By Andrew Berenson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
"Hey Ho, Let's Go!" These four words sung by the world famous Ramones back in the mid-seventies were a call to arms back then. These four outcasts of society were playing music that radio and the music buying public were afraid of. Good old American punk rock. Back then, when people were getting into disco and listening to the Bee Gees and Fleetwood Mac, the Ramones were playing music that was simple and totally ignored until people opened their minds and discovered that this was something new and exciting. Eventually the Ramones got their due.
Nowadays, you have Green Day and Offspring singing about slacking off and having no self esteem. Well, I say bite me! I hate to break it to many of you teeny boppers out there, but this is not punk rock. Punk has never been about slacking off and being a lazy bum ... it's about saying "You Suck" and laughing in that person's face. You didn't see the Sex Pistols singing about sitting at home, waiting by the phone. No. They were singing about anarchy, and fighting for what you believe in. Now I don't completely hate Green Day and Offspring, it's just that I hate when this kind of music gets trendy. The reason why I hate this is because half of the people who buy albums and go to the shows don't know what they are getting into, and believe me, I have proof.
Take Green Day for example. I live in the Boston area, and I had the unlucky fortune of witnessing the Green Day Massacre. This was when 70,000 people packed the Boston Commons, and the security could not control the crowd. A riot occurred, and Green Day stopped playing after five songs, disappointing half of the twelve-year-old teeny boppers in the crowd. Also, a thing that commonly occurred at this show, was girls who would say "Don't push me, I could break a nail." Now please, how can you say this in a crowd of 70,000 people, and at a show where you know there is going to be slamming, or in this show's case, pushing. What I say is "STAY AT HOME AND LISTEN TO YOUR BON JOVI RECORDS, YOU PATHETIC LOSER!" Another thing that pissed me off about this show, and big events in general, was the lame-ass pits that form. I consider myself accustomed to violent pits, for I go to many hardcore shows in the Boston area where people actually know how to dance, and the pits that form at these huge events are really lame. What these pits consist of is many drunk, fat, fraternity bad asses pushing people around as if they are the toughest guys on the face of the earth. I think these people should stay home and pop a forty with all their fat buddies and talk about the next girl they are going to abuse and rape. That's all they do anyway, right?
Another thing that makes me angry, is that people (little kids in general) will buy a Green Day or Offspring tape just because people in school will think they are cool. For example, last year I worked in a local music store, and I can remember vividly little kids picking up a Green Day CD and saying "Wow, a Green Day CD, Johnny will think I am cool if I get this." I say put that disc down, and buy something you will really enjoy. "Here's a Vanilla Ice CD, I hear he's gone gangsta." "Really hip, huh, kid . Now get the hell away from me!"
What I am trying to say in this article is, "WAKE UP PEOPLE! THINK FOR YOURSELF!" Buy music because you think it is good, not because it is hip, for that is exactly what punk is not.