To anyone who reads this blog with even odd regularity, you will know that I am a big music fan and really feel that it can contribute to one's life in ways that no other medium can. I make these assessments based off of my own experiences with music and the attachment I develop to certain musical stylings, artists, and messages. This post is going to be about how music has been a major impetus for me to become aware of and engaging in social and political causes. I am going to discuss my association with punk music and the bands that I identify with the genre.
Like any term, word, or idea, "punk" is open to individual interpretation. I define punk music as a rhythmic style and lyrical composition that deals with issues and topics not normally found in the normal (or mainstream) music scene. Punk music deals with themes, ideas, emotions, and issues not typically heard on the average radio or television station. The genre can exercise these qualities within any given political, social, or cultural context, but usually it comes from more leftist and socially conscious artists. It is created by those artists who are not afraid to be different from what is popular and accepted by the norm and in indeed many hope to demonstrate how what is accepted is not always what is best. They find value in deviancy and social critique as without it there would be no way to know if our society is a good and moral one. Major themes or ideas of the punk music I listen to include: anti-corporate control, anti-government hegemony, anti-war, pro-social services, pro-environmental protection, pro-education, and pro-equality, and pro-human rights (among others) all under the call for individuals to play an active role in their society so to bring about positive change. At its core, being punk is about being true to yourself and not accepting the norms and standards being imposed by others, while oftentimes advancing a particular social/political ideology or worldview. I feel that this broad definition of punk fits well within the contemporary punk music scene as demonstrated by all the various subgenres that have emerged since the term "punk" became a way of describing music in the mid-1970s. Being punk and punk music can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people and like any art form it can be expressed and interpreted in many ways.
Punk music (in some form or another) has been a part of my music scene ever since I was able to make independent decisions about what kind of music I wanted to listen to. I became introduced to punk music through one of it's subgenres, the type of music commonly referred to as "pop-punk". Like many others, some of the fondest bands of my youth were pop-punk acts like Sum 41 and Blink-182. Sum 41 in particular played an important role in the development of my affinity for the genre. I loved (and still love) their 2001 album All Killer No Filler and it was the first album where I had eventually memorized the lyrics to every song.
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| Cover for All Killer No Filler. One of my all-time favourite albums. |
90s/early 21st century pop-punk is all well and good, with some of my favourite bands having emerged from this era of music but it wasn't until my mid-teens when punk took on a new and arguably more profound meaning for me. It was at this time when I began listening to music for more than mere entertainment or emotional outlet. It sparked an awakening within me and allowed me to find an way to express - or in the very least reflect on - all the daily issues of the world that seemed so horrible that the idea of lasting, meaningful resolutions was always out of reach. This music offered a different interpretation of world events from what I was being taught in school and through the news media. The importance of this music is that it not only brought a new awareness to world issues, it offered an outlet for socio-political identification and activism. By offering a different perspective of the world, this music effectively changed my world view and moved me to act on this new awareness. This transformation all began one typical high school day in an Applied Technology class when a friend of mine recommended I check out the album For Blood and Empire by a little band called Anti-Flag.
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| Anti-Flag. |
Broadly speaking, For Blood and Empire was an album heavily criticizing the then 5-year long War on Terror being waged by the United States under President Bush. Political criticism in music was not all that new to me at the time (Green Day's American Idiot had released two years prior and blew up in popularity for all music listeners, mainstream or not) but what made Anti-Flag's album different (and therefore more appealing) to me was how many of the songs were devoted to more than just criticism of American foreign policy. The album contains songs about the failure of modern journalism as an adequate source of unbiased news reporting, unfair immigration policies, the ever-growing corporate power in modern America, neoconservative political agendas, the financial cost of America's wars, the World Trade Organization, CIA operations in countries that don't agree to the (then) global U.S. economic hegemony, as well as rock-anthems about how we need to and can change this current (and ever-worsening) situation.
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| Anti-Flag's For Blood and Empire. One of the most influential and important albums I've ever come across. |
Through the album and its music I was able to learn about these issues, something that I'm not sure would have happened otherwise. Anti-Flag can be tied directly to my awareness of and association with the socio-political activist organizations Democracy Now!, PETA, Military Free Zone, and Amnesty International, and like a domino effect these groups led me to similar organizations (many of which I continue to follow to this day). While Anti-Flag wasn't the only musical catalyst that spurred the social activist within me (I also began to really get into bands like Rise Against around the same time) there is no doubt that they've played a major role.
I currently have an extra 5 years added onto my life since I first heard about Anti-Flag, and while my world view has developed further and changed during that time, I still agree with many of the social and political issues advanced by the band and bands like them. I might express these views differently today (as opposed to being the first itching to go to a protest I might write a nice political paper) they still are at the core of my political and ideological beliefs. While I am not sure if it was the music of bands like Anti-Flag that definitively stirred me into my current view of the world or if I latched onto their music as an affirmation of views previously held, I am happy to identify myself as someone who listens to and enjoys punk music. The scene, the messages, the ideology, and ultimately the bands have all played an important role in how I've developed as a human being and for that I am thankful and appreciative.
Watch:
Music video for "This Is The End (For You My Friend)" off For Blood and Empire
Music video for Sum 41's "Fatlip" off All Killer No Filler - a blast from the past for Sum fans!
Listen:
"Entertainment" by Rise Against - inspiration for this blog post
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