Music history is definitely prone to that kind of thinking, yes. I'm not even sure I entirely disagree with it but as a strict model it's incredibly simplistic and inaccurate.
^ It's a school of liberal historiography which argues that history is an endless march towards enlightenment.
I should have been clearer. I got the whig history bit, but I'm still getting familiar with music history (I took an introductory college course but it only seems reasonable to downplay that given, well, intro), so I didn't really have a good base for responding but wanted to not-ignore the thread.
The funny thing is, one of the biggest critics of that narrative I can think of is Simon Reynolds, who might be considered the paragon of a similar school of music criticism which Pitchfork has long ridden the coattails of. I might call this whole genre of musical historiography the progress-oriented branch, with Reynolds representing the equivalent to Marxist critique and the likes of Clinton Heylin being more Whiggish. I identify more with the former but both are pretty naff in their own ways.
Fun fact: Blitzkrieg Bop was recorded after they all took nyquil to get over their colds
Or so I assume
it's not even that the songs are bad it's that they are so similar.
Like to a degree that you can't even point that out, because it feels like missing the point. But seriously have you ever heard any two Ramones songs from the same period? They're identical. There's no variation beyond the lyrics and sometimes the enunciation of the words--usually not even that much.
If The Ramones were like The Kingsmen and had a single song to their name it'd be more excusable but people act like the group's entire discography is untouchable which just isn't true.
To be fair they apparently did some stuff with, I think, Phil Spector, later in their career as a group, but no one seems to remember that and I don't think I've ever heard a single song from that period.
"shonen knife but one of them is a republican and there are no songs about being a cat travelling in outer space" is a disappointing band concept tbh imo
I love a lot of punk rock, but the Ramones have a serious issue with sameyness. Some of their work is almost shoegaze in vibe or just completely shambolic, though, which I can appreciate.
Best punk band is the Mekons, though. Fuck you, fite me IRL.
Ramones and Nirvana are generally percieved to have arrived at the right moment to sweep away decadence in the name of Real Rock and Roll
I feel like that perspective isn't too far off, if the writer could just refrain from assigning moral value to the genres and movements. Something like "A lot of people grew discontented with prevailing musical trends. The Ramones and Nirvana broke into the mainstream at the right moment to become the face of new trends, in reaction to the previous ones."
Anyway, my favorite punk band is the Rezillos, I think.
i got into rock via prog and was kind of sceptical about punk for the longest time because i'd heard prog was one of the things it was a backlash against
punk is rock where they yell more, metal is rock where they yell more but you can't hear them over the sound anyway, funk is where you replace the guitar with a synth keyboard, jazz is where you replace the guitar with a saxophone, math rock is rock with no singing and by hipsters, and classical is stuff without drums. that's all the genres
they started out not-folk punk and then they went folk punk and sometimes straight up folk
also they had that poppy phase
they were singing about anarchism the whole time so maybe it's the attitude that makes it punk
I could see them being punk.
I think I could make a half-decent argument that Havalina Rail Co were punk, in that they took the unrestrained do-it-yourself-ery of Sandinista and extended that over their entire career. In which case they'd be my favorite.
oh they were definitely punk to begin with, and still putting out records that sound more punk than anything else long after they released an album that was entirely trad folk
but i think you could argue that there's a consistent anarcho-punk mindset evident in their lyrics throughout
or you could not. genres are fake so it's up to you
It's probably the Dead Kennedys, Adolescents or Early Agnostic Front for me, if we're only counting the Straightforward stuff. If we're counting the more out there stuff, probably Pere Ubu, This Heat and Painkiller. Plus I have a soft spot for The Dropkick Murphys.
Comments
Music history is definitely prone to that kind of thinking, yes. I'm not even sure I entirely disagree with it but as a strict model it's incredibly simplistic and inaccurate.
^ It's a school of liberal historiography which argues that history is an endless march towards enlightenment.
I don't know why I start seeing a lot of people disagreeing with me as a fight, but I do. I'm not sure what I can do about that.
FWIW, I only like their first couple of albums. The joke does get old after a while.
I apologize for getting overly defensive in here. I really do need to work on that.
Best punk band is the Mekons, though. Fuck you, fite me IRL.
If your formula works then stick with it, say I
It's just another cheap product for the consumer's thighs