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

very late but for what it's worth...

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

i perceived punk in a very historical context, i.e. through the rolling stone record guide and, to a lesser extent, through Lipstick Traces. and given that i did all this in the pre-nirvana era, i definitely saw it as a kind of year zero, despite the fact that my "historical" approach lead me more through the winding trails of prog as much as anything else. when grunge came along i gradually suspected that punk was more likely one end of a cycle (albeit perhaps an extreme end), although hip-hop tends to complicate such simplifications.

my cultural experience of punk was somewhat scornful, i.e., ultimately i didn't differentiate the punks i saw from sha-na-na - different tribe but same idea.

(of course i'm not british)

Re: very late but for what it's worth...

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

oh yes, and in terms of current listening, i could be somewhat more explicit if you're trying to pin me down: i guess there are two sides - as a genre, where my attitude is a bit like the above: if you definte yourself as punk then, yawn; however in terms of attitude, i can see it as a certain rebelliousness (vs. a "rock" attitude, which is more about power than rebellion).