Is punk dead?

This great article asks a troubling question? Like the title says, "Has the true spirit of Punk gone up in flames?"

It starts off by telling us that that the son of the former Sex Pistols manager is going to burn about 5,000,000 pounds (English money, not weight)  of memorabilia. He's going to be doing this to protest the corporate sponsorship of a punk festival in London. He's got a point, but he's fighting a losing battle. Everything in music today is sponsored by a corporation. The guy burning it apparently sold his own company to a larger corporation, so he's hardly innocent. Like the author of the piece says, being the son of the manger of the Pistols also leads to massive entitlement.

"In some ways, punk should die."-said Jello Biafra, the grandaddy of punk and the founder/lead singer of the Dead Kennedys. He and the author of this amazing piece are both right-the true spirit of Punk is dead-but not for reasons of corporate sponsorship. It's because punk has become mainstream and we are no longer outraged by anything.

Corporate sponsorship ruins punk? Not really. These bands are entitled to receive money for the fruit of their labor and we all need to eat and pay bills. Like the article says, Henry Rollins uses the money he gets to tour and sign indie bands. Is there something strange about Johnny Rotten sneering on a MasterCard? You bet there is. Thirty years ago he would have told MasterCard to bugger off. Taking corporate money is fine, but it's how you use it that makes it punk or not, in my view. Henry Rollins uses it to further the career of some great bands. Johnny Rotten takes the money and uses it to tell the Queen of England to go to Hell. Both actions are incredibly punk.

Punk is also about making people uncomfortable and outraged. When the Pistols released God Save the Queen it created "the last moral outrage" in England. Now, we've been morally outraged by so much for so long who has the energy? No one shocks or offends us anymore because we've seen so much offensive and shocking behavior. Madonna simulating sex on stage is now just kind of sad. Forty years ago she was edgy. Even the (often disgusting) acts of GG Allin would be seen as just more of "welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss."

My personal view? Well there is a popular bumper sticker that says "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism". It's correct in theory. Too bad it's only said by idiots when their party is out of power. Dissent is the high form of punk. Punk today is about rebelling against all authority and all of mainstream. If you want to be punk you need to think for yourself. Jackasses think that "thinking for yourself" means "being a mainstream member of the green party, because that's so counter culture man". Bullshit. Punk is being able to critique everything.