hard to pin down because it is primarily a reaction. Punk is the music of outcasts and misfits. Punk celebrates the forbidden. Punk is rebellion and opposition. Punk was a reaction to the decadence of the stadium rock of the 1970's. It tried to collapse the distance between the superstars on stage and the audience. It sought to explode the myth of the brilliant rock star. Punks ridiculed the idea of mainstream success and corporate record deals. And like folk did before, punk insists that anyone can do it. It is an invitation, a call to arms. With three guitar chords or less anyone could form a band. But in a society where everything is permitted, punk had to move beyond mere transgression to become truly threatening to the status quo. Punks were unsparing in their criticism of their society and themselves. Where the rock stars of the previous generation studiously avoided social criticism, punks jumped right in.
Robert Christgau (In his article, "Rah, Rah, Sis-Boom-Bah: The Secret Relationship between College Rock and the Communist Party", an excellent essay which appears in the book Microphone Fiends edited by Tricia Rose) explains, "The rock of the sixties is supposed to be a very political music, but in fact what distinguishes it lyrically is an unprecedented weakness for personal obscurantism. Until the very end of the decade even the best-remembered explicitly political songs-Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth", the Beatles' "Revolution", the Rolling Stones' "Street Figting Man"-are ambiguous in an amazingly studied way, not just to get them on the radio but because the artists are in fact ambivalent about politics. As Stephen Stills puts it, "Something is happening here/What it is ain't exactly clear". Punk asserted itself as explicitly political from the beginning. Punks also brought an unashamed anger to their protest songs, something earlier musicians hadn't dared do. Any reading of punk songs, from the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" (which was banned from BBC radio and appeared on British charts as a blank space), to the most recent demo cassette of the unknown band practicing in the garage next door reveals a large number of angry protest songs.
If music is an expression of feeling, punk expresses a primal rage, an anger at life, and a rejection of the values of the status quo. Punk represents a gut reaction to the hypocracy of Western post-industrial society. Dick Lucas of the Sub-Humans and later, Citizen Fish, wrote in Threat By Example(a wonderful punk conpendium, edited by Martin Sprouse and printed by Pressure Drop Press in 1989), "I have never come to terms with the idea that I am 'part of society', and should construct my actions to suit the prevailing moods of conformity, acceptance and achievement". Punk is a refusal to accept what one is given.
As Joel wrote in the Minneapolis anarchist punk 'zine Profane Existence in 1992, "We are the inheritors of the white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist world order. A prime position as defenders of the capital of the ruling class and the overseers of the underclass has been set aside for us....as punks we reject our inherited race and class positions because we know they are bullshit".
Punk at it's best uses the principle of D.I.Y. to build non-hierarchial, oppositional institutions. Punks have joined together to create cooperatives, to provide punk bands with alternative concert venues, to create independent 'zines, and even independent printing presses and distribution networks. At it's best punk uses it's alternative culture to bring people together. It finds strength in numbers. At it's best punk adovates egalitarian politics. It uses the principle of "anyone can do it" to promote women and girls as performers, musicians, artists and writers. At it's best punk fights against racism and white supremacy.
Punk is marketed by huge, multinational corporations as "hip rebellion". But punk is best when it's small, local, and something to participate in. By rejecting a mass audience punk is able to better respond to speak in specific terms which its audience can relate to. By foregoing mass appeal punk bands are able to say things many people disagree with. Mass marketing relies on conformity, millions of people buying the same products. Punk is a refusal to conform. And, especially in America, where individualism is sacred, punks pushed individualism a step further, insisting on an extreme self-reliance, on the principle of "Do It Yourself", or D.I.Y. Some might say punks reappropriated individualism for their own use, developing an alternative, oppositional culture. I think many punks are unable to understand how much of the dominant culture they have internalized. Sometimes it has been hard to keep independent projects going because punks have had a hard time working collectively. Many great 'zines, record labels, distributors and other resources have relied too heavily on one or two individuals.
Punk isn't just an aesthic approach or a set of principles. It's also a product. In America, punk has primarily appealed to middle-class, straight white boys, who, though they are " too smart" for the rock music pushed by the multinational corporations, still want to "rock out" (as Joe Carducci might say). On the surface, punk presents the classic image of youth rebellion. Punk is the perfect product for an ever more cynical youth market. As the Sex Pistols said, "No Future for me!"
Plenty of Punks, especially Gays, Lesbians and punks of color, have registered their growing disgust with punk as a subculture, and as a genre of music. I think this is because punk has settled for the symbolic, and failed to support the real struggles of people to change the world. Too many punks have settled for "subversive" symbols which have been easily reappropriated by multinational corporations to sell "subversion" and "individuality" back to the next generation of punks.
Which brings up the question of what a punk band can actually do! A tough question which I try to tackle over here.
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