Traditions of Punk and the Politics of Empowerment
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Anyone Can Do It: Traditions of Punk and the Politics of Empowerment By Pete R.W. Dale Re-submission for PhD ICMuS Newcastle University 2010 Blank page ii Anyone Can Do It: Punk, Folk and the Politics of Empowerment Contents Title Page Page i Contents Page Page iii Introduction page vi Chapter One page 1 i. What Is Punk? Style vs. Substance page 2 ii. What Is Folk? Getting the Folk ‘Us’ in Focus page 27 iii. Punk as Folk: Two Sides of the Same Coin? page 57 iv. Chapter Conclusion page 84 Chapter Two page 88 i. Punk, Avant-gardism and Novelty page 90 ii. Marxism, Anarchism and the Issue of Universality page 119 iii. Justice to Come and the Micromatic Recoil page144 iv. Chapter Conclusion page 183 Chapter Three page 189 i. An Original Re-Birth? page 191 ii. There Is No Authority, But… : Anarcho-punk page 195 iii. Indie-Pop Ain’t Noise Pollution: The Cutie Movement page 231 iv. Chapter Conclusion page 269 iii Chapter Four page 275 i. Still Birth? page 277 ii. The Arrival of a New, Renegade, Girl-Boy Hyper-Nation: Riot Grrrl page 284 iii. Delivering the Groceries at 128 Beats per Minute: Math Rock page 326 iv. Chapter Conclusion page 366 Conclusion page 369 Bibliography page 389 iv Blank page v Introduction When the word punk is invoked, a majority of people – in the UK, at least – will think of the Sex Pistols, safety pins through the nose and other such bands and signifiers from the late 1970s. The purpose of this research, in large part, is to show that punk has in fact been a persistent and consistent tradition in the decades since. Power and tradition are the two concepts, above all others, which the thesis will assess in the light of the punk case. Four notable micro-scenes from this tradition are explored in case-studies. In each of these micro-scenes, elements of novelty have been apparent and seem to have empowered the participants in the scene precisely by giving them a sense of being subjects with clear differences from the larger tradition. Since this notion of subjectivity is based on a faith in novel difference as qualifier of identity, the thesis will employ philosophical work on difference, novelty and subjectivity in order to critically engage this aspiration. Does bringing something markedly new to the tradition truly empower the punks in their various micro-scenes? Alternatively, could fidelity to tradition perhaps lead to a greater empowerment in which the punk scene could gain greater influence within the macro-scene of popular music as well as, perhaps, encouraging political change in wider macro-social terms? These are the crucial questions of the research, and will necessitate a degree of negotiation between Marxist and anarchistic orientations. Marx and the Marxists, on the one hand, have made a clear commitment to ambitions for macro-social change, as is well known. Anarchism, on the other hand, which many punks and punk bands have claimed as their guiding philosophy, is orientated around the micro-social unit. In some forms of anarchism, including some pronouncements of and slogans from agents within punk scenes as well as particular theories within the wider tradition of anarchism, the ultimate unit for social change is the self. However, in most versions of anarchism, and more often than not in the punk underground which is the central focus of the current thesis, empowerment is sought in groups but in determinedly localised terms. Punks, as we will see, have often aimed to have no leaders and no heroes, and have presumed that restricting the scene to a small, ‘underground’ environment can ensure that this will be enabled. It is natural, then, that the research is heavily concerned with the movement of power within groups, with the problem of pure subjectivity conceived of as perfect individuality and with the possibility (or otherwise) of just power relations between subjects; of a certain justice that is. Being also concerned with the effects of new-ness and/or traditionalism, however, the research simultaneously queries the utility of Marxism’s demand for fidelity to a given strategy for macro-social change: the Marxist strategy, having a well- established and standardised aspiration for universal and total social transformation, perhaps misses the subjective empowerment which a sense of new-ness can engender in individuals, especially youthful individuals (and groups of youthful individuals). Punk, as a tradition, has often veered between anarchist and Marxist strategies, in practice. Around 1977 and also 1991 in particular, but also at other times over the last thirty five years (the rise of ostensibly post-punk 1990s ‘indie’ bands such as Oasis, for example), punk has sometimes appeared as a significant influence on the macro- social or ‘mainstream’ culture; has aspired to a total transformation with a consequently