Pop Punk onJ Hv Biscontent

Full Disclosur
Save foi a few notable exceptions, I am not a fan of pop punk. The two main
exceptions, The Ramones anu The Clash, aie not obscuie footnotes in musical
histoiy. 0thei examples exist. Stiike Anywheie. uolufingei's covei of "Rio", anu so
on. Bowevei, if it came to a choice between pop punk (say, I uon't know, Naximo
Paik) anu Keha, with a switchblaue to my eais not an option, I woulu choose Keha
eveiy time. What follows in these woius is a shot at unueistanuing anu explaining
my uisconnect with pop punk. What liteiaiily spawneu the following musings was
the ciitical acclaim (fiom, well, ciitics but also fiom some of my fiienus) of Titus
Anuionicus's 9 album, e Honitor. These pages, then, aie my attempt to think
thiough why I founu the album so uistasteful.

Potntially Usful Timlin: History Lsson Part II
9 (the "yeai of punk.) was a big yeai as punk bioke big anu fizzleu out veiy
quickly. The Sex Pistols woulu ielease ever HinJ te Bollocks anu The Clash woulu
issue theii eponymous uebut. Nany often iefei to it as the yeai of punk (anu it veiy
well might be). Bowevei, just a yeai befoie, The Ramones ielease Romones, anu
punk begins in eainest. I will not attempt to uetail the impoitance of RomonesI
will, howevei, point towaius Nicholas Rombes' excellent take on the album anu the
contempoiaiy sceneanu insteau opt foi Bon NcLeese's uesciiption of the NC's
impoitance: "The NC weie a ievolutionaiy foice, but the ievolution was not in the
lyiics, the ihetoiic oi the meat-heat sloganeeiing. The ievolution was in the noise"
(). NcLeese will latei claim that The Ramones weie not possible without the NC.
I woulu agiee with this statement, but my focus now is on the Ramones anu not on
the .

Refuseu ieleases e Sope of Punk to Come (SPC) in 998. Nany banus will take up
the call of that auuaciously titleu album (the title of which is baseu on the Nation of
0lysses' song of that name, which in tuin is baseu on 0inette Coleman's e Sope of
Iozz to Come, which takes its title fiom Ray Biaubuiy's e Sope of inqs to Come).
Also in 998, Neutial Nilk Botel ieleases ln te Aeroplone 0ver te Seo (A0S). I uo
not claim that this album became an influential album, at least not as influential of
Sope. It is a iamshackle soit of punk iock opeia, but it uoes not auheie to a cleai
punk iock oithouoxy. The iecoiuing incluues a loose theme thioughout, anu the
theme is suiieality (I uon't caie what you say, Niciosoft: "suiieality" is a woiu).

n Stp Byond {Wbat's witb tb list)
This attacheu list is puiposefully fuzzy as the "punkness" of the banus below is
ceitainly in question. That is pait of oui inteiest in this class. Neaning is a
contesteu space anu is not necessaiily fixeu. The paities involveu in a paiticulai
uiscussion negotiate meaning. Exampl : The Clash foimeu in the miu 9s anu
weie pait of, aiguably, punk's most impoitant yeai, 9. Bowevei, they weie
signeu to CBS Recoius (who uesciibeu The Clash as "the only banu that matteis"), a
uivision of Sony Recoius, one of the laigest iecoiu labels in the woilu at the time
(anu to this uay). Auuitionally, as theii caieei piogiesseu, the banu incoipoiateu
moie uispaiate music into theii sounu, fuithei pushing against what counteu as ieal
punk (they weie ceitainly not the only banu of the punk eia to uo eithei of these
things), anu The Clash weie not penalizeu by most of theii fans foi such
expeiiments. In e Iuture is 0nwritten, Ioe Stiummei uesciibes his s self as
moie of a hippie than a punk, a sentiment that his punk fans in the s woulu likely
have uetesteu. Exampl : |Rick Rubin quotation about hip-hop as "black punk
iock" in Hoio ]. Aiounu the same time that punk was ueveloping, anothei foim of
music giew out of BI paities in seveial NYC boioughs. The hip-hopiap woilu
shaies some commonalities with the punk spiiit, but the two woilus can seem
iauically uiffeient. Both foims of music embiaceu the uo-it-youiself (BIY) attituue.
Each embiaceu using the tools at theii uisposal, e.g., seconu-hanu oi even bioken
instiuments oi tuintables anu iecoius, in oiuei to make theii music. Both hau
musicians that weie mostly inteiesteu in paities anu fun while othei musicians
pusheu an explicit political agenua. Exampl : Nusic is peisonal, anu punk
ceitainly exploieu the peisonal (e.g., the "emo," shoit foi "emotional," was oiiginally
calleu "emocoie" as it was an offshoot of haiucoie punk). So these last two examples
aie peisonal anu aie anecuotal, as is much histoiical uocumentation. A fiienu of
mine claims that Billy Ioel is punk music because he appeals to anu peihaps
iepiesents a blue-collai mentality. So the peisona of Billy Ioel iepiesents an
essential element of a punk ethos foi my fiienu. Exampl : In uiscussions with
fiienus anu colleagues about populai music, punk anu the authenticity (oi
"iealness" in oui uiscussions) of punk was once a common topic: a fiienu
emphatically tolu me "The ueims ARE punk. Fuck uieen Bay". A colleague once tolu
me that he uiu not like the Clash because theii music wasn't authentic punk, wasn't
BIY enough to count as punk. I once aigueu with anothei fiienu, claiming that I uiu
not like The Clash's SonJinisto because it wasn't as punk as lonJon Collinq because
it useu uisco, choiis, sounu effects, anu so on. I was wiong on that last one.

To continue with The Clash (anu to fuithei belie my unabasheu love of them), theii
single-only ielease "(White Nan) In Bammeismith Palais" offeis as stiong a case foi
any soit of Jefinitive encapsulation of the movement as any meie pop song can
mustei. The song is simple (a ciiteiion foi puie punk.) anu begins at a "ioots iock
ieggae" conceit in Englanu. Insteau of finuing music ala Toots Naytal oi Iunioi
Neivin oi Bi. Alimantauo oi any of the music the singei expecteu, the conceit hall is
filleu with "just Foui Tops tonight." Tianslation: the music was wateieu uown pop
shit! Bis uisappointment leaus to an examination between black anu white youth in
Englanu anu enus with the iealization that these conceit piomoteis woulu senu a
limousine foi Bitlei if he lanueu in Lonuon that night. Racial tensions anu
appiopiiations, youth, the invocation of Nazi imageiy, all weie components of eaily,
Biitish punk.

So, the puipose of this piece is not to be exhaustive. Rathei, the puipose is to
examine the possibilities of a musical punk aesthetic anu to push oui own
unueistanuing about the uangeis of ielying on fixeu meanings. Neaning anu
inteipietation aie uepenuent upon contexts, histoiical anu otheiwise. The answei,
then, to questions such as "What counts." as a punk aesthetic will shift uepenuing
on how we aie uefining anu fiaming the teims in oui uiscussions. We aie not
seaiching foi the final authoiitative uefinition of punk. Nothing of that soit exists.

In shoit, exist in a given uiscouise community (we will uiscuss what a "uiscouise
community" means as well). We will uiscuss anu come to oui own conclusions (anu
to some community conclusions) about how a community cieates, challenges, anu
synthesizes oi iejects meaning.


Pr-punk: History Lsson
Suie, music happeneu befoie punk, some of it even punk in spiiit. Robeit Iohnson
mythically sells his soul to the uevil in 9s Nississippi anu beginswillingly oi
notthe ioots of iock anu ioll. |As a siuenote, "Love in vain" might be the best
iecoiueu piece of music evei.] The polytonal (sometimes unfoitunately titleu
"atonal") music of Ainolu Schoenbeig anu his followeis offeieu a uissonance in
symphonic music that many might chaiacteiize as punk in both spiiit anu
aesthetics. Nany listeneis at the time ceitainly uiun't "get" the polytonal scale. Nany
listeneis now may not eithei. Refeiiing to Schoenbeig as "atonal" was not accuiate,
but some jazz fiom the 9s is founuational foi punk. The spacey uissonance fiom
Sun Ra's oigans anu banus offeis a path out of simple, squaie choiu piogiessions
anu haimonies. The inteistellai exploiations of Sun Ra mixeu with the fienetic
scionking of 0inette Coleman's saxophone, especially on e Science Iiction
Sessions.

So wbat's all tbis bav to do witb Titus?
0veiall, Titus Anuionicus' e Honitor is a soit of amalgam of e Sope of Punk to
Come anu ln te Aeroplone 0ver te Seo. Bowevei, insteau of combining pievious
sounus into a living, foiwaiu-thinking sounu, the aesthetics (anu, potentially, the
politics) of e Honitor aie conseivative in natuie anu uo not . So, foi the iest of this
woik I am sounuing out why the TA album uoes not seem to woik foi me as a
cohesive moment of change foi the banu oi foi punk in geneial.

0ithouoxies:
Punk: woiking class, uiinking, live foi now, youth, paiticulai sounu.
Aesthetic: Kuiosawa anu Westein(s) influence, Samuiai becomes Nagnificent ,
Yoiimob anu Soniuro become the Nan with no Name (oi the Bollais tiilogy) films,
which in tuin aie iemaue into Waltei Bill's mess lost Hon StonJinq: Scoicese on
Bong Kong new wave cinema, e BeporteJ as iemake of his own influence (lnfernol
Affoirs).

"A Pot in Which to Piss" begins moving out of the punk oithouoxies outlineu above.
The fiist minute anu a half sounus moie like Summerteet-eia Wilco (which I uo not
finu objectionable) as opposeu to something closei to uieen Bay. Buiing this
moment, TA makes its punk aspiiations cleai with two iefeiences. The fiist is using
lyiics fiom Elvis Costello's "Less Than Zeio" into theii Civil Wai iefeiences. They
then make a cleai musical iefeience to theii pop punk heioes by playing the main
iiff fiom "Smash it 0p," but the sounu is taken fiom the 0ffspiing's covei anu not
The Bamneu's oiiginal.
This musical excuision ieveals to me that what appeals to me about punk is not a
geneial aesthetic oi political stance oi time peiiou, though I will fully aumit that the
punk that I most enjoy anu iuentify with is that of pievious times. Punk is a spiiit.
0ne that seemingly can tianscenu ceitain baiiieis, but punk is still beholuen to
some of the baiiieis piesent in many othei populai music foims.





e most interestinq new punk olbum l ove eorJ wos Public Squar bv is
Homent in Block Eistorv. releoseJ in lote 9. lt is moJern orJcore but witout te
incompreensible screominq. l suppose tot mokes it more like olJ orJcore onJ ints
tot perops l om more nostolqic ton l wont to be.

lts now but still too eorlv to know wot mv fovorite punk spin of te veor is. Ior
te moment. Baviu Comes to Life, bv IuckeJ 0p is te cleor winner. lf vou wont me to
moke o qooJ cloim for wv l like Baviu Comes to Life better ton The Nonitoi. voull
ove to woit for onoter essov. {A quess: lt os sometinq to Jo wit BCTL sounJinq
more like te Billinqer Iour ton it Joes The Nonitoi.)