The Problem With ‘Punk’

AKA THERE ISN’T REALLY A PROBLEM WITH PUNK BUT WHO COULD RESIST THAT TITLE?

In Sydney at the moment, there’s a residential warehouse where a group of music fans get together and hold shows. They have a mailing list they use to announce the shows but they don’t advertise or promote. The whole operation is extremely streamlined, down to the point where three people can book this event on an ongoing basis without serious interruption to their everyday lives. And it’s very popular within a small circle of gig-goers, a success. It sells out.

Not long ago, they booked an Australian Idol contestant to play. 

So these are not harsh noise house parties.

This is something else entirely.

This type of activity is not punk but it is a result of resistance and a desire for autonomy. These people very deliberately looked at the loud, calamitous Sydney live music scene around them and said, ‘No, we want something different.’

Then they went ahead and made it happen.

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This is happening everywhere.

All over the world. Every city I’ve visited as a researcher has some sort of grass-roots performance space. Increasingly, these spaces are not solely about fast guitar-based music. There are collectives and groups documenting these sites, archiving things. Histories and futures are being laid down by people who are bored, creative and motivated.

I’m always reading the history books at work. The more I look, the more this theme keeps popping up, time and again. It’s kind of how the wider circulation of contemporary music got started: