this has been sitting on my harddrive for a few days...sorry if the nytimes link doesn't work, they've been cracking down on archived articles these days:
Just when I thought it was safe to read the Times...Michael Azerrad's
terribly two-dimensional sob story on how nu-metal, what he calls
'therapy rock' and i call 'camp counselor punk,' is giving depression
drug-addeled, suburban wastoids 'earnest' advice about suicide (a la
good charlotte's 'hold on' video, which is in and of itself a rip off
of soul asylum's 'runaway train'). How could a guy who spent so much of
his life writing 'our band could be your life call punk "a movement
founded by a tiny coterie of troubled misfits and outcasts. The
pioneering Southern California punk band Black Flag's landmark 1978
debut EP was called "Nervous Breakdown" and themes of insanity,
alienation and depression have been a hallmark of punk lyrics ever
since."
Funny, I thought both hardcore and other punk, including the "the
up-and-coming "emo" genre," which Mr. Azerrad describes to
purse-clutching grannies who of course have never heard of punk even in
the Times even with Powers, Reynolds, etc writing about it FOREVER,
well, I thought we had all moved a little past that to maybe...social
change? community? organization? sexual, identity, gender, racial
politics? grassroots organizing, distribution and alternative networks
of communication, economy and lifestyle? And...not sounding like 1980?
Hello Minor Threat, Fugazi, Nation of Ulysses, Rage Against the
Machine, Calvin Johnson, Op Ivy, Kathleen Hanna, all of riot grrrl,
most ska...Touch & Go, Mr. Lady, Dischord, Kill Rock Stars, 31G,
Troubleman Unlimited, Gravity, Victory, Lookout! Fat Wreck Chords,
MoonSka...
"As a result therapy rockers fetishize depression like gangsta rappers
fetishize the thug life, publicizing their plight while asserting their
credibility. Just as the group Public Enemy once called rap the "CNN of
the streets," therapy rock claims to report from the front lines of
suburbia. In other words, it's cool to be bummed out. And it sure sells
records."
How about getting over thy self, as Mr. Manson suggested in "Bowling
for Columbine," and taking a look at the cause of teen suicide, not the
prevention networks, the huggy public service announcements, and bowing
down to big pharma to solve basic problems in the American school
system, pressures to succeed academically, repressive conformist,
materialist teens and (hello, all the bands Azerrad talk about are VERY
aggro, very male in spite of their mall punk chic and painted on tears)
pressures of nascent sexuality unaddressed by the screwed up Christian
right that preaches abstinence as the only form of birth control. At
least bands like Manson's critique the culture instead of continuing
the victim culture without any solution but 'wait til college, bro.'
Psychologists, said that although he devoutly wished parents and
schools were more involved, he approved of rock bands counseling young
people about depression and related issues.
"Bless their hearts," he said. "It certainly goes a long from talking
about killing bitches and whores and cops and everything else doesn't
it? If kids listen to rock music more than they listen to a teacher in
a classroom, God bless us that they're getting the message." >
And of course Azerrad ends the piece with a mildly racist pro-rock
statement from some talking head who thinks that 20 year old dudes who
urge girls to take of their shirts at the Warped Tour (blink 182)
should be 'role models' and 'spokespersons' for the dangerous, very
real problem of teen suicide. Way to pass the buck while simultaniously
giving voice to the redneck anxieties of the culturally repressed
'adult world' which you are so desperate to explain all this 'angry
music' to, Mr. Azerrad. I'm glad I bought your book on half.com so you
didn't get any of my money.
