Punk ideology is supposed to mean resistance. A punk is supposed to not fit in. They are supposed to not agree with the majority. Punk aligns with the political left. Part of a punk is identifying the things you believe are right and then sticking to those beliefs not matter outside pressure to abandon them you receive. You are supposed to feel like a tree branch stuck upright in the riverbed battling the current, even though battling that current is tiring as all hell. You should take pride in that tiredness and feel camaraderie with your relatively small community of like-minded individuals. Stick with your allies and find comfort in the fact that aren't alone in realizing how fucked up the way that the world works is and trying to resist that.
I say all this because in the world's current climate, it's increasingly hard to stay punk, as dumb as that sentence sounds. Though punk 100% started as mainly as a fashion choice in the 70's, any of the socio-political ideas that went along with it, like worker's rights, distrust of ruling entities, anti-racism, anti-homophobia, anti-sexism, and were what really made the subculture important, are completely divorced from the idea now. This really sucks because those socio-political ideas are what resonated with me and drew me to punk in the first place. I didn't start listening to punk because I wanted a reason to wear tight pants and shave the sides of my head, I started listening to it because it was the sonic analogue to ideas I had about the world and how I felt.
It's hard to still believe in punk and stay punk because I've watched the ideology fall apart me as I age. I've watched people form the scene abandon it to become bros. I've seen people from the scene become (or maybe reveal how they are) pieces of shit and do things to my friends that are reprehensible. The band's I care about mostly broke up or started making shitty records.
Through mass culture and media, punk music has come to mean mid-tempo rock music played with distortion by men who wear leather jackets. The songs are mostly about drinking and self-loathing now, instead of giving a shit about anything at all. This isn't nihilism either, it's just ignorance. It makes me want to tear my hair out that most punk bands just don't give a shit about what punk really does mean and how important and powerful it can be. It's so disheartening to me to see so many bands who just don't seem to "get it". I know that this makes me sound incredibly self-righteous, but it's something that jumping out at me through my headphones and record reviews and at shows for a long time. How am I supposed to believe in this important thing, if it's constantly failing me?
But if the only option is to give in and abandon what I believe in, then fuck that. I'll dig my feet in and plant myself even more firmly in the riverbed. Let the current give me all it's got. It doesn't matter if mass culture can change what punk means to most people, because they can never change what it means to me.
With my rant out of the way, I will say that Dillinger Four are one of the few bands who still make me believe. Their songs make point my finger at nothing and scream the lyrics along because they tap into that feeling of not being alone in your fight against indomitable cultural and political powers that drew me to punk in the first. Even as I become exasperated at the dilution of the genre, D4 reminds me that it's just a trimming of the fat. Who cares if these people aren't with it? They probably never were to begin with.
The fact that Dillinger Four can make me continually make me believe and make me feel positive about my beliefs and choices is very important.
Fuck 'em all.
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