Punk is Dead
It was supposed to die.
It was a
heady cocktail of loud music,
alcohol, violence, heroin and
speed. And it was not
supposed to last.
It was the soundtrack to nihilism; born out of the bitter seeds of betrayal, when the Hippies failed to deliver the new world they had promised. No matter,
that later that despair gave way to anger and became anarchism, anti-capitalism, animal rights, veganism and anti-fascism. We weren't punks by that stage. We were anarchos.
On the whole, most of the self respecting punk nihilists managed to live fast and die young. Sid Vicious and his ill-fated girlfriend Nancy Spungen are perfect examples. The rest either started off as radicals, like
Chumbawumba, or else they followed Susie Sioux in her transformation of nihilism into decadent melancholy, under the Goth - New Romantic banner
Johnny Rotten, the only other member of The Sex Pistols anyone can remember, failed to die young, couldn't get the hang of anarchism and certainly couldn't manage decadence, so he was left with having to sell out. And he did so in 2002 by offering to rewrite the words to the punk anthem God Save The Queen for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee.
With that, he helped the music industry to repackage punk as a Commodity; where any bunch of white kids with guitars
could be marketed as teenage rebels. Malcolm McClaren must be laughing all
the way to the bank
Other notably embarrassing ex-punks include: