I didn’t grow up a punk rock kid. I’m an old man now, and some of what I listen to (and most of the music I write) is punk rock music, but I didn’t gravitate to punk until later than most. I blame our former neighbor a few doors down. As a kid, I knew she and her friends were punks, and what I saw of them turned me off the punk scene. They were just obnoxious idiots who liked to take drugs, drink, and puke everywhere. I saw nothing in them that inspired anything but revulsion from me, and when I got older and some of my friends got into punk rock, I heard bands like the Dayglo Abortions and thought that punk rock was just dick and fart jokes. Weirdly, I leaned more towards rap music. Yeah, I was that kid. I felt that rap music had an attitude of rebellion and questioning society, and even though it almost exclusively spoke to an existence I knew nothing about, I liked it. I was a teenager, and disgust at the system is a pretty common theme. I found it through rap.
But along the way I did find punk rock, and I’m glad I did. I don’t like much of what the current culture deems punk rock. Most of it is rather uninspired pop music, and much of what isn’t really doesn’t seem like it’s doing anything more than trying to sound like the bands that inspired it. There are plenty of exceptions, and that keeps my dance card full going to various punk shows, booking bands, and the like.
