We mean it, man...
The Corner has, for some reason (probably having to do with Joe Strummer's recent death), deemed it necessary to coin a term for conservatives who like 70s-era punk rock: The Punky Cons! (Start here and search down for "punk" through several posts, if you're interested in the official NRO list of punk's greatest hits: maybe they should put out a comp.)
Most people who think of themselves as "punk" these days are oriented Left (usually in a mushy, sludgy, Chomsky-i-fied, generally retarded way-- they're essentially indistinguishable from the anti-globo crowd, though it may be that they relish their conspiracy theories a bit more passionately.) It's been that way for some time. How all the punks became hippies is one of the pop-counter-culture mysteries of our time. But politics in pop culture is always little more than window-dressing anyway, even for a rock group like the Clash, who were pretty good at making the pretense work. Most "political" punk rock was as vapid as the other kind, without the saving grace of the up-front acknowledgment that Vapidity was the point. (Unintentional vapidity is a kind of aesthetic worst-case scenario.) Sometimes it was good, even great, rock and roll, but that usually wasn't because of the protest-song pretensions but rather in spite of them.
If you're serious about returning to the basics of rock and roll, there are really only two legitimate topics: cars and girls. To indulge in other subject matter is to run the risk of Art Rock, which, like unintentional vapidity, is treacherous territory. The Clash aside, most "political" punk is chiefly notable for how easily-parodied it is: anti-Reagan and stuff man, yeah.
As to aesthetics, in music, "music," and just about everything else, Back to Basics can be radical, and the people who join such movements are aesthetic radicals. Punk rock is no exception. Nevertheless, punk rock has always been a deeply conservative genre, as anyone who has ever tried to record two successive albums with different guitar sounds can attest. "Punks" never liked any of the Clash's ballyhooed experimentation, eclecticism, etc. (London Calling was "total crap," according to Maximum Rock and Roll Mastermind Tim Yohannon, with the token exception of "Brand New Cadillac," which had street cred as a rockabilly cover. Punks may not know much about art, but they know what they like: and it ain't experimentation, eclecticism, etc.)
The spectacle of the staff of the National Review weighing in on their favorite punk rock songs, joining the "what is punk?" debate, is one of those marvels that could only happen in a free, and weird, society. Tim's rolling in his grave. But the Punky Cons are nothing new: the tradition stretches at least as far back as Day One, i.e., The Ramones.
Posted by Dr. Frank at December 27, 2002 09:57 AM | TrackBack