90's punk

[Paul Murphy]

Andrew Dinn writes:

>I guess that the grunge scene was fuelled by a similar sort of
>rejection and similar embrace of difference as punk, only the
>social/class background really doesn't equate. And anyway, grunge was
>still guitar bands, lots of feedback and noise but still most of it
>essentially boys wanking off.

Kim Gordon, Kim Deal, even Courtney would demur with this analysis, not to
mention the brilliant British PJ Harvey. As for being 'just guitar bands',
the sonic quality of some of the best music produced (SY, MBV) resists easy
reduction. And if you want to get into social / class background, the punk
scene in the 80's was too diverse to be neatly analyzed in these terms --
just ask the Bad Brains.

 Contrast it with the UK rave and dance
>music scene which has no heroes but still manages mass dissent.

I'm very ambivalent about this statement -- it seems to harbour just as
much mass conformity as it does dissent, revolving as much around fashion
and drugs as it does politics. The music itself seems dedicated to the
liquidation of the ego and to total regression to the pre-linguistic --
lose your mind, rather than free your mind, which is illusory emancipation
to me.

Cheers,
Paul