Bored with nothing to do, I decided to go into Tower Records. Unsure of what I wanted, I made a radical change of music I bought that day. I walked into a random section of the store and picked up a few CDs based on their album artwork. When I got home I placed the CD in my computer and proceed to lesion. To my surprise I like the music. It was completely different from what I had heard before. The music was fast and heavy and the lyrics that followed with it were meaningful and placed smartly to add meaning to the song. The genre was Punk.

Punk rock is an anti establishment music genre that started to rise fame in the mid 70s and stay popular until the end of the 80s. The genre was meant to stay in the underground and not reach popularity according to an online punk rock magazine called punknews.org.   Since the 1990’s Punk has hit the mainstream. Since then we have seen a lot of bands like Anti-Flag, Against me, and The Unseen hit the stage and sing about government issues, social conformity and unjust happenings in the world. Although there message maybe positive, people find that these bands are sellout bands and hypocrites for signing with a major label and writing lyrics about how money dose America no good. Anti-Flag reached position 130 on the billboard charts and The Unseen reached position 34. Both bands music videos are passed in mainstream music channels like MTV and VH1.  Many feel that mainstream bands give punk a bad name. “Mainstream Punk bands are just in it for the money, just take a look at the Dead Kennedys before 1992 they were never on MTV and they had a huge following.” Says Michael a once fan of the culture. H as the loss of popularity of the culture since the 80s what killed the culture? Or is it alive in the underground like many felt it should have always stayed.

Punk first started arising in the 70s its not really clear who started the movement. It was unlike what any one had heard at the time. Metal was at the top of the charts and those who hated the sound were drawn to this new experience. The subculture first appeared in New York City, where bands like The Ramones were highly credited for helping start the movement. By the early 80s the UK had an emerging punk band that would later help play a huge part in the punk culture. The Band was the Sex Pistols. At the time many young people in the UK felt like they where going no where and it was the fault of their own government. According to punk77.co.uk a website dedicated to the Punk in the UK in the 70s. The Sex Pistols saw this as a problem and had anti-establishment lyrics in their music. It was a complete change from the punk heard a few years earlier; people recognized this as second generation punk. It changed the face of punk and from that from that point on almost all punk bands sing about government unjust or social problems effecting everyday life. As the 80s came to an end many bands had to end up doing most the work themselves (booking, touring, CD sells) many bands figured there already doing the work themselves and they’re against the government and against the main stream a huge ethic came to play in the culture. “Do it yourself (D.I.Y) is what many punks now say is a huge part of punk. If a band is with a major label, they are not considered punk even though their music may sound like it. ” Says Joey a bookkeeper at 942 Gilman Street and a fan of the punk culture..  Many people have fought over this ideal and even got to the extent to harm others. of the people they once idolized because they “sold out” to a major label. At 924 Gilman Street a very famous punk by the name of Jello Biafra, was beaten during and show a later had to be hospitalized. The people who beat him up dragged him to the ground and kicked him screaming words like “sell out” and “you play corporate rock!”. “Now many people see as the genre dead because of the loss of attention to the culture and the once hardcore bands in the 80s broke up or sold out”. Michael says. Not many locations were punk band stand any more. In New York there was a huge venue for punk’s called CBGB’s in New York that respected that the Ramones first played there but after a while it got torn down. Not many remain, but here in the bay area one still exist.
             924 Gilman Street located in Berkley and is a venue of alternative music and non mainstream music. It’s an all age’s venue and volunteered run for non-profit. On December 31, 1986, Gilman hosted their first show and since then it has been the longest independent non profit club. According to Areal a bookkeeper at 924 Gilman. The rules are strict and simple. The staff will not book racist, misogynistic or homophobic bands. The band must be on an independent label and can not have been on major label at any point in there career. It runs on a D.I.Y ethic, many bands that had previously played there like Green Day and Rancid have been banned from playing at Gilman because of “selling out” to a major label. Today Gilman stands as a land mark for many punks. The workers there acknowledge that many punks come here from all over the world because of it reputation. Joey a staff member of 924 Gilman sees many people from across the world to see the venues. “I see many people from Japan come here and one time someone from Australia came here he said he didn’t know who was playing that night but he just really wanted visit this landmark.” Many people from around the bay come to see the show when a major band comes to play. A few weeks ago Plan 9 and Star Fucking Hipsters, two well know punk bands came to play at Gilman. “When you first walk into the venue you’ll see a sign that says max limit 247 people, but we easily had over 700 people crammed to watch that show that night,” Joey says. Gilman stands as a landmark for many because it’s one of the last standing punk venues. It has built a reputation since the culture began to pick up in the mid 1980s.

