THE ANTI-PUNK CONSPIRACY.

I bet that many people will think I'm a conspiracy nut when they read the headline, after all at first thought it does sound a bit silly, a conspiracy to bury punk. but its true and what is so ironic about it is that 'they' (i will reveal their identities soon) are using punk to do it, or more precisely 'nu-punk' and its 'pop' counterparts (Avril latrine is the perfect example).
but who is behind this attempted rewriting of musical history? well, it is the established record label's who are sick of bleeding profits because of all those independent labelled bands and those flash black rap singers. they have like minded friends, their poodles in the mainstream music press who are happy to toe the record company line, that's who.
for example, how come a 'nu-punk' band can play a gig to a crowd of a few hundred and earn a half page review from the gig in well known mags when the cockney rejects can play gigs that were sold out in venues that hold 3500 and not get even a single word in any review pages in any 'rock mags'?
and what about the annual punk weekend that has happened for some years now? (and has had the locals begging for the festival not to be moved because of the revenue it brings in and the happy trouble free atmosphere it brings to the quiet seaside town -the locals even go for a friendly day out to talk to and show their children the funny dressed people, aah.)
surely the presence of 5000 punk rockers and skinheads holding an annual festival in a seaside town and featuring over a hundred bands per year should have earned itself at least a mention in the 'new pro-punk' rock press after it happening for so many years, but it has hardly ever gotten a mention, i have seen half page reviews of sum 41 and offspring gigs and even full page ones, i have seen 'rock' magazines that have produced 'punk' issues that contain only bands that fit into the 'nu-punk' mold, and the most dangerous they have ever got was rancid.
this whole 'nu-punk' scene likes to use Green day as its starting point, as if they were the first and only band, all other bands are either labelled oi and by implication 'neo-Nazi' (that would include the bad brains as well to these blind deaf idiots) and with the made up politics, the non 'nu' bands have a reason to be ignored, or the scene in the 1970's is talked about as if it was a fart in the wind scene that was gone after two years and that all the bands had split up by the decades end and that until the 'nu' scene there was no punk music being made or played.
it is a conspiracy that started in America's record company boardrooms as a reaction to the middle and upper class children listening to rap and hip hop, so in an instance of inspiration 'nu-punk' was dreamt up, but first they had to rid the scene of any bands that had a social conscience and get bands that played with a 'pop' touch and had a green day copy-cat guitarist, needless to say there was many bands ready to take that path. it was no trouble waving instant cash in these nu bands faces, all they had to do was what they were told,"don't worry about the singles final mix, you have a video to shoot then you have a slot on MTV to do" and before they new it they were part of a sound-a-like army who's history was rewritten so that the likes of black flag, mdc or crass didn't exist (ever seen a black flag or an mdc t-shirt on one of these bands?- i thought not. in fact ive never even seen a ramones t-shirt on one of them, and everybody has got at least one ramones t-shirt.
if you think this is all bollocks then check out what ive writen and listen to the 'feel good' lyrics of these 'nu' bands or look for any non 'nu' punk bands in the music press, in the unlikely event you do read a review of a non 'nu' band it will be tiny and it will almost certainly be a bad review, ive seen it.
punk has a history and an element of protest music to it, and it can be seen right down to bands now, although they have other non-protest songs as well as they should, punk is more than moaning about how shitty things are, but it is still a strong element of pointing out what is wrong with your country and where its politics have taken it, but the only place where you wont see any kind of social conscience is the content of songs by 'nu-punk's' bands.
this is a big effort by the people who are creating this revisionist musical history, it has been a long struggle but it seems they are winning, when a blink 182 fan goes to check out a different band he wont bother with bands that are not part of the 'nu' scene, referring to 'the other bands' as either 'grandpa' punk or 'skinhead oi' music, just like they were told to in magazines like kerrang.
but try or not people are still writing, playing and recording 'decent' punk and finding ways round what efforts the record moguls have used in their attempt to stop real punk, like refusing to sell any 'punk' music that they deem to have 'objectionable' material in it in music chainstores and places like woolworths and walmart (usually politics, religion or anti war songs), leaving the way clear for sound-and-move-about a-like bands to fill the punk wanting kids needs with meaningless songs about girlfriends, cars and 'relaxing with my homies' in the sun type songs, , leaving the listener with a vapid song that has no memorable ideas or social comment, leaving the listener with the idea that everything is rosy in the garden when it plainly is not, and now a protesting voice is slowly being quitened, but i think that real punk isnt a dog that will lay down after its beating, but get up showing its teeth.