I recognize a pattern of punk rock waxing and waning about every ten years or so. It will pop up briefly and be the cat's meow for a few years and then quickly fade away as quickly as it came into view. One can only assume why this may be. Personally I find the punk genre to be very limiting as to what it allows within the confines of its own definition. This makes it hard for punk bands to stand out from the rest. Eventually people realize this punk new band they're enjoying sounds exactly like the last punk they used to enjoy, and then move on to something else.
So let's start from the beginning. Punk rock started in 1974 with the birth of the Ramones. And sure, one could easily argue that punk actually started a decade earlier in the mid 1960s with The Velvet Underground and MC5, but they were never recognized as playing punk during their heyday. These bands were dubbed "proto-punk" and were credited with laying in the foundation for punk rock many years after-the-fact. So within a few years of the Ramones forming, the punk world gained Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash. All of these bands generally played what was considered rock music at the time, but they played it just a little faster and in a little bit more of raw fashion borrowed from garage rock. As someone who was born fifteen years later and was raised in a different generation of punk music, most of these bands hardly sounds like what I imagine when you say "punk."
Music video for The Damned's "Smash It Up"
off their 1979 album Machine Gun Etiquette.
Then in 1984 we had the height of hardcore punk. This was probably the least commercially successful of all the punk incarnations, but it was arguably the most influential. From what I've read, the biggest names in this generation include: Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys and Misfits. Hardcore punk was often times even faster and harder-hitting than the previous generation's attempts. It was a bunch of kids all around the world that were angry at everything and picked up guitars to voice their frustration and angst. Their goal was not to make music that sounded "good," but just to be heard. They tore down the songwriting foundations so they could write music that was a sloppy and as messy as they wanted. At the time, hardcore punk was only known as a bunch of destructive anarchists with no future. It wasn't until later that the big name publications like Rolling Stone and Spin recognized hardcore as a legitimate genre of music.
So you have all of these kids that gave up school and whatever future they would have had if they had chosen to pursue something other than music that are no longer kids anymore. They had to do something right? A significant portion ended up actually learning how to use their instruments correctly and started playing what would later be known as alternative rock -- which pretty much dominated the 1990s. Some of the bands that used their music as therapy for venting their anger took it a step further and inadvertently created emo. Hardcore punk would also be credited as having an influence on grunge, sludge, and various obscure hybrids with metal.
But hardcore's flaw was in part of its foundation: anger. As soon as these kids weren't angry anymore it could no longer be considered hardcore. So true hardcore punk was very short lived.
Minor Threat's "Seeing Red" from their
1981 self-titled EP. I believe this is a
remastered version.
Punk would resurface in the 1990s and hit its commercially successful peak in 1994, as documented in the film One Nine Nine Four. This incarnation, often referred to as pop punk or punk revival, took the speed from 1984 hardcore but substituted aggression for melody and catchiness. Early pop punk bands included NOFX, Green Day, and (and I know I'm going to receive flack for calling them pop, but) Bad Religion. Pop punk was also one of the longest lasting derivatives of punk rock, likely due to its commercial worth. Pretty much every single band was awarded with an RIAA gold or platinum certificate, with many of these bands earning multi-platinum accolades. The Offspring's 1994 album Smash is still the best selling album released through an independent label with more than six million copies sold in the United States alone.
Pop punk continued to be successful into the late 90s and early 00s with younger bands that could appeal to a younger audience. These later day bands included Blink-182, Sum 41, Good Charlotte and New Found Glory.
NOFX's "Linoleum" off their 1994
album Punk In Drublic.
Originally marketed as a nu metal band, Glassjaw would help usher in a new and more controversial era of punk music. As I explained in an earlier blog, this next generation never really earned a name of its own, but would be incorrectly labeled as screamo, emo and scene for many years to come. The closest label, but still not quite exact, was post-hardcore. The success of Glassjaw's Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence and Worship and Tribute released in 2000 and 2002 respectively demonstrated the interest in screamy and heavy punk bands and several labels took notice of this. Post-hardcore reached its peak in 2004, with bands like Thursday, Thrice, Finch and Poison the Well. However, this scene was quickly dominated by bands that would give this scene its derogatory connotation. Bands like The Used, Hawthorne Heights, From First to Last and Senses Fail introduced this style to the "emo fashion" everyone loves to hate. Off the top of my head I can think of a single song from this entire generation that included lyrics about "emo kids" wanting to slit their wrists, yet somehow that's what post-hardcore was best known for. Whether you love it or hate it, you must admit that it was punk-based and successful.
