[lbo-talk] Punk Rock Marine Recritment

[Bryan Atinsky]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/11/arts/music/11WARP.html?8hpib
Sentimental Punkers and the Back-to-Basics Kind

By KELEFA SANNEH


Why was last year's Warped Tour so dispiriting? Because the bands were so
competent, playing a streamlined form of punk rock built on solid tunes and
fast tempos. They gave the kids exactly what they wanted and nothing more.

[...]

But the lineup showed how much this world has changed over the past 12
months. Last year's dull competence was replaced by an exciting confusion, a
sense that for neither the first nor the last time musicians and fans were
trying to figure out exactly what punk rock meant.

This change has a lot to do with the ascendance of emo, the sentimental
subgenre that has taken over mainstream punk rock. (And no, "mainstream punk
rock," is no longer a contradiction in terms.) These bands shared a
sensibility but not a sound, and they found a wide range of ways to express
it, from crooning to screaming, from strumming to bashing.

[...]

As always, plenty of other attractions competed for the fans' attention:
skateboard demonstrations, a hip-hop tent, T-shirt vendors, chances to meet
the bands.

But some of the most popular diversions were the most low-concept. An
impromptu mud-wrestling match, in front of a spectacularly splattered Mister
Softee truck, drew spectators all afternoon.

A crowd formed around some menacing-looking fellows in combat boots who were
torturing young music fans with a pole. But it's not what you think: the men
were marines, and believe it or not, punks were standing in line for the
opportunity to do chin-ups.

A military recruiting station might once have seemed like the antithesis of
punk rock, but these days punk isn't really a rallying cry for the
antisocial, it's a hobby for high-energy teenagers. And the marines offered
these kids more or less the same thing that the histrionic emo bands did: a
chance to blow off steam.