I think I am on board with your assessment @ACTUALLYASLEEP
Four reasons:
* stylistic diversity: punk was born and commercialized at one end, hip hop at the other. We take this for granted today but at the time the jaggedness of going from the Clash to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the Treacherous Three, and ESG (all of whom they collaborated with at one point) was exhilarating. The sheer confluence of everything was unprecedented.
* MTV as a cultural force: I mean, it was called Music Television 😉 and this was its finest hour. The assumption was that music mattered more than everything else, otherwise why would you watch it?
* legacy icons: Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bruce, Bowie. I could go on. You may not like them all but you’ve gotta respect the bodies of work over decades.
* the roots of indie culture were born then: bands like R.E.M., Husker Du, Replacements, the Smiths and a million others were blazing a trail (radio, live DIY tours, etc) that created “College Rock” and ultimately indie and here we are today staring in awe at what they made from scratch.
The Reagan era sucked to live through but a lot of great music came out of the struggle.
💞
Saw someone post about swag academia and I am here to propose PUNK ACADEMIA as a mix of formal style, shirts, glasses, preppy sweaters, muted colors with grungy elements, spikes, layering and DIY, representing the combination of each community’s values.
These two subcultures/ aesthetics bring out each others best parts imo, with punk approach making academia less about elitism and scores and more about pursuit of knowledge and thinking outside of the box! And academia bringing out the critical approach side of counter culture, giving meaning to rebellion and directing it in a productive way! This is already kind of the underlying values and aesthetic of activist movements, especially in the past, and we need to bring it back in style
welcome back subcultures that have unifiying ideals; my deadheads, punks, hippies, plant-nerds, etc.
take a step back from rapid fire aesthetic trends! dont just window shop, lock in!