In addition to over saturation and a derogatory nature stemming from seemingly nowhere, by 2006 most of these bands wanted to prove they were more than just some screamy band. A good chunk of them released an album that was "more mature" and featured less screaming and lighter music. (Case in point: Poison the Well's Versions, Emery's I'm Only a Man, Thursday's A City by the Light Divided and Alexisonfire's Crisis among others) Unfortunately for them, this move split the fan base and many people moved on to other genres. By 2009, many of these bands also released a "just kidding, we're still heavy album," but by this point it was too late. (Case in point: Poison the Well's Tropic Rot, Emery's In Shallow Seas We Sail, Thursday's Common Existence and Alexisonfire's Old Crows/Young Cardinals among others)
A live recording of Thrice's "Deadbolt" from
their 2002 album Illusion of Safety.
So I recognize punk coming in waves every ten years beginning in 1974 and continuing through 2004. The question is, will this trend continue? And if so, what could the next incarnation possibly look like?
Well I have a few guesses that I would like publish JUST so I can say I told you so in 2014. So up until now, if you said you were playing in a "dark band" that meant you were either singing about morbidity like The Doors, you were singing about monsters like Misfits, you were singing about your broken heart like The Cure, you were singing about the devil like Slayer, or you had a gruesome stage presence like Slipknot. By 2011's standards, are these really considered dark anymore? I don't think so, and I sincerely hope no one else does either. Especially after the Twilight series single handedly killed any interest in vampires and werewolves for at least another twenty years. I believe a new kind of dark is on the horizon. But after horror, gothic, demonic and gruesome, what's left?
I believe it will be what I'll coin as "noir punk." In the context of film, noir is a movie genre from the 1940s that was able to set a very cold mood using lighting techniques, camera angles, silence, narration, shadows, night scenes, lots of rain, and typically feature black and white imagery. Modern day examples of noir film include Sin City, 300, Watchmen, The Number 23 and pretty much anything by Christopher Nolan like Inception and The Dark Knight. Noir also recently popped up in comic books with Marvel's Noir Series in 2009, and in video games with Limbo in 2010.
Who will help us usher in this new dark era of punk music? Thursday. Yes the post-hardcore band Thursday. They saw some success with the indie classic Full Collapse and major label release War All the Time, the latter of which also had the somewhat successful single "Signals Over the Air." Thursday began stepping out of the confines of their scene with the 2008 split release with Envy which saw the band playing with different soundscapes, moods and spacial arrangements. Unfortunately, the band followed this up with the cliche "return to our roots album" known as Common Existence which slowed their progression into this new noir genre. However, Thursday plan to shed their skin of everything they've ever done before this coming April. They are currently on tour with Underoath performing Full Collapse in it's entirety, probably for the last time in a while. Their new album titled No Devoulcion (Spanish for "no returns," hmmmm...) should continue the trajectory started in 2008. So far the band has only released the song "Magnets Caught in a Metal Heart," but it's pretty much exactly what I was imagining this album to sound like. But even though it has this dark and cold feeling, it's also incredibly beautiful in its own way. Something I also pick up from some noir films.
I cannot believe I never knew about this video before
writing this blog! It's a very noir music video for
Thursday's instrumental song "In Silence" from
their 2008 split EP with Envy.
However, I also believe music in general is in dire need of another wave of politically charged bands. Flashy pop music being used as escapism (ie. Lady Gaga and 3OH!3) can be cute and whatever, but in a time where the masses not only don't care about the way their country is run but are happy not knowing the way their country is run, we needs some bands that write lyrics with substance. Two of what I believe are the most politically active bands, Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down, have recently reformed. Perhaps their rebirth will also inspire this generation's youth be start bands and me more politically active. AND will also learn from punk's mistakes. Anarchy will never work, get over it. And singing songs that "government sucks" is incredibly passive. What do you expect to come out of that? Instead, write lyrics that propose and inspire change. Lyrics that will get people active.
Thoughts?
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