Punk … for credit

[Dr. Medulla]

So it looks I've got the go-ahead for my punk class next year. While I have a bucketload of ideas for various topics to pursue—far more than music; I'm thinking politics, race, sex, fashion, business, cinema, zine culture, etc—I thought I'd canvas this fine community for possibilities. Feel free to be creative and go wide. Thanks in advance!

[Heston]

criss.jpg (14.26 KiB) Viewed 4663 times

[Marky Dread]

So it looks I've got the go-ahead for my punk class next year. While I have a bucketload of ideas for various topics to pursue—far more than music; I'm thinking politics, race, sex, fashion, business, cinema, zine culture, etc—I thought I'd canvas this fine community for possibilities. Feel free to be creative and go wide. Thanks in advance!

UK punk set out to destroy rock n roll but only ended up affirming it.

The media watering down it's initial impact until it became just another safe product.

It's inspiration and attitude that informed some amazing music that followed.

[Marky Dread]

criss.jpg

Yep he looks like he takes it up the Gary. Definitely a punk.

[revbob]

You must show this:

[gkbill]

So it looks I've got the go-ahead for my punk class next year. While I have a bucketload of ideas for various topics to pursue—far more than music; I'm thinking politics, race, sex, fashion, business, cinema, zine culture, etc—I thought I'd canvas this fine community for possibilities. Feel free to be creative and go wide. Thanks in advance!

UK punk set out to destroy rock n roll but only ended up affirming it.

The media watering down it's initial impact until it became just another safe product.

It's inspiration and attitude that informed some amazing music that followed.

Hello,

I think Marky's idea of learning how the record/music business hated/mocked punk initially, then approved of it when it saw the financial potential behind it important for students to understand - Malcolm's (and others') Cash from Chaos ethic. Art becomes product in many cases.

[Marky Dread]

You must show this:

Yep and that Sumner of Sam movie where the key character loves The Who.

[Dr. Medulla]

So it looks I've got the go-ahead for my punk class next year. While I have a bucketload of ideas for various topics to pursue—far more than music; I'm thinking politics, race, sex, fashion, business, cinema, zine culture, etc—I thought I'd canvas this fine community for possibilities. Feel free to be creative and go wide. Thanks in advance!

UK punk set out to destroy rock n roll but only ended up affirming it.

The media watering down it's initial impact until it became just another safe product.

It's inspiration and attitude that informed some amazing music that followed.

Hello,

I think Marky's idea of learning how the record/music business hated/mocked punk initially, then approved of it when it saw the financial potential behind it important for students to understand - Malcolm's (and others') Cash from Chaos ethic. Art becomes product in many cases.

Yeah, I'd like to try to set aside one class for some kind of comparison between how majors have treated punk versus indie labels like Dischord or AT, chiefly to ask whether there is a meaningful punk business approach. Contrasting it with mainstream labels would aid that.

[revbob]

So, why punk? As in why do people make this sort of music, what are their motives? , same for the listeners. Why do you listen to it? Obviously you have a ton of ground to cover. Will the class be offered online? That would be cool.

[Dr. Medulla]

So, why punk? As in why do people make this sort of music, what are their motives? , same for the listeners. Why do you listen to it?

That's the basic premise. If punk means more than just music—that it reflects a worldview and behaviour and expression—then what does it mean to each student, and what does it offer society more generally? I have my own ideas, but that's not the point. I want to encourage students to think widely—what is a punk politics or activism? what is a punk fashion? what is a punk cinema? etc etc—to treat the concept as more than just music. I'm keen on this because I'm teaching in an interdisciplinary program, and I could never do something like this in a strict department. So I really want students to be creative. One of my ideas for a research project is, rather than a standard term paper, to have them construct a zine on a subject that means a lot to them. That is, apply punk expression. How I'd grade something that would be tough, tho (what standards could I apply?).

Obviously you have a ton of ground to cover. Will the class be offered online? That would be cool.

It'll be a seminar format—reading and discussion. Tho I might investigate whether I can do a Skype session with a musician who could speak and do a Q & A.

[Dr. Medulla]

Thought: Can anyone recommend any novels or short stories that they would consider punk? I have a few ideas here, too, but always up for others.

[Kory]

I think a lot about how critical people are of punk bands, considering they were ages 19–22 at the time (14 or whatever in the case of Dee Generate). How much of punk was just youthful idealism/nihilism that sticks with some into adulthood, and how much of it was directly controlled by svengalis/media/record labels? Is the reason we have such trouble clarifying what punk was/is here because it's basically the half-baked ideas of a bunch of kids? I don't know, but it informs almost everything I do.

[101Walterton]

I think a lot about how critical people are of punk bands, considering they were ages 19–22 at the time (14 or whatever in the case of Dee Generate). How much of punk was just youthful idealism/nihilism that sticks with some into adulthood, and how much of it was directly controlled by svengalis/media/record labels? Is the reason we have such trouble clarifying what punk was/is here because it's basically the half-baked ideas of a bunch of kids? I don't know, but it informs almost everything I do.

Everyone was in a band because you didn’t have to be able to play (much) to be a band and have fun. That is why so many young people were involved. Obviously the bands that could play went on to sign deals and release records but that didn’t stop every school kid having a go.

[Kory]

I think a lot about how critical people are of punk bands, considering they were ages 19–22 at the time (14 or whatever in the case of Dee Generate). How much of punk was just youthful idealism/nihilism that sticks with some into adulthood, and how much of it was directly controlled by svengalis/media/record labels? Is the reason we have such trouble clarifying what punk was/is here because it's basically the half-baked ideas of a bunch of kids? I don't know, but it informs almost everything I do.

Everyone was in a band because you didn’t have to be able to play (much) to be a band and have fun. That is why so many young people were involved. Obviously the bands that could play went on to sign deals and release records but that didn’t stop every school kid having a go.

I'm talking more about the ideals of punk as a philosophy (such as it is, whatever it is) rather than the general explosion of bands.

[Dr. Medulla]

I think a lot about how critical people are of punk bands, considering they were ages 19–22 at the time (14 or whatever in the case of Dee Generate). How much of punk was just youthful idealism/nihilism that sticks with some into adulthood, and how much of it was directly controlled by svengalis/media/record labels? Is the reason we have such trouble clarifying what punk was/is here because it's basically the half-baked ideas of a bunch of kids? I don't know, but it informs almost everything I do.

That's pretty much where I am. There's a lot of silly shit in there, but because of that willingness to burn it all to the ground first and then start up, and then you get fresh (and sometimes not fresh) ideas. We're not obliged to accept everything or not be critical. One of the things I've taken from punk—and really pains me to see students not embrace—is the very idea of going in strange directions just to see what happens. I can't say that I've had that many really good ideas, but the ones that I have had were from just following weird ideas and hunches. Christ, I once wrote a really dumb defence of Nixon and Watergate just to follow thru on a goofy idea. It's that rejection of convention and pre-judged authority. I always tell students that I won't pop up in thirty years, just before they become prime minister, to say they had a flaky idea in a seminar. The idea of possibility is what keeps me going, and I credit that to punk.