Research Entry No.2: Punk Presently, in an era of Popular Culture

The aim of this blog is to show how punk is alive and using the media today, specifically how punk uses the Internet as a major media outlet for political action. In Moore's article Postmodernism and Punk Subculture, he discusses punk in the postmodern world, that is, a world where boundaries between high culture and low culture are blurred, where the 'condition' of postmodernity defined as a 'crisis of meaning caused by the commodification of everyday life'. This conflict with commodities is not a new one in punk, but the difference today is that the do-it-yourself attitude still heavily residing within the punk ideology, is now embraced by today's technologies. The Internet and self-owned music software for example, helps punks to 'seek authenticity and independence from the culture industry', allowing people to create their own independent record label, political journalism online, or the like, and renounce mainstream popularised and commercialised media culture. Communication of contemporary political and counter-commercial values is thus more accessible and easily dispersed on a wide scale with mediums such as the Internet. This is evident in punk blogs, or subculture blogs online, and all sorts of online-based punk information, but I will be looking specifically for websites, or even organizations, that try to encourage political activity, being anti-war, anti-consumer, or any other way anti-mainstream.

A few prominent websites are mentioned in Leonisa Ardizzone's article, Yelling and Listening, in which she presents her faith in youth power, and the way punk is a means for the youth in particular to be politically active and powerful. She presents punk rock bands and their lyrics as being influential over youth, as role models and even heroe-like figures, as they play benefits for children's rights or medical services for the poor. But mostly they are, specifically according to this article, against modern day politics, and are a voice for the youth, the marginalized, and those who are too afraid to speak out themselves. She gives examples of artists that actively promoted voter registration among youth, such as Bounty Killer, Rage Against the Machine, Propagandhi, and Anti-Flag. One of the prime examples of methods in which punk bands and their politics connect with their followers is through the Internet. For instance, the organization Punk Voter, founded by Mike Burkett of NOFX, she explains in 2004 organized a series of concerts called Rock Against Bush, campaigning for the youth vote (Ardizzone 55).The significant response to these concerts in terms of attendance and CD sales, illustrates that what may start on the Internet, that is Punk Voter, can become a largely active political protest that attracts a large capacity of modern day punk followers. Today, on their Facebook page, there are no campaigns that are quite as large a sclae, perhaps because Bush is no longer in power. However, there are still many political comments on today's society. Some of these include web articles about 'what's wrong with the news,', news articles on FAIR journalism addressing the problems of tax and average income in America, an article that explores the issue of fascism and how it is active in contemporary society, criticisms of Obama's rule, and links to a NOFX song, titled 'You're wrong', a social commentary on perspectives in society today.
I also found a few sites discussing PunkVoter and its influence. Two of these included a blog abou thow PunkVoter 'lies', http://www.punkvoterlies.blogspot.com/ and Wikipedia, albeit not always a completely reliable source, confirms this view. Whatever the opinion, the fact is that without the ability for Burkett to create a website that could have this much influence, in other words, without the use of the Internet, it would have been much harder for Burkett to create global awareness with his political opinions such as he has done.

Setting aside the lyrics in many of the punk rock bands' songs, on many punk bands' websites there is often featured a political charitable event, or dedication to a certain controversial topic, or anti-government statement. The Rage Against the Machine website for example features a 'Freedom Fighter of the Month'. This month it is dedicated to Brad Will, who by their writing, was a journalist, and because of his political opinions and effort to 'throw a corrupt dictator out of office', was murdered by police, and true to his journalistic nature, he managed to keep the camera rolling and document his own murder. Their anti-government message is her is clear and powerful. More information can be found at http://www.ratm.com/. Another website worth discovering is the Anti-Flag website, in which even their website title is bold: 'Anti-Flag: The People or the Gun', and it currently features an advertisement for their new t-shirt in which all money will be donated to a water sanitation charity for Sierra Leone in Africa. http://www.anti-flag.com/. These are just two examples of politically active content through punk, and the Internet's vital role to keeping it alive.

A site worth visting t oshow in depth of what artists are or were doing, most specifically when Bush was in power, is http://www.bushflash.com/farrell/04/04/far04014.html. An explanation of much Internet-based political activity is given on her website that supports Ardizzone's argument of music creating power.

What these websites demonstrate is that punk nowadays is still politically active. Thanks to the ease of sharing information through the Internet, the subcultural theory of 'scene' is no longer essential to being part of a subculture, as the physical is diminished on the web. In other words, as opposed to being part of the CBGB's scene of New york, or the underground clubs in London, as it was in the seventies and old punk days, punks are able to share their identity and political values easily today. With the use of the Internet punk fans are encouraged and enabled to talk politics online, on blogs, message boards, are able to connect with other bands and 'friend' them on myspace, bands or organizations that are in connection with their subculture. Basically, there is a non-physical domain where people can come together no matter where you are, and express your own political views, and become part of a global online community. It allows for independence from the major record conglomerates as anyone can download music software, create their own studio and become an independent record label owner, as mentioned before, and even use instruments online. It allows for independent journalism, among which punks or anybody can easily express their political views. All these factors work in favour of punk values, and as both article discuss, this exemplifies the power of music and the Internet as a medium for political activism, particularly in the youth.

Which brings me to the only real disagreement I have with Ardizzone's article in particular; the fact that she relies solely on the youth generation, which she defines as adolescents, to be the ones who are politically active and promoting power through the Internet. However, part of the advantages of the Internet is that this power can be afforded to a person of any age demographic, who has access the Internet. So I believe this 'youth culture' can in fact be widened as one will find that for example many punk band members that are being particularly active today, are often not in the youth age group, or even specifically cater to this market. This youth stereotype of adolescence pushing the boundaries of society and being delinquent in their own right is an old fashioned one, and being an adolescent does not necessarily make you punk, or a person with a punk attitude. However, this article has been very useful to show how active punk is these days. I simply want to add that glory of the Internet means ones of any age can be afforded this power.