By Bryony Vander Wilp
Back in the 1970s, when the Sex Pistols announced concert dates, communities would protest against the group performing in their town. Things have changed since then.
On Feb. 22, a tour of punk bands is playing at Barrymore’s on Bank Street, but no one is objecting to these artists’ arrival.
The tour, organized by Fat Wreck Chords, includes bands No Use for a Name and Mad Caddies, among others.
Murielle Varhelyi, the tour promoter, says the bands coming to Barrymore’s are totally different from traditional punk music, so they no longer outrage the public.
Varhelyi says the groups have a Californian skater style. The music is aggressive but the group members do not conform to the traditional punk image.
The bands closely resemble their fan base, which is primarily made up of people 14 to 25 years old, who come from middle-class, suburban backgrounds.
The lack of community outrage is mainly due to a change in the music. Punk music isn’t considered as threatening as it used to be.
Lia Kiessling, an employee at Record Runner and punk enthusiast, says punk started out as a genre of music which questioned traditional beliefs and focused on forging your own path in life.
Today, mainstream punk music is not the same.
“It’s power pop,” says Kiessling, “the music is good but, it doesn’t teach you anything.”
Kiessling says mainstream punk has lost its politics and no longer embodies the fundamental beliefs of the genre.
“It’s normal pop. I want a girlfriend. I want a boyfriend stuff.”
She also says the music has become more melodic and easier on the ears in order to sell better.
“It is hard to listen to [true] punk. People should think about why the music is sounding the way it does. What message it’s giving.”
Jennifer Dobbie, host of Cherry Bomb, a punk and ska music show on CKCU 93.1 FM says the change in punk is because a new generation of people is producing the music.
“They are coming from suburbia, so that’s who they’re playing to,” says Dobbie.
She believes punk artists from the ’70s dealt with issues that affected them personally; issues such as poverty, sexism and racism. Newer punk bands may have a token punk song with a political message, says Dobbie, but the rest of the album strays from punk beliefs.
Dobbie also says both old and new punk bands who hit mainstream shift political issues to the backburner.
She stresses there has always been a separation of true punk and commercial punk, though the gap is larger today.
“There’s always been an underground and a separate group who [play punk] because they can cash in on it.”
Kiessling agrees that true punk artists are often underground but says that punk pop groups shouldn’t really be called punk. She says though the message and the sound has changed a lot, groups like Green Day or those on the Fat Wreck Chords tour were labeled punk because it was the only sound that fit.
Kiessling says the new style of punk pop is detrimental to punk music but she understands why the sound has changed.
“It is very easy to listen to mainstream.”