Punk Productions

Stacy Thompson

Description

Stacy Thompson's Punk Productions offers a concise history of punk music and combines concepts from Marxism to psychoanalysis to identify the shared desires that punk expresses through its material productions and social relations. Thompson explores all of the major punk scenes in detail, from the early days in New York and England, through California Hardcore and the Riot Grrrls, and thoroughly examines punk record collecting, the history of the Dischord and Lookout! record labels, and 'zines produced to chronicle the various scenes over the years. While most analyses of punk address it in terms of style, Thompson grounds its aesthetics, and particularly its most combative elements, in a materialist theory of punk economics situated within the broader fields of the music industry, the commodity form, and contemporary capitalism. While punk's ultimate goal of abolishing capitalism has not been met, the punk enterprise that stands opposed to the music industry is still flourishing. Punks continue to create aesthetics that cannot be readily commodified or rendered profitable by major record labels, and punks remain committed to transforming consumers into producers, in opposition to the global economy's increasingly rapid shift toward oligopoly and monopoly.

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Introduction You Are Not What You Own

Anti-Capitalism
Punk: A Provisional Definition
A Desiring Punk/Punk Desire

1. Let's Make a Scene

The New York Scene
The English Scene
California Hardcore Scene
Washington, D.C. Hardcore Scene (First Wave Straight Edge)
New York Hardcore Scene (Second Wave Straight Edge)
Riot Grrrl Scene
The Berkeley/Lookout! Pop-Punk Scene
Conclusions

2. Punk Aesthetics and the Poverty of the Commodity

Punk Versus the Commodity
Crass Commodities
A Profane Existence
Aesthetic Profanity
Economic Profanity
CrimethInc.
From Crass to Profane Existence to CrimethInc. and Beyond

3. Punk Economics and the Shame of Exchangeability

The Punk Commodity
The Two Poles of the Commodity
Collecting Punk/Punk Collecting
Viva la Vinyl
Displaced Labor
The Good Side of the Commodity

4. Market Failure: Punk Economics, Early and Late

Early Punk Economics
Late Punk Economics
Dischord Records and Fugazi
Lookout! Records
The Failure/Success of Dischord, Fugazi, and Lookout!

5. Screening Punk

Punk Cinema?
The Punk Marquee: What's Showing?
At the Bijoux: Rude Boy
In the Mall Cineplex: Fight Club
Dénouement

Epilogue: Beyond Punk

Punk's Not Dead

Notes

References

Index

Sujets

• Musique
• Histoire de la musique
• Popular music
• Popular culture
• History of classical music traditions
• Punk

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791484609
• Langue: English

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Punk Productions

SUNY series, Interruptions: Border Testimony(ies) and Critical Discourse/s

Henry A. Giroux, editor

PUNK PRODUCTIONS

Unfinished Business

Stacy Thompson

S T AT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S

Published by

S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS , A LBANY

© 2004 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Kelli Williams Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Thompson, Stacy. Punk productions : unfinished business / by Stacy Thompson. p. cm. — (SUNY series, interruptions—border testimony(ies) and critical discourse/s) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0791461874 — ISBN 0791461882 (pbk.) 1. Punk culture. 2. Punk rock music. I. Title. II. Series.

HM646.T46 2004 306'.1—dc22

10

 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2003190074

This book is dedicated to my parents, Stacy W. and Sandra R. Thompson

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Acknowledgments

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Introduction

chapter 1

chapter 2

Contents

You Are Not What You Own Anti-Capitalism Punk: A Provisional Definition A Desiring Punk/Punk Desire

Let’s Make a Scene The New York Scene The English Scene California Hardcore Scene Washington, D.C. Hardcore Scene (First Wave Straight Edge) New York Hardcore Scene (Second Wave Straight Edge) Riot Grrrl Scene The Berkeley/Lookout! Pop-Punk Scene Conclusions

Punk Aesthetics and the Poverty of the Commodity Punk Versus the Commodity Crass Commodities A Profane Existence Aesthetic Profanity Economic Profanity CrimethInc. From Crass to Profane Existence to CrimethInc. and Beyond

v i i

i

x

xi

1 1 3 4

9 10 17 32

42

53 58 71 77

81 81 83 92 94 103 108

115

viii

chapter 3

chapter 4

chapter 5

Epilogue

Notes

References

Index

CONTENTS

Punk Economics and the Shame of Exchangeability The Punk Commodity The Two Poles of the Commodity Collecting Punk/Punk Collecting Viva la Vinyl Displaced Labor The Good Side of the Commodity

Market Failure: Punk Economics, Early and Late Early Punk Economics Late Punk Economics Dischord Records and Fugazi Lookout! Records The Failure/Success of Dischord, Fugazi, and Lookout!

Screening Punk Punk Cinema? The Punk Marquee: What’s Showing? At the Bijoux:Rude Boy In the Mall Cineplex:Fight Club Dénouement

Beyond Punk Punk’s Not Dead

119 119 120 124 130 133 134

139 141 143 145 147

149

159 159 161 164 168 176

177 177

181

193

203

Acknowledgments

I AM INDEBTED to many people for their contributions to this project and especially to Richard Dienst. This text would have been impossible without his help. He convinced me that my initial idea warranted a book-length inves- tigation and suggested ways for me to think and rethink many of its aspects over the course of its development. I am also deeply grateful to Siobhan Somerville, Jeffrey J. Williams, Vince Leitch, Patricia Harkin, and Arkady Plotnitsky for their close readings of early drafts. John Goshert, Leila Rauf, Isaac Gottesman, and Ailecia Ruscin, all punk insiders, have generously shared their expertise with me. Daniel Jernigan, Joy Wheeler, Aaron Jaffe, and Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe have been wonderful and supportive friends. An earlier version of chapter 4 was originally published inCollege Litera ture28.2 (Spring 2001): 48–64 as “Market Failure: Punk Economics, Early and Late.” An earlier version of the epilogue appeared inthe minnesota review 52–54 (Fall 2001): 299–307 as “Punk’s Not Dead.” An earlier version of chap- ter 5 was published as “Punk Cinema” inCinema Journal43.2 (Winter 2004): 47–66. Copyright © 2004 by the University of Texas Press. All rights reserved. My best reader and editor is always Kate Hinnant. My love for her is immense and without end.

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