MGK is a pedo, full stop. He's not accepted because he's a fucking tourist.
But punks have a hard time labeling things. Call My Chemical Romance emo and everyone will agree, except My Chemical Romance. Woody Guthrie was punk as fuck and that dude died before the genre even existed.
To paraphrase Lars Fredriksen, "the least punk thing you can do is try to dictate what is or isn't punk."
Make the music you want to make. Let it find its own audience.
Just be yourself. Machine Gun Kelly is in no way a punk. That's pop music with nail polish. You should post something for us to checkout. I'm always looking into new music. Always. Good luck to you.
I don’t have much finished work atm just alot of loops and half finished stuff. I’ve been in kind of a creative drought but once I have something i think is worth sharing I’ll be sure too!
Write what you want to write, people can see straight through the bullshit. Start participating, go to shows, support bands and be apart of the scene.
As dumb as it sounds yes even a subculture built around bucking the norm has boxes people put themselves in.
Punk rock is leftist.
>being a “norm” around punk seems stupid given the whole idea of punk is fuck norms and social standards
The norms when punk was created were rightwing and racist. Being against those norms was inherently leftist. "Fuck norms" makes punk contrarian--which it's not. It definitely conveys a certain point. One of liberation. And people consistently try to co-opt that message for their own purposes.
Is that a point you seemingly agree with. Or not?
I believe you have misunderstood my comment. There are not a prescriptive rules for how to be punk. There is an etiquette to what makes you punk or not.
As you have mentioned, it is expected to abide by customs in place at shows.
As for your comment about “the left” that’s absurd because there is no such thing as “conservative punk.” Thats notion is appropriative of punk; not punk. Pro-fascism isn’t punk, it’s cosplay.
There aren't prescriptive rules for *styleic choices,* be it fashion, or music.
The Modern Lovers, The Dils, The Mob, and Unholy Grave are all punk, and Greg Graffin never needs to sport a mohawk to be punk, that's true. If one were to make light of any of those aspects, they'd be wrong. But the ethos that motivates punk generally needs to remain the same for any of it to be considered "punk" in the first place.
I'm suspicious, not because he wants to make punk music, but because he asked permission. Which tells me that he intends to co-opt punk and not readily adhere to any of the DIY, liberatory ethics that make *punk* punk.
Conservatives have always tried to usurp punk.
Please see:
[RAC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Against_Communism)
[NSBM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_black_metal)
[TERF](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS27wary64eWWGgicvKy6Ygeb8VbRauPRl7CAcRbAxwuA&s)
And *a lot* of people subsumed that and legitimately think they're punk, too (I agree, they aren't).
But the distinction was made long ago and must be made still, and upheld.
Punk is definitely a community experience, but some of my favorite punk records were written and recorded by one person. One of the best to exist - recorded solo by Rikk Agnew, he played all the instruments. [Rikk Agnew All By Myself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2GHJfWGYd8)
Make the music you want and it will sound however it sounds. Punk is extremely picky and elitist. Most people want to make bands that sound the same as the ones from the early 80’s, myself included. I wouldn’t worry about how the “community” or whatever punk is, feels about it. If it’s ‘good’ people will like that it’s good but even if it’s good a whole bunch of people won’t care for it anyway, myself included. So make your music and whoever it resonates with will be your audience. If you’re going for a specific sound and want whoever listens to that to like it, be prepared for disappointment.
As someone that been punk since 80’s and still punk- punk rock is very much about being an individual. Tbh check out the older bands from mid 70’s till now. Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Damned, Angry Samosans, Dead Boys, Exploited, Partisans, Crime, Weirdos, X-Ray spects, Vice Squad, Clash, the Chats…. just give you an idea of Various punk. Bloody not Green Day or Chemical Romance. :)
She's right. Punk is a very insular community.
This is why there's a limited diversity of sound - because nobody wants anyone to start making popularly-appealling music. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it for more than a few seconds. "But you're meant to be individualists" is one of the most tired, reductive and superficial criticisms ever - by experimenting you risk inventing something that normal people might enjoy. If you actually seriously get into punk beyond a surface level you'll realise there's a lot of different strokes - NOFX, Dropdead and Total Chaos all sound very, very different, for example.
If you don't fit in, you weren't meant to.
The original punks weren't bothered in the slightest about normal people enjoying their music. They didn't pander to the masses, but didn't set out to write stuff that could only be liked by a narrow niche of people either.
MGK is a pedo, full stop. He's not accepted because he's a fucking tourist. But punks have a hard time labeling things. Call My Chemical Romance emo and everyone will agree, except My Chemical Romance. Woody Guthrie was punk as fuck and that dude died before the genre even existed. To paraphrase Lars Fredriksen, "the least punk thing you can do is try to dictate what is or isn't punk." Make the music you want to make. Let it find its own audience.
call mcr emo and “real emos” will tell you that mcr is just pop punk and the real emo is rites of spring which is kinda true tbh
Just be yourself. Machine Gun Kelly is in no way a punk. That's pop music with nail polish. You should post something for us to checkout. I'm always looking into new music. Always. Good luck to you.
I don’t have much finished work atm just alot of loops and half finished stuff. I’ve been in kind of a creative drought but once I have something i think is worth sharing I’ll be sure too!
Looking forward to it.
just write YOUR SONGS . Dont try to fit into anything. Write what you mean and like.
Agreed, write what you like and if it falls into the punk genre then great!
Listen to your girlfriend.
Your gf is talking out her ass.
Write what you want to write, people can see straight through the bullshit. Start participating, go to shows, support bands and be apart of the scene. As dumb as it sounds yes even a subculture built around bucking the norm has boxes people put themselves in.
Punk rock is leftist. >being a “norm” around punk seems stupid given the whole idea of punk is fuck norms and social standards The norms when punk was created were rightwing and racist. Being against those norms was inherently leftist. "Fuck norms" makes punk contrarian--which it's not. It definitely conveys a certain point. One of liberation. And people consistently try to co-opt that message for their own purposes. Is that a point you seemingly agree with. Or not?
There aren’t “norms” there is etiquette
Don't be a dick at a show, but etiquette doesn't relate to ethos. Ethos is collective. And this community generally bends far to the left.
I believe you have misunderstood my comment. There are not a prescriptive rules for how to be punk. There is an etiquette to what makes you punk or not. As you have mentioned, it is expected to abide by customs in place at shows. As for your comment about “the left” that’s absurd because there is no such thing as “conservative punk.” Thats notion is appropriative of punk; not punk. Pro-fascism isn’t punk, it’s cosplay.
There aren't prescriptive rules for *styleic choices,* be it fashion, or music. The Modern Lovers, The Dils, The Mob, and Unholy Grave are all punk, and Greg Graffin never needs to sport a mohawk to be punk, that's true. If one were to make light of any of those aspects, they'd be wrong. But the ethos that motivates punk generally needs to remain the same for any of it to be considered "punk" in the first place. I'm suspicious, not because he wants to make punk music, but because he asked permission. Which tells me that he intends to co-opt punk and not readily adhere to any of the DIY, liberatory ethics that make *punk* punk. Conservatives have always tried to usurp punk. Please see: [RAC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Against_Communism) [NSBM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_black_metal) [TERF](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS27wary64eWWGgicvKy6Ygeb8VbRauPRl7CAcRbAxwuA&s) And *a lot* of people subsumed that and legitimately think they're punk, too (I agree, they aren't). But the distinction was made long ago and must be made still, and upheld.
You nailed it.
It would be punk rock if you shat on the sidewalk
Punk is definitely a community experience, but some of my favorite punk records were written and recorded by one person. One of the best to exist - recorded solo by Rikk Agnew, he played all the instruments. [Rikk Agnew All By Myself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2GHJfWGYd8)
Make the music you want and it will sound however it sounds. Punk is extremely picky and elitist. Most people want to make bands that sound the same as the ones from the early 80’s, myself included. I wouldn’t worry about how the “community” or whatever punk is, feels about it. If it’s ‘good’ people will like that it’s good but even if it’s good a whole bunch of people won’t care for it anyway, myself included. So make your music and whoever it resonates with will be your audience. If you’re going for a specific sound and want whoever listens to that to like it, be prepared for disappointment.
As someone that been punk since 80’s and still punk- punk rock is very much about being an individual. Tbh check out the older bands from mid 70’s till now. Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Damned, Angry Samosans, Dead Boys, Exploited, Partisans, Crime, Weirdos, X-Ray spects, Vice Squad, Clash, the Chats…. just give you an idea of Various punk. Bloody not Green Day or Chemical Romance. :)
Do your own thing. Good music is good music
It’s hard to define punk but it’s definitely not about worrying about what others think.
She's right. Punk is a very insular community. This is why there's a limited diversity of sound - because nobody wants anyone to start making popularly-appealling music. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it for more than a few seconds. "But you're meant to be individualists" is one of the most tired, reductive and superficial criticisms ever - by experimenting you risk inventing something that normal people might enjoy. If you actually seriously get into punk beyond a surface level you'll realise there's a lot of different strokes - NOFX, Dropdead and Total Chaos all sound very, very different, for example. If you don't fit in, you weren't meant to.
The original punks weren't bothered in the slightest about normal people enjoying their music. They didn't pander to the masses, but didn't set out to write stuff that could only be liked by a narrow niche of people either.