Punk Rock and Philosophy

Description

“All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.” Karl Marx might have been thinking of punk rock when he wrote these words in 1847, but he overlooked the possibility that new forms of solidity and holiness could spring into existence overnight. Punk rock was a celebration of nastiness, chaos, and defiance of convention, which quickly transcended itself and developed its own orthodoxies, shibboleths, heresies, and sectarian wars. Is punk still alive today? What has it left us with? Does punk make any artistic sense? Is punk inherently anarchist, sexist, neo-Nazi, Christian, or—perish the thought—Marxist? When all’s said and done, does punk simply suck? These obvious questions only scratch the surface of punk’s philosophical ramifications, explored in depth in this unprecedented and thoroughly nauseating volume. Thirty-two professional thinkers-for-a-living and students of rock turn their x-ray eyes on this exciting and frequently disgusting topic, and penetrate to punk’s essence, or perhaps they end up demonstrating that it has no essence. You decide. Among the nail-biting questions addressed in this book: ● Can punks both reject conformity to ideals and complain that poseurs fail to confirm to the ideals of punk? ● How and why can social protest take the form of arousing revulsion by displaying bodily functions and bodily abuse? ● Can punk ethics be reconciled with those philosophical traditions which claim that we should strive to become the best version of ourselves? ● How close is the message of Jesus of Nazareth to the message of punk? ● Is punk essentially the cry of cis, white, misogynist youth culture, or is there a more wholesome appeal to irrepressibly healthy tendencies like necrophilia, coprophilia, and sadomasochism? ● In its rejection of the traditional aesthetic of order and complexity, did punk point the way to “aesthetic anarchy,” based on simplicity and chaos? ● By becoming commercially successful, did punk fail by its very success? ● Is punk what Freddie Nietzsche was getting at in The Birth of Tragedy, when he called for Dionysian art, which venerates the raw, instinctual, and libidinous aspects of life? Show Additional Fields

Review QuotesREC

Sujets

• Essays
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• MUSIC
• Multiple signal classification
• Punk

Informations

• Publié par: Carus Books
• Date de parution: 19 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781637700235
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Pop Culture and Philosophy ®
General Editor: George A. Reisch
V OLUME 1 Dave Chappelle and Philosophy: When Keeping It Wrong Gets Real (2021) Edited by Mark Ralkowski
V OLUME 2 Neon Genesis Evangelion and Philosophy: That Syncing Feeling (2022) Edited by Christian Cotton and Andrew M. Winters
V OLUME 3 The Ultimate Supernatural and Philosophy: Saving People, Killing Things, the Family Business (2022) Edited by Richard Greene
V OLUME 4 Dark Souls and Philosophy (2023) Edited by Nicolas Michaud
V OLUME 5 Pokémon and Philosophy (2023) Edited by Nicolas Michaud
V OLUME 6 Queen and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind (2022) Edited by Jared Kemling and Randall E. Auxier
V OLUME 7 Punk Rock and Philosophy: Research and Destroy (2022) Edited by Richard Greene and Joshua Heter
V OLUME 8 Better Call Saul and Philosophy: I Think Therefore I Scam (2022) Edited by Joshua Heter and Brett Coppenger
V OLUME 9 Asimov’s Foundation and Philosophy (2023) Edited by Joshua Heter and Josef Simpson
V OLUME 10 Warren Zevon and Philosophy (2023) Edited by John MacKinnon
V OLUME 11 The Godfather and Philosophy (2023) Edited by Joshua Heter and Richard Greene
V OLUME 12 Anthony Bourdain and Philosophy (2023) Edited by Scott Calef
For full details of all Pop Culture and Philosophy ® books, and all Open Universe ® books, visit www .carusbooks .com
Pop Culture and Philosophy ®
Punk Rock and Philosophy

