There is a general sentiment amongst music journalists that punk died in the late 70?s and that bands like The Clash and The Damned, because of their forward thinking music, were not actually punk bands. This sentiment was once again expressed in a recent Stylus feature that included phrases such as ?punk rock had proven an ideological dead-end? and ?punk [was] dry-humping its own corpse for want of inspiration.?

The story, for most music fans, ends there. The 70?s marked the end of punk, period.

I have an old VHS tape of a packed Minor Threat show, complete with shots of the electrified crowd and several onstage dives by singer Ian McKaye. A now-closed record store in Chicago used to sell them every so often and if you checked in regularly enough, you could find a lot of amazing stuff. That?s where I got my Operation Ivy tape and my tape of the last Slapstick show. That?s where my friend found a tape of 88 Fingers Louie, Good Riddance, and AFI at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago, a show I still regret missing.

Minor Threat must have been terrifying. Hardcore kids with shaved heads and ?X?s on their hands were a far cry from the postcard Punks of the late 70s. There wasn?t a lot of marketable music coming out of the DC underground and to some that meant the movement had died. After all, punk was about catchy three chord progressions and nihilism. Music critics preferred punks like Sid Vicious, slurring their words and preaching some form of apolitical rebellion. That was marketable. Kids could go buy their leather pants and sing along to ?Anarchy in the UK? and feel tough. When Ian McKaye started screaming about being ?Straight Edge? and talking about progressive politics, well, that wasn?t so good. That wasn?t marketable. Punk was a lot safer when you could go to a show without any threat of physical or intellectual confrontation; when you could pogo to power-pop bands and dye your hair silly colors for shock value.

But 80s hardcore brought about the meat of the movement. Real political discourse was taking place in basements and backyards, small venues in the middle of nowhere and anywhere that?d agree to host a show. The Dead Kennedys, Reagan Youth, and the Circle Jerks began challenging the status quo. Sexism, racism, homophobia and famously, the War on Drugs, were all challenged as social ills. By the time Operation Ivy began questioning capitalism and urban slums with songs like ?Big City,? social critiques had become part of the subculture?s dialect.

But it didn?t end there. Bad Religion would inspire generations of leftist rockers. Operation Ivy would eventually give way to Rancid. Members of Minor Threat would create Fugazi, which in turn would revolutionize post-punk. NoFX would start one of the most important independent Punk labels in the country. The political discourse would be continued with bands like Propagandhi, Bikini Kill and Refused.

I never knew punk was dead when I started listening to it a decade ago. Shows were always decorated with zines, demos, and flyers. There was a ?Punk Hotline? listing all the upcoming concerts in the Chicagoland area. Alternative Press and other publishers toured alongside major acts and sold progressive literature for next to nothing. Bands would interact with the audience in the smallest of venues, populated by participants in a scene, not just a collection of fans. People regularly held shows in their basements and frequently put bands up for the night. No one I knew ever thought they had reached an ideological dead-end.

My experience growing up as part of the Chicago punk scene was a continuation of a tradition established some 15 years prior. Punk came into its own in the 80s; it became distinctive and alive with purpose. If we choose the classical definition of punk, as the musical and cultural antithesis of the social norm, then certainly the early hardcore scene met that standard. It rejected the flashy materialism of the 80s and the rise of the conservative movement. It started DIY, saw the founding of some of the first truly independent labels, and inspired generations of bands. If punk is dead, then I?ve been wasting my time. I just wish someone told those kids at the Minor Threat show.

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