Marxist flavour in the sense that the aspiration is for universal change. From the late 1970s onwards, however, there has also been a persistent and consistent punk underground which has often shown little concern with influencing mainstream vii society and, correlatively, has actively sought a micro-social environment separate to and distinct from the wider society. It is in this underground punk movement that anarchist tendencies have been most strongly advocated and aspired to. Certainly punk has also had strong nihilist tendencies over the last thirty five years, and the existence of right wing tendencies within the punk movement will be acknowledged and discussed in chapter one. In the main, however, punk has insisted that ‘anyone can do it’. 1 Punks will often emphasise the importance of ‘personal politics’ at the expense of ‘Politics with a big P’, and will insist that involvement in punk can afford any person a degree of empowerment. 2 Nevertheless, punk’s underground micro- scenes, in particular, have sometimes been involved in more conventionally ‘political’ movements to differing extents, as will be shown in certain case-studies herein. 3 Punk, in other words, has been involved in both micro- and macro-social politics. 1 For example, Eric Davidson makes reference to punk’s ‘platelet-shifting thesis that “anyone can do it”, We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1998-2001 (Milwaukee: Backbeat, 2010), p.66. 2 As noted by Stephen Duncombe, Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture (London: Verso, 1997), especially chapter eight, ‘The Politics of Alternative Culture’, pp174- 194. See p.186 for a specific distinction between what Duncombe wants to call politics with a little ‘p’ and politics with a big ‘P’. 3 Often this has been at a rhetorical level, such as the perceived spokeswoman for riot grrrl Kathleen Hanna’s claim that ‘I’m into revolution and radicalism and changing the whole structure’ (see chapter four) or cutie-associated group McCarthy’s insistence that ‘my red dream is everything’ (see chapter three). In Hanna’s case, some active involvement in protesting has accompanied her rhetoric; for example, she attended feminist protest rallies from the age of nine onwards, she has claimed. McCarthy’s vocalist Malcolm Eden, by contrast, seems to have eschewed active political engagement, even speaking out in recent years against environmentalists, animal rights protestors and ‘the people who demonstrated in Seattle’ (many of the latter, of course, being rank and file union members; Eden’s position being surprising therefore, since many had thought him a socialist), viii This slogan, anyone can do it , is a vital one in punk, perhaps most commonly voiced in the mid-to-late 1970s. The early UK punk rock was supposed to offer an alternative to the high levels of musical dexterity and relative structural complexity found in the progressive rock which had then been dominant for many years. Punk, unlike ‘prog’, was basic music; a 1977 fanzine notoriously printed guitar tablature for three primary chords with the legend ‘here’s a chord, here’s another, here’s a third, now form a band’ written underneath. 4 Anyone can do it, they say. But what is it ? And when we do it, what are we doing ? Who, furthermore, is anyone ? Can we simply accept that the one of ‘anyone’ is as easily locatable as the epithet anyone can do it would seem to imply? These are critical questions with which this study is intended to engage. By asking them, I attempt to gain insight into the nature and transmission of power and tradition, the two crucial areas of enquiry. If a musical environment could be created in which anyone – absolutely anyone – could perform; if that environment lacked all value judgements, so that no-one would offer a critical http://lacewings.wordpress.com/ . The punk group which has been most actively involved in larger political movements – particularly CND, which they are often said to have enormously revitalised in the late 1970s – is Crass (see chapter three). 4 Reproduced in Savage, Jon, England’s Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and Beyond (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993), p.280. Each chord is accompanied by a guitar ‘tab’ for an open- position major chord. It is worth pointing out that Savage attributes the page to Sideburns zine, not the more famous Sniffin’ Glue fanzine which is often erroneously accredited with this hilarious piece of advice on ‘playin’ in the band… first and last in a series’. ix opinion on anyone else’s performance; if each performance within the environment offered some idiosyncratic characteristics, some statement of the elusive element ‘individuality’: could we say that in such an environment, anyone can do it? In a sense, the anyone can do it formula proposes a possibility for an environment in which all power is absolutely dispersed.