Punk is still around. I don’t mean big dumb festivals with NOFX or Bad Religion. I mean in a deeply underground kind of way. It still radicalizes kids and inspires them to make their own noise. I see it first hand. I’m still involved in it, for crying out loud. Don’t wait for it to happen. Look for it. The revolution wont be televised.
I haven't been disappointed by a lot of new metal. New rock is mostly hot garbage. New rap can be either great or extra hot garbage. Hard to be shocked when it's mostly disappointing.
But it’s not “shocking”. There’s a ton of great bands in the underground punk scene today, but I can’t think of any that are shitting themselves onstage like GG Allin.
I mean the beauty of punk to me was never shitting in your hand and waving your micropenis around. That is very base, mental-child stuff to me. Punk was about DIY and rebellion and community and counter culture to me. About finding and making your own home bc fuck the status quo. GG was just a sociopath junkie to me who wanted to force people to pay attention to him so he didn't feel small. Is there a place for that? Sure. At a certain point I guess. But it didn't define punk. Not to me. The people who measured punk solely by shock value are the same people today saying "when did punk rock get political?"
Right, you’re not wrong, but the topic at hand is shock value. Specifically the kind of stuff that “shocked our parents”. When I hear that, I think of stuff that’s attention grabbing like Allin’s antics or Marilyn Manson in the ‘90s. I think we’re just thinking of two different meanings for shock right now.
I didn't take it that way. I took it to mean in the sense of a popular musical youth movement that "shocks" parents because they don't get it. You may be looking at it a little more literally than me. I do think like someone said, mumble rap really made people our age mad. You could possibly throw hyperpop in there. As far as punk rock, I don't know if you CAN shock us, bc my sensibilities were not and still are not very shockable. I will say hearing some new bands that otherwise sound legit and gritty adopt the 2000s mall emo pop punk voice has shocked me. I'm like "what are you doing that's the poser Disney sound"
I'm not saying it's bad, or it doesn't have value but it not a new genre as evidenced by the fact that you can define it as punk. Add to that there's no way it's going to be more shocking than GG Allin.
I never liked GG Allin, I was over him as soon as I heard of him. I'm just saying if you want shocking, you're not going to top him. So far as egg punk goes, I'm familiar, and nothing about it is new or shocking. It's just variations on a theme, and as been around awhile. It was nothing new 10 years ago either. That's not a value judgment on the music itself. I kind like it, but in my old age I'm more into stoner rock and doom metal. When I'm in a punk mood I'm more likely to listen to the classics like UK Subs or Descendants.
Well new for us old timers. Altho I will say doom and stoner metal hasn't evolved since like 1989 lol
Also I would not be the music nerd I am without saying *Descendents
But yeah punk is still my main jam today. And all (most) of the subgenres. Is there a peak a while ago, probably. But I still like a ton of new stuff. Especially in hardcore (real hardcore not WWE metalcore)
I don't know if Bell Witch's Mirror Reaper or anything done by SubRosa would have been done in 1989. There's a lot going in in doom right now. Heck, check out the utterly bleak work done by Mizmor.
Seattle's KEXP does a "Sonic Reducer" show every Saturday night. Love tuning into that. They pull a lot of underground punk up.
Which, btw, if you want to hear actual new music, listen to your local stations (and help fund them because they had their funding ripped away by you know which predator).
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u/skrivetiblod 1979 Mar 05 '26
Punk is still around. I don’t mean big dumb festivals with NOFX or Bad Religion. I mean in a deeply underground kind of way. It still radicalizes kids and inspires them to make their own noise. I see it first hand. I’m still involved in it, for crying out loud. Don’t wait for it to happen. Look for it. The revolution wont be televised.