Punk Rock reaches the masses

Punk Rock Reaches the Masses Jacen Phelps Tuesday 05 April 2005

I've been noticing lately the term 'punk' is being used by a lot more people than before. What exactly seperates a punk from a poser, anyway? Can pop-punk be punk, or is it all just more MTV bullshit.

Now more than ever there are tons and tons of Hot Topic shoppin' mallrat "punks" around. Now, I'm not saying all HT shoppers are posers, but alot of them seem to be. I see people walk in with their Aero shirts checking out hardcore records. There's a fine line of punks and posers and it's getting hard to read.

It seems like after the Offspring and Green Day broke out, punk didn't really get any more popular, it just stayed underground. And then, all of the sudden, the Offspring come back with Americana, and Blink 182 release Enema of the State and everyone wants punk rock. Then Sum 41, New Found Glory, American Hi-fi, Simple Plan, and tons of other pop-punk bands hit the charts and all the sudden its popular to be punk. Thus we have posers. People who think since they wear baggy pants, skateboard, and listen to New Found Glory, they're regular anarchists. I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, I love NFG and Simple Plan and Blink 182 and Green Day as much as anyone, but that's not what punk is.

And then you get Avril fucking Lavigne. Scum of the Earth poser-bitch. She made it popular for teenage cheerleader chicks to wear safety pins and neckties, and she did it all by sounding like Britney with an electric guitar. She has her chains and spiked bracelets and her ties and safety pins and Dickies clothes and her backup dancers and her voice enhancment and expensive studio and MTV and her teenybopper fan base. Punk fucking rock. Is there such a thing as hardcore pop?

Exposure can also be good, there are a lot more real punk fans out there because of it. I know if it wasn't for the Offspring I wouldn't be listening to punk today. But, as many more punks as there are, there will be all the more posers fucking up the scene. Believe me, I'm not a purist in any sense of the word, but, somewhere you have to draw the line. But, as Sublime said from the very beginning, "Punk rock changed our lives."