Guardians of Authenticity: The History & Future of Punk
Description
Jason Myles is the host of the podcast THIS IS REVOLUTION, a musician (Bitter Lake, La Fin Absolute du Monde) and a dad that resides in Mexico. We corresponded about his new mini book, I WAS A TEENAGE ANARCHIST.
Your book weaves a story of punk and hardcore, and its relationship to political shifts from the Reagan/Thatcher era until now. You say that the circumstances created by those leaders were “in many ways the perfect catalyst for punk’s musical moment”. Why do you think the early musical revolt against neoliberalism expressed itself through nihilism, and what effect do you think nihilism has had on the contemporary left?
I think there is a lot of nihilism left over from the hippies, and the bloated nature of the 70s rock with its laser light shows, and self indulgent solos left a lot to be desired for a generation of kids who weren’t going to be Peter Frampton, Genesis or Yes, you know? Also, we have to keep in mind the social safety net was becoming more non-existent for this new generation, especially in major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, Oakland, and New York. Regan instituted university fees in California, so there’s now a cost to higher education. These young people are entering into a time of neoliberalization and deindustrialization, so they are understanding that the life their parents had, which is expected of them, isn't what they want, and it might actually be out of reach for them.
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As far as the left goes, or what’s left of it at this point had either died, been incarcerated, indoctrinated themselves into capitalism or retreated to academia. The left of the 20s and 30s, a left entrenched in the working class, by the time it becomes the “New Left” of the 60s has dislodged itself from the working class because they felt they (the working class) were too “reactionary”. So, really where was the “left” in the late 70s early 80s to attempt these young sonic radicals?
If you look at the early days of hardcore punk it’s all over the place, it’s socialist, fascist, anarchist, it’s just a series of images becoming an identity for many. What was its message? F you? It wasn’t “together we can defeat the capitalist imperialism nation '' What was the unifying message of hardcore punk, or punk in general other than “No Future”?
So, when we talk about this current political moment, I like to use pop culture as a way to make it easier (and more fun) to understand. If you think about the post hardcore 90s that’s dominated by “Grunge”, Nirvana embodies all the sonic and visual aesthetics of hardcore music that came before it, but changes the name of the genre, and it becomes palatable for a mass audience in a way bands like Circle Jerks and Black Flag could never be a generation before. But “grunge” like hardcore before wasn’t about mass movements. It blows up in the Clinton era, which for many Americans is a reprieve from the 12 previous years of GOP domination of Reagan and Bush, Sr.
Clinton isn’t a savior but is an extension of the Republican neoliberal project, yet people like Toni Morrison are touting Clinton as the “1st Black President”. Tough on crime laws and an expansion of the police state really got ramped up in the 1994 Crime Bill, financial deregulation that leads to some short term financial gains are the glory days for many Americans. No income home purchase loans, home values growing due to lower interest rates, and the expansion of the suburbs. Liberty and McMansions for all. Long live the mall.
1994 is a pivotal year for me, and it not only marks the death of Cobain, but it’s also the year that his “Grunge” contemporaries break big as well. This is no longer counter cultural rebel music, this is mainstream mall music. While the Seattle sound is reaching its Zenith, Green Day drops their major label debut, Dookie, and “Pop Punk” is born. It’s not fighting “the man”, it’s sad and mad at mom and dad. Equipt with the iconography of what many conceive of punk, they are much more easy to digest and create copy cats like Blink 182 and and all the nasally, sarcastically childish clones. Traveling festival tours are born to sell sugary energy drinks to kids, punk and hardcore is now your soundtrack to corporate consumption with the veneer of hardcore authenticity.
So what becomes of a burgeoning left that came of age in the era of commodified dissent? You get a kind of neoliberal leftism.
When you wrote about how punk music differed greatly from the protest music before it, in that the earlier music protesting the Vietnam war called for unity, it reminded me that back when I was a punk, my friends were quite hostile towards anything organized. I was volunteering with a service sector union at the time, and that was severely uncool of me, but it was also over a decade ago. Have you seen a shift over the years in whether punks are willing to engage in more organized forms of protest and change-making?
I can’t speak for all punks, so I won’t. I will simply say that the punk/hardcore culture is pretty individualistic. When all you want to do is say “no” to society, then someone with a tangible job organizing with a union is going to seem “uncool”. The working class is still “reactionary”. That being said, I won’t discount what we’re seeing with Starbucks unions, young people are understanding labor power, the 2010s saw more protests globally than ever, and we can’t forget 2020 and the George Floyd protests.
So do punks want to organize for change? What that “change” is supposed to look like I don’t know?
I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area and the West Oakland Punks with Lunch feed the homeless people in that area and distribute clean needles and more. But can that model work to any sort of scale beyond what they’re doing? I don’t know? I also don’t pretend to know their end goal in the project, but I’ve always respected them, and groups like Food Not Bombs.
It’s hard not to see authenticity and individualism, which were once punk values, as fully appropriated and redirected by neoliberal consumerism. In 2024, is it still countercultural to hold these values?
Is it still countercultural to be a part of the cultures of authenticity and deconstruction? Hmm, I would no. I would also say that these values as you put plague this current iteration of the left. Leftism is your lifestyle brand and it makes you unique. You don’t have to do anything to attempt to build socialism other than say you’re a socialist, and you now have to perform purity tests on anyone that wants to be part of your club or scene. That's what it feels like, a scene. Do we really want the left to look like the girls in the movie Heathers? Hahaha
A question that kept coming up for me while reading your book was whether it is possible for a group to be both a force for social change and commercially successful. I remember feeling a similar tension when working with a very small grassroots group: our lack of budget kept us pure, in a sense, because no one had any influence over us, but it also massively limited our impact. Do you see this striving for integrity to be necessary, misguided, or something else altogether?
Hmm..
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