Punk

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is a question for people who didn't experience punk firsthand (sorry o wise eldersaurs!)

How did the ideas/legacy/presence of punk affect your listening to and thinking about music?

(I didn't say it was a small question)

And do you still feel it as a presence within pop music and culture? Does it affect current music? Does it affect how you approach the music that came before it?

I'm interested in 'my' generation of listeners (30somethings) but also especially in 20somethings and younger - and in British people especially.

Comments

Me & the received notion of punk

[(Anonymous)]

Missed punk by dint of being in far-flung places as well as being too young. Arrived back in the UK, aged 13, in 1984 as fledgling classic rock fan. Over the next two years struggled to like Cream, Led Zep etc or Hendrix beyond the singles... and meanwhile fell in love with the Ramones and the Mary Chain. So when the 10 years of punk barrage arrived in the NME in early 86, I was totally willing to absorb it, but more in terms of 'values' than any particular interest in actual original punkster bands. And that ideology, as I read it, has stuck with me. I think that's because it was a good fit for what I actually like, rather than because it was so persuasive – I'm naturally anti-noodling, grandiosity, technique for its own sake (as I would see it), pro-short songs & so on. In the succeeding two decades, my views on art and architecture (for instance) flipped almost entirely, but my basic approach to music hardly at all. I'm still prog-phobic (which applies as much to Radiohead as Yes) and not the least bit apologetic about it... -mcarratala