With the rise of punk and the D.I.Y ethic growing, many felt that D.I.Y was key in order to maintain the punk culture. During the 90s, many of the bands they felt were once punk had lost this reputation and now are black listed by many in the culture as sell outs. Bands like Green Day and Blink 182 are what many people consider Pop Punk. “Many people think there punk because they ay listen to Pop Punk bands like rancid or Against Me.” Aerial Says. They bring a high amount of unwanted attention to the culture. When Green Day released their CD American Idiot it received a lot of attention from MTV and VH1 and was considered a controversial because It covered political topics. Even band members them self said they were happy with the new CD because it dealt with topics no other bands want to cover. But other hardcore punk bands such as Leftover crack have dealt with the subject matter on hand since there start of there career. With song titles such as “Feed The Children (Book of Lies)” and “One Dead Cop” these underground bands never receive attention from the media because of the practice of D.I.Y. With No major label showing them the direction, they have to go they feel they have there own freedom to go in the direction they chose. With no attention from the media for small band like these it’s easy to never hear of them. They may be small bands but are still well known in the culture. The underground punk scene since the 80s still lives on but since the spotlight was moved from the culture its easy to believe the culture has died unless you search hard for it.
           
With the increase of bands that signing with major labels it brings an unwanted attention to the culture. Many people begin to discover this with bands like Green Day. But what’s so bad about more people liking the genre? The meaning of punk has always been hard to define. Punk slowly developed all over the world and never really had a single meaning. With new generations listening to the music of commercial punk slowly begins to lose the D.I.Y ethic.” Punk has lost a lot of it meaning many of my friends don’t care for D.I.Y. and are into many Pop Punk bands that are with major labels.” Michael says. Many of the new followers of the culture tend to not understand what is looked upon and what’s not. I was discussing the topic with my friend Joseph a listener to the Pop Punk Genre. “Punk is not about D.I.Y the trend changes from generation to generation.” He continued to insist that D.I.Y was not a huge part of punk and that many bands like Green Day were a hardcore punk band because of their style but not there message. Many of my other friends have their own beliefs of what the punk culture is about.  They try to incorporate all the adaptations of the genre since the start of the culture. With punks divided and fighting, the unity of the culture is slowly disappearing. With the argument with no clear answer because there’s no defined meaning and with a wave of new generations attracted to the music its no wonder why many consider punk dead. It’s lost its originally meaning behind it because of all the bands selling out and bringing unwanted attention. “The punk in the main stream has died and will stay dead because of the way it’s seen in the media; the lack of attention from the scene in the underground is the another reason why the mainstream sees its dead, no one knows it still exists”. Michael stated.
Although the genre has lost it meaning, is the culture dead? When was at 924 Gilman street, I saw many punks still come out to watch the shows. The employees at Gilman they felt that D.I.Y was key to the culture. “I think that punks alive and thriving but the mainstream says it’s dead.” Joey commented. Arial, a booker at Gilman, added. “I think that the loss of D.I.Y is hurting the culture and the mainstream says it’s dead but its not; it’s just that the hardcore punk bands that are still around follow this method and are not recognized by the mainstream because of the D.I.Y ethic these bands refuse to be shown on MTV or large scale advertising and no one but the dedicated punks ever hear of them..” There are still plenty of punks in the bay area and Gilman is still proof of that. “I believe this is a landmark for many of the punks come out to watch the shows, there’s not that many punk venues left, I think it’s an important landmark but the most important.”
                       
With a hardcore community still existing underground, the culture is still alive and thriving but the media not view this. “Many people come out here as far as the punks goes, there’s a mixed group that come here, get an immature group that’s all for anarchy They’re rude or we’ll get the other punks, which are more polite and well educated and can defend themselves when talking to serious topics. It defiantly a mixed group of people who follow the culture.” Joey says. Many punk landmarks have been toned down or no longer exist as Gilman standing as one of the few left. Tours like the warp tour that was once a showcase for Punk rock and alternative bands now crawl with the mainstream and Pop Punk. The Culture is alive in other places in the underground but not in the mainstream. The meaning of Punk is completely indefinable it will be a never ending argument between punks. ”At first I use to bothered by that question because It was so general but now I just stopped thinking about it, it causes more harm then good.” Aerial says.
            Punk has not died and is still every much alive. It’s only died because it reached something it was never meant to reach, popularity in the 80’s and a decline in the years that followed. The culture is every much alive but has increasingly died down since the 80’s because of bands that felt the money was more important then the meaning. But even with this increasing argument that will never end of the meaning of punk it has not done much but irritated people and not hurt the community at all. As long as that question resides of the meaning of punk the argument will also.