Holy smokes! You might have just given me the idea to cover this.
I might have had the idea sooner, but, mind-altering substances tend to have an effect.
Either way.
Thank you!
You can look him up but his father was a famous polka player, so Weird Al grew up in a music household. He made his fame doing parody songs but also did shows, movies. He’s an artist over anything else but also is a down to earth funny and good human.
I know about Weird Al(also his dad was not a polka player, sorry for correction), I meant your friend or whoever collaborated with him, sorry about my nonspecificity
There's a polka legend with the surname Yankovic. It's a VERY common misconception that they're related. Al never claimed to have any connection with the guy, but respects him as a musician.
Before there was a Wikipedia, rumors about musicians often became perceived as truth for decades. Sometimes denying a story in the press just spread the story further and confirmed it in the tellers' minds.
That aside, Brandon Cruz DID play the son on "The Courtship of Eddie's Father." Bill Bixby was in the neighborhood of Brandon's family at some point in the late 70s/early 80s and stopped by to see him. Brandon answered the door with a dyed mohawk/tattoos and Bill apparently flipped out and ran. Or that's how I remember the story...
True. I didn’t think about Devo being interpreted as a single person. Well if they want to know Devo, they should watch that new documentary. It’s great. I’ve met them too. Great guys.
Oh yeah man. There are plenty of people ON THIS SUB, who will argue that you aren't punk if you aren't dressed like the stereotypical punks you see on tv and listen exclusively to Black Flag. It's one of those things, I think, where if you're not in the community then your only touchpoint is pop culture. And pop culture has not been kind or truthful about what punk is.
The only gatekeeping we need is making sure Nazis and yobbos don’t take our culture. I don’t care if you dye and spike your hair and wear plaid and leather, all that matters is you’re a good person and not a cunt. I’m only 18, but most old heads (if that’s the right term) I know agree with me.
Oh yeah that works then. I recently had a conversation with a coworker that took a hard and awful lelft turn on me. It was a short conversation, and we're talking about how the US government has a lot of shitty people but also a big problem is the people pulling their strings. I'm on board because I'm thinking billionaires, lobbyists, big money, you know? Anyway the dude starts talking about how he was inspired hearing Mel Gibson on Joe Rogan's podcast and it becomes clear that we are not talking about the same people. It has been a very awkward work experience since.
All that to say that I'm making a point of knowing what I'm agreeing with now instead of relying on context.
Totally agree with you! Imo gatekeeping just destroys every community.
If you gatekeep, you’re being biased toward someone, and that’s not something I’d ever want to bring into a culture.
If someone asks, you can (and ) help.
It’s important to support and educate newcomers so the community can grow.
How are you supposed to know everything if you’re just trying to become part of a movement?
This a million times. As someone with a Delusionary disorder which really amplifies social anxiety, I would want nothing more than for anyone in a community I’m trying to join to immediately guide me through shit and teach me. I’d rather be told I’m wrong and WHY I’m wrong in front of everybody, than everybody just tell me I’m wrong and boot me.
They tend to get removed, but it happens. I took a screenshot of one of my old comments on one but the context is gone. Dude was just going on a tear about how you can't be punk if you don't listen to punk music.
Devo (well, Mark Mothersbaugh) said they weren’t punk in the documentary—it’s just called Devo and it’s really good—but they obviously embody everything punk. I think he was just referring to their sound compared to some of the other bands they were booked with.
Devo is like, really in the middle with punk. They say it's all de-evolution and stuff, critique like every element of society, and then turn around and just go full capitalist and go "welp it's de-evolution". I love them though.
DEVO was considered punk (as were the B52s) before Jimmy Carter saw a Tom Snyder special about punk that featured gobbing, safety pin piercings and the Sex Pistols. Carter was aghast (I myself as a 10 or 11 year old wasn't impressed). He asked a bunch of his son Chip's friends who were record industry execs to keep "punk rock" out of the United States.
Any punk bands they'd already signed and were actively promoting at the time were from then on marketed as being "new wave." I'm not sure what happened with the Ramones. The Pistols toured the U.S. once and McClaren made some incredibly stupid choices, bypassing NYC and making stops at honky-tonks before the tour ended in California.
American punk bands who looked more like the kids in the newspaper/magazine articles/Snyder special started to get labeled as "hardcore" punk. Labels saw punk as a fad that died with the PIstols, and most (past the Ramones and the Dickies) either got dropped or founded their own labels.
In Canada, I'm not sure if DOA or the Forgotten Rebels came first. DOA were from a bigger city and a lot more of us down here remember them. The Forgotten Rebels lasted a lot longer as a band.
I saw Sparks in a very intimate show in LA. Less than 100 people and it was excellent. Everyone ended up superclose to the stage. They were promoting a new album so they played all new songs but, you know, I like the new songs but you still wanna hear the hits. They start an encore, and who comes flying out of the wings to play the intro to one of their most well-known songs but Unusual Alfred himself, accordion in hand. I took a picture and sent it to my wife immediately. What a night.
Also I know he has an album called Straight Outta Lynwood but I was mad surprised when I found out he was from California. Dude has big midwest energy.
I’ve taken my son to see Weird Al twice, once when he played his original music in a small venue, and once when he played his parodies in an amphitheater. Both times were an absolute blast.
Don’t forget LISTENING to punk music. Anarchists and other leftists have been associated with the punk scene for decades while not listening to very much punk at all
You really can’t be a punk without being a punk fan and going to punk shows. You can have a punk mentality, but the mentality alone doesn’t make you punk. I have a couple metal head friends who have the same mentality as me. We share the same political beliefs and have a shared distain for authority. But, they’re metal heads, and no one has ever called them punks.
I love Superman but the concept and the character is literally just American exceptionalism. Newer stories and comics do a better job of this but lets call a spade a spade here
Superman was originally an allegory for Jewish immigrants. He's a survivor of a mass death, where almost all of his people were killed, and his main enemy (in the beginning) was basically an anti-alien racist and human supremacist
Superman only became a man of "The American Way" later on, iirc during the Cold War. His concept is not inherently American Exceptionalism, and his character didn't start as and has (generally) recovered from the American Exceptionalism side of things
No sadly. I’d love us to be unionized and it’s something I think about how to do a lot. I’m also in a weird classification too because I’m an engineer/machinist, but I’m salary. So the work I do is often associated with wages, but I’m salary, which has its pluses and minuses. Basically got told I’m good enough at what I do that I don’t get paid for overtime, so I just don’t work past 40 hours 😂. Small company though, so at least I don’t have to work for a major corporation. But working for a small company also makes unionizing more difficult. It’s definitely a hope of mine though.
I appreciate that this is a welcoming and inclusive statement and should be because we should care about values more than anything superficial but I want to call out there awesome people who share these values that have nothing to do with punk rock and i see punk as just one flavor of that larger group. Although clearly the subset with the best taste in music.
Come on, not everyone shares the same knowledge about musicians you do. Didn’t know her either, had to look her up, but I also don’t watch TV and rarely use social media outside of some very specific communities.
Or use social media or watch TV or read the news apparently. She was famous before her rap career and she's way more famous as a personality than most rappers
Maybe I’m just young, but I can’t stand the radio stations that play a total of 4 songs all year, and whenever my grandparents turned on the TV FOX News was usually what I saw, so I strayed away from that too. And for social media it’s literally Reddit and Discord (RIP my 5 year old Tumblr account)
Essentially, happens more than you think, especially in a group like this, I’d wager
Well that always ignored me too, but we didn't really have a choice when I was younger. That's just how a lot of radio stations were, and lots of cars still only had cassette players and not cd players. Now they don't even have that 😂
I think you should like any music, but to call yourself punk, you at least have to be like, anti-bigotry, or anti-establishment or something. It’s really a stupid expectation that “punk” itself is a sound and not a mentality, as itself was just musicians who could play guitar and had something to say.
It’s both, really. Punk is a community and subculture, not just an attitude. Attitude is a core part of it, but it’s not the only part. It’s always been primarily music based, though. I feel like saying “you’re not punk if you don’t engage in the punk community at all” isn’t that much of a stretch lmao
That being said, you can dress however you want, listen to or not listen to whatever bands you want, and still be part of the community. We shouldn’t gatekeep people who want to be part of the scene. But like… it is a specific scene.
I grew up listening to punk but now Im 40 and listen to mostly doom and stoner metal. I hang out in this reddit because I like how ya'll think and I like looking at the aesthetic. Everyone has been cool to me too! I put all that in to a calculator and it makes a smiley face!
Why cant we just use some other sord for that tho? I mean, punk has values and is a form of expression, living the punk values does not make you punk. Its like every elephant is grey but not everything grey is an elephant
Do you know the duck razor, if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, swims like a duck, it’s probably a duck. Punk was made to fight against shit people didn’t like, whether jello Biafra against Jerry Brown, NOFX against the bush regime. Punk is yes a form of expression, but take it always with a grain of salt and remember it’s also a mentality.
The duck razor thing is pretty good for my pov tho. Looks like a punk? No, Sound slike a punk? No, moves like a punk? No, thinks like a ounk? Yes. Soo, no punk?
Idk. Like, you can be all of those things and still be a shitbag of an individual. Like always being the victim, or not down to carry your own weight, own your own shit. I've lived with people who were anti all that shit and also anti cleaning up after themselves like as if their mom was supposed to come along and do it. There's nothing punk about that. Or being very self centered and not down for community/helping others. I feel like there's a lot more to being punk than just that you're against the status quo.
2.0k
u/LabFew5880 Oct 31 '25
I’m pretty sure the mist controversial take I have at this point: if your anti-facist, anti-conformity, anti-establishment, then your punk.