The death recently of Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys illustrates something sort of interesting; Punk Rock is still relevant almost thirty-five years later. Who would have imagined back in the late Seventies that Punk Rock would still be around in the second decade of the 21st Century?
Back in 1984 there was a movie called Body Rock which starred Lorenzo Lamas as a wannabe rapper. The film attempted to portray Hip Hop culture to the masses the way Saturday Night Fever introduced the Disco Era. In Body Rock one character was a break dancer, one was a “scratch” DJ, another was a graffiti artist and Lorenzo represented rapping.
I actually liked watching break dancers, their dancing was very acrobatic, required a great degree of skill, was imaginative and looked difficult and outright dangerous. I also appreciated scratch DJs who manipulated the turntable to get rhythmic sounds from records that the recording artists never intended and added those to other records to create something completely different and original. I could also appreciate the talent involved in some graffiti art despite it being a form of vandalism. The difference between art and crime was the difference between a canvas and a wall. But rap, which had been around for ages (Muhammad Ali was rapping in the 60s), seemed to require the least amount of creativity and talent. While the rest of the cast of Body Rock actually had to have some skill, Lorenzo, undoubtedly hired for his marquee value, was given the role of rapper since it seemed to take the least amount of skill. Of the four creative aspects of Hip Hop I never dreamed Rapping would be the one to survive and even thrive for thirty years.
The same is true for Punk Rock which seemed as a protest of mainstream rock and roll and wasn’t taken very seriously by anyone other than Punks who were viewed as a fashion trend. Perhaps it is because of the relative ease of playing Punk Rock or Rapping and the extremely low bar as far as a standard of quality for these forms that has helped them survive. After all, it’s often the simple life forms such as the cockroach that is the heartiest survivor.
I’m not saying there is not some talent working in Rap and Punk as both have evolved over the decades and Rap in particular has become very eloquent and sophisticated. Punk, however, when developed too far becomes something else like Green Day which has transcended Punk to Pop and now even Musical Theater. Like a virus, some Punk has metamorphosed completely out of being into something different, yet Punk in it’s raw form still survives and I find that surprising.
Back in 1984 there was a movie called Body Rock which starred Lorenzo Lamas as a wannabe rapper. The film attempted to portray Hip Hop culture to the masses the way Saturday Night Fever introduced the Disco Era. In Body Rock one character was a break dancer, one was a “scratch” DJ, another was a graffiti artist and Lorenzo represented rapping.
I actually liked watching break dancers, their dancing was very acrobatic, required a great degree of skill, was imaginative and looked difficult and outright dangerous. I also appreciated scratch DJs who manipulated the turntable to get rhythmic sounds from records that the recording artists never intended and added those to other records to create something completely different and original. I could also appreciate the talent involved in some graffiti art despite it being a form of vandalism. The difference between art and crime was the difference between a canvas and a wall. But rap, which had been around for ages (Muhammad Ali was rapping in the 60s), seemed to require the least amount of creativity and talent. While the rest of the cast of Body Rock actually had to have some skill, Lorenzo, undoubtedly hired for his marquee value, was given the role of rapper since it seemed to take the least amount of skill. Of the four creative aspects of Hip Hop I never dreamed Rapping would be the one to survive and even thrive for thirty years.
The same is true for Punk Rock which seemed as a protest of mainstream rock and roll and wasn’t taken very seriously by anyone other than Punks who were viewed as a fashion trend. Perhaps it is because of the relative ease of playing Punk Rock or Rapping and the extremely low bar as far as a standard of quality for these forms that has helped them survive. After all, it’s often the simple life forms such as the cockroach that is the heartiest survivor.
I’m not saying there is not some talent working in Rap and Punk as both have evolved over the decades and Rap in particular has become very eloquent and sophisticated. Punk, however, when developed too far becomes something else like Green Day which has transcended Punk to Pop and now even Musical Theater. Like a virus, some Punk has metamorphosed completely out of being into something different, yet Punk in it’s raw form still survives and I find that surprising.
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