Is This the End of the Punk Rock Enlightenment Era?
There’s a lot of transitioning going on in American culture right now. Barack Obama’s Presidency is bringing dramatic changes in American Policy in just its first few days. A recent news story that caught my eye was how the brilliantly satirical Daily Show was wrestling with how its narrative will adapt to the new administration.
I’m wondering what’s going to happen to punk rock. Green Day experienced a revival with their number-one album American Idiot. Bad Religion released what was, in my opinion, their most intellectual albums The Process of Belief and The Empire Strikes First:
Bad Religion “Materialist” (2002)
The process of belief is an elixir when you’re weak
I must confess, at times I indulge it on the sneak
but generally my outlook’s not so bleakI’m materialist
Call me a humanist
and I guess I’m full of doubt,
but I’ll gladly have it out with you
Also NOFX popped onto my radar as a new favorite punk band for all the intellectual political references and wit on their albums The War on Errorism and Wolves in Wolves’ Clothing (ht Vicky).
NOFX “Idiots Are Taking Over” (2003)
Mensa membership conceding
tell me why and how are all the stupid people breeding
Watson, it’s really elementary
the industrial revolution
has flipped the bitch on evolution
the benevolent and wise
are being thwarted, ostracized,
what a bummer
the world keeps getting dumber
insensitivity is standard
and faith is being fancied over reason
For all his faults and missteps, I can at least be thankful to the 43rd President for eight fantastic years of punk rock music.
Ha! Good point. I always thought it was funny, in 1997 NOFX had a catchy song called All Outta Angst:
“I’m not insane, I’m not bummed out
I got no one to blame, nothing to change
I got no evil to fight
One thing’s for sure, I’m all outta angst
Society don’t bother me
And there’s something wrong with that”
A couple years later, George W got elected and suddenly they had plenty of angst to sing about!!! :)
Comment by Vicky — January 26, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
I don’t think that song was really that topical / on target. I mean, i thought it expressed a feeling, but i thought it was about one person’s feeling, not the state of things in 1997.
It’s not like there weren’t record drug arrests in 1997 … or we weren’t bombing countries (okay, I don’t remember WHEn we bombed yogoslavia, but Clinton led a war too, just like Bush).
But did NOFX’s pro-pot song Herojuana about pot arrests come out during a time when a pot-smoking president was arresting more marijuana smokers than at any time in history?
No, only once Bush was pres!
I love their politics, NoFX can quite often be so partisan as to miss the actual point of it all. Like when they lump in the NRA with “Murder The Government”; that’s just pathetic.
Comment by ClintJCL — January 26, 2009 @ 2:16 pm