Research and Destroy
Edited by
J OSHUA H ETER AND
R ICHARD G REENE
Volume 7 in the series, Pop Culture and Philosophy ® , edited by George A. Reisch
To find out more about Open Universe and Carus Books, visit our website at www .carusbooks .com .
Copyright © 2022 by Carus Books
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Carus Books, 315 Fifth Street, Peru, Illinois 61354.
Printed and bound in the United States of America. Printed on acid-free paper.
Punk Rock and Philosophy: Research and Destroy
ISBN: 978-1-63770-022-8
This book is also available as an e-book (978-1-63770-023-5).
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021941784
For Wade Fox and Eric Petersen For Benjamin Crackle
Contents Thanks This Is a Public Service Announcement (with Guitar) I     What Makes It Punk    1. The Essence of Punk T IMOTHY M. K WIATEK    2. Why Sting Is More Punk than You B RIAN H ARDING    3. Success and Failure of Punk M ICHAEL S TOCK    4. Punk as Praxis N ICHOLAS H. S MITH    5. To Resist Despair B AILIE P ETERSON    6. When Punks Grow Up T HOMAS M EAGHER II     Punk Values    7. The Paradox of the Poseur P ETER B RIAN B ARRY    8. Straight Edge and How to Live the Good Life A NN -M ARIE T IERNEY    9. The Seven P’s of Real Punk J ESSE P RINZ 10. The Post-Punk Struggle for Authenticity M ARKUS K OHL III    Punk and the Corpse of Philosophy 11. A Punk by Any Other Name would Smell as Rotten G WENDA-LIN G REWAL 12. Early Punk and the Dionysian Lion-Child C ASEY R ENTMEESTER 13. Punk’s Not Dead R ANDALL E. A UXIER 14. Revolting Punks C HRISTOPHER M. I NNES IV    Punk Politics 15. Punk Political Philosophy M ARTY S ULEK 16. Punk Politics J ESSE P RINZ 17. Nazi Punks Fuck Off! R YAN F ALCIONI 18. Wartime Propaganda as Punk Critique K AREN F OURNIER 19. Punk Consciousness and Class Consciousness T IFFANY M ONTOYA V     Punk and the Wider Culture 20. Punks Pissing People Off J UNEKO J. R OBINSON, A.K.A . G ITTE S YNDROME 21. Jesus the Punk Rocker J OSH C ANGELOSI 22. Punk Rock Saves Lives R.W. M AIN 23. Punk and Disgust S ARA M. B ERGSTRESSER 24. ReMENbering the Punk Movement G EORGINA H. M ILLS 25. Close Your Eyes, Breathe, and Stick It to the Man S ETH M. W ALKER VI    Punk Aesthetics 26. Be Like Johnny G EORGE A. D UNN 27. The Filth and the Fury G REG L ITTMANN 28. Riot Grrrl Punk as Feminist Creation P ATRICK D. A NDERSON 29. Anarchy in Aesthetics S. E VAN K REIDER VII   Punk Ethics 30. Good Guys Don’t Wear White L INDSEY J. S CHWARTZ 31. Out of Step with the World G ETTY L. L USTILA AND J OHAN O LSTHOORN Bibliography The Lineup Index
Thanks
Working on this project has been a pleasure, in no small part because of the many fine folks who have assisted us along the way. In particular, a debt of gratitude is owed to David Ramsay Steele at Carus Books, the contributors to this volume, the School of Humanities at Jefferson College and the Department of Political Science and Philosophy at Weber State University. Finally, we’d like to thank those family members, students, friends, and colleagues with whom we’ve had fruitful and rewarding conversations on various aspects of all things punk as it relates to philosophical themes.
This Is a Public Service Announcement (with Guitar)
Punk rock was invented on August 16th 1974 when four disaffected young men from Queens, New York, took the stage at the now (in)famous CBGB bar and belted out a new, furious brand of rock’n’roll the world wasn’t quite ready for. On that night, the band in question, The Ramones, began a movement of not only music, but of fashion and attitude previously unseen in civilized society. Fast forward a few decades, and what began that fateful summer evening has touched every continent around the globe.
What is perhaps most interesting about this story is that it’s all untrue. Or, at the very least, it’s oversimplified to the point of absurdity.
As monumental as The Ramones have been to rock’n’roll in general and punk rock in particular, musical genres like punk aren’t the type of thing that are brought into existence ex nihilo . The seeds that would eventually become punk by way of a number of acts in the mid-1970s were being planted almost immediately as rock’n’roll first hit the scene in the early 1950s. Indeed, the origins of punk can be found in the boisterous, rebellious scream of Little Richard, the outlaw persona of Johnny Cash, and the high energy performances of James Brown. Its sound was born from the fuzzy guitar hums of artists like Link Wray, up-tempo surf rock, and the messiness of so-called garage bands. (Ravok and Autumn. “Before 1976 Revisited: How Punk became Punk”). And, it was only after punk was established as its own musical genre that bands like The Stooges, New York Dolls, The Modern Lovers, and The Velvet Underground would receive their due in regard to shaping the burgeoning style.
Just as both the history and development of what would become punk rock are more complex than we might think at first blush, so too are the ideas and themes that embody and epitomize punk. As it turns out, there is a great deal of interesting philosophical content to be found in the lyrics and themes of punk songs and in the attitudes and practices of punk rockers. A host of thought-provoking, challenging questions are raised by only a modest reflection on the movement as a whole. Why do we listen to such dark (punk) songs? What does it mean to be a poseur (and should I care if I am one)? Is anarchy truly defensible as a political ideology, or is it better left merely as something more like an attitude or anthem for punk rock rebelliousness? Can punk be mature, or is it fundamentally tied to youth culture? Does punk rock (successfully) challenge the idea that art is inherently aimed at beauty?
As daunting as answering these questions may be, they are simply the tip of the iceberg. A truly robust accounting of the philosophical issues embedded in and around punk can’t be cataloged so easily. That being said, with perhaps the same brash, youthful exuberance that fuels much of punk rock, this book is an attempt to answer some of these questions. Or, at the very least, it’s an attempt to sketch out and provide arguments for some of the possible answers so that you, dear reader, may answer them for yourself. After all, just telling you what the answers are (as if we are some sort of an authority figure) wouldn’t be very punk.
I What Makes It Punk
1 The Essence of Punk
T IMOTHY M. K WIATEK
What holds punk together? I don’t just mean how hasn’t that scene fallen apart completely (though perhaps you think it has). I mean, what unifies all the things we call ‘punk’?
How can things as disparate as a piece of music, an album, a band, a person, an outfit or a zine all share this property? We could start by confining our question to music: what makes The Ramones a band in the same category as Blondie? What makes The Go-Go’s fit in the same category as the Bad Brains? When I talk to other punks, these questions are not puzzling. Punks know it when they see it (or hear it). But when other philosophers make the mistake of talking to me about music, I sometimes come up against questions that boil down to this: does punk have an essence? Is there some quality that all and only the things we call ‘punk’ possess?
Musical Essence
According to one familiar way of thinking, many things have essences. These are qualities that are necessary for that thing being what it is. For example, triangles have three sides. All triangles are like this. To have more or less sides than this is to not be a triangle. So if we’re stuck on the question of whether or not something is a triangle, we have a plan for resolving it. Just count the number of sides and then you’ll know.
Another example is that bachelors are unmarried men. This is true for all bachelors. Generally speaking, the assumption about things we find out in the world is that they have an essence. And a lot of the time we assume this about categories we create, like ‘bachelor’. So what we do to understand these things is try to find out what their essence is. If I offer an analysis of something according to which it has an essence, you are then free to provide me with a counterexample which might disprove my analysis. So if I say the essence of a book is to be written or printed on paper, you can