American Punk

This in response to my friend Steve's question about what, if anything, differentiates American Punk from British Punk. I'm not sure I answered his question, but I thought this was blog worthy anyway:

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CBGB was indeed an NY establishment. In fact, it's sad to say it closed down this year. I like to think of it as more famously the home of post-punk bands like Talking Heads, Television, Patti Smith than as punk bands like the Ramones and New York Dolls. I don't personally consider the Ramones to be a true punk band. Their music sounds like punk but the underlying intent of the band is to be partying rock stars and didn't reflect the true punk ethos. And the New York Dolls, whose music I love, were still a bit of a holdover from the 70's glam music of David Bowie and Roxy Music and the like. Though, I should add that Iggy Pop, despite being associated with all of these, was actually a punk rocker.

For me, the West Coast punk movement of the early 80's, with bands like the Germs and Black Flag, was a lot more indicative of the original intent. The straight edge punk movement of the late 80's and 90's in DC is even more true to the anti-establishment roots of punk. These people eschewed drugs, alcohol, and even promoted sexual abstinence in pursuit of ideals over lifestyle. Not that I would ever consider myself in this camp, just that the music that came out of it was so full of emotion and social consciousness.

In the following band name association game, maybe you can see my point:

The Sex Pistols - not punk
The Clash - punk (and so much more)

The Buzzcocks - not punk (though not bad)
Joy Division - punk in spirit

The Stranglers - not punk
Stiff Little Fingers - punk punk punk

Billy Idol - not punk
Generation X (Idol's old band) - punk

The Go-Go's - not punk
X - punk

Blondie - not punk
The Plasmatics - punk

Social Distortion - not punk
Minor Threat - punk

Green Day - not punk
Dead Kennedys - punk

(This brings up an interesting point, which is that all the modern punk bands are not punk, in fact, of them, Green Day is the most punk)

Soundgarden - not punk
Nirvana - punk

Violent Femmes - not (quite) punk
Husker Du - punk punk punk punk punk

So for me the classification of punk falls more along the lines of aesthetic sensibility than whether the band had spikey hair, screamed lyrics, or simple 3-chord style. And I think the American brand is even more widely differentiated and interesting than the original British version.