Punk is Dead

Yes that's right, punk is dead,
It's just another cheap product for the consumers head.
Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors,
Schoolboy sedition backed by big time promoters.
CBS promote the Clash,
But it ain't for revolution, it's just for cash.
Punk became a fashion just like hippy used to be
And it ain't got a thing to do with you or me.

It's weird to see looks on people now who know nothing about goth or punk music or culture. Some bloggers (you know who they are) talk about how they love Gareth Pugh, how Rick Owens is a genius (yes I do agree they are brilliant men) and how Luella Bartley has the cutest clothes. But how can they honestly talk about how awesome these designers are if they listen to Lil' Wayne and Death Cab? Do they fucking know who Crass is?

Movements are systems and systems kill.
Movements are expressions of the public will.
Punk became a movement cos we all felt lost,
But the leaders sold out and now we all pay the cost.
Punk narcissism was social napalm,
Steve Jones started doing real harm.
Preaching revolution, anarchy and change
As he sucked from the system that had given him his name.

There was something really pure about being a part of something that other people didn't get. I didn't really care if the girl's in my high school thought my steel toe Docs were a little dykey or if I was the only Asian kid at the local punk show. None of my friends understood that punk wasn't Green Day or that there was music beyond MTV, what the radio stations pushed, what their own time period offered.

Well I'm tired of staring through shit stained glass,
Tired of staring up a superstars arse,
I've got an arse and crap and a name,
I'm just waiting for my fifteen minutes fame.
Steve Jones you're napalm,
If you're so pretty (vacant) why do you swarm?
Patti Smith you're napalm,
You write with your hand but it's Rimbaud's arm.

For the past couple of years, Indie became mainstream. Hot Topic was carrying peg-leg jean looks that I've been wearing for the past 10 years (I used to taper my own). The mainstream donned indie looks as "emo" (they severely missed the mark here and anyone who listened to Dischord since the early 90s knows) and normal people think My Chemical Romance/Fall Out Boy is indie (no, it's "commercial rock").

Since this marketing vehicle is no longer fresh (MIA got knocked up/everyone shops at thrift stores now/neu rave kids just look like crazy candy ravers), fashion kids who hang out at the Blow Up needed something new to destroy. We then have the third, fourth, fifth murder of punk culture. Bloggettes are donning spikes and platform stripper boots and wearing vintage tees from bands they have never heard of/don't listen to. And yes, they are actually walking into Hot Topic to buy goth gear and those leopard print jeans.

And me, yes I, do I want to burn?
Is there something I can learn?
Do I need a business man to promote my angle?
Can I resist the carrots that fame and fortune dangle?
I see the velvet zippies in their bondage gear,
The social elite with safety-pins in their ear,
I watch and understand that it don't mean a thing,
The scorpions might attack, but the systems stole the sting.

I will defend people who just like what they like, weather it is the creeper phenomenon or S&M stripper shoes, but when girls are being spoon fed images of models wearing "grunge" "punk" and "goth," shouldn't they know where it is coming from? What it means? What the music sounds like? Girls like me who engrossed themselves in these subversive cultures did it because it was what we liked. It wasn't a fashion trend. It was just our taste, or music, or art, shit we liked. Punk wasn't a look, it was our perspective.

Their is a big difference between doing your own thing with what is hot now and reliving your own punk roots (the great Kim from Luxirare), and then there is just plain poseurs (wow, I actually said it! I never use that term!) I'm kind of tired of seeing mallrats wearing black polish and bleached out jeans and I'm starting to understand why people are so pissed off.

At this point, I'm only reading certain popular fashion bloggers to see how stupid the masses are.

PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD.
PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD.
PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD