DIY

DIY Justin Tuesday 05 April 2005

DIY - If you dont know what that means, get the fuck out of here.

Seriously.

Actually, if you dont know what it means, it means Do It Yourself. DIY is as old as punk (or at least as old as hardcore). Now, what specifically is DIY? It's what makes someone self-sufficient. It's what powers you when you've got little or nothing left. It's what drives you to do something. When all else fails, Do it your fucking self.

This applies to many things. In the hayday of hardcore, everyone involved (the few thousand throughout the world) were DIY-ers through and through. You had to drive your ass 10 hours in your shitty van, sleeping on your gear, all by yourself. No roadies, no tour bus; just your stinkin ass band mates and your probably shitty gear in a van you probably couldnt afford to gas up again. You book your shows on your own. Hell, you might even be able to show up and just play. Who cares about a sound check. Your look? Who really cares. If you wanted something studded, you studded it yourself. You got your ass beat for your flourescent blue hair probably daily. But you know what? That was DIY.

The only way to get anything done was doing it yourself, because frankly, no one wanted anything to do with you. The only people that did were your friends (in the scene) or your enemies (rednecks, jocks, cops, whatever). Everyone else said fuck off. People lived on their own. Scrounged up their own food, siphoned gas, stole; anything.

The reason I bring this up, is because it pains me to see stores like Hot Topic, or any place where you can buy pre-made bondage pants, or the dreaded studded belt (which is just all the rave). I am very opposed to buying anything like that. Never have, never will. I'll make it myself. The only thing I buy are band shirts (and sometimes I make em if I got the materials). It sucks to see a 'street punk' who wasn't one yesterday, or a fucking teenie bopper that thinks punk is cool (when whatever they listen to is bullshit).

All this commercialism and consumerism is the antithesis of DIY, a born and bred hardcore ethic, that will never die. Punk was never as... well... hardcore about it as hardcore was. Sure it was here and there, but Punk was quickly absorbed into the mainstream (for the most part) and from it was extracted that dreaded New Wave; radio-friendly 'punk'. Hardcore was in a league all its own. It was about getting out of work, going to a show. Jeans and a shirt, and whatever you could make. Didn't matter. You did it yourself because thats all you could do. And now this shit can be found in your local mall.

Case in point; there was a shirt that just said 'ANARCHY' across it, generously on sale for only $24.50. Way to be an anarchist. Like everything, this too will pass. I guess thats about anyone thats actually in the scene has to look forward to in regard to this. Then again, you can be like me and not care half the time, and only care the other half when someone brings it up.