No fear! No indecision! Rage against the system of the oppressors!
March 18, 2012 7:28 AM Subscribe
Punks Not Dead.... but it can get you killed. Punk rock in oppresive regimes.
By which I don't mean to minimize the impact of homophobia, but to say if they can get broader international support and outrage by being linked to music movements, youth movements, social and political movements as well as LGBTQ movements, it will be to their benefit. Variant sexuality is largely viewed as "Western" in mostly Islamic cultures, and that's an important factor here.
posted by notashroom at 9:26 AM on March 18, 2012
posted by notashroom at 9:26 AM on March 18, 2012
We think these acts are deplorable. They think the acts are a tribute to God. No use in trying to defend gay folks, because it's not about them. Or us.
It's about those who kill in the name of God.
Even in America we have those (very religious folks) who are a heartbeat away from reactionary violence.
I recently saw a thoughtful film that made a case for Rock and Roll as a vehicle that helped break up the Soviet Union. Before you laugh, think about how it works here in America, where our system is more flexible, and constitutionally tolerant of challenges to authority. If Rock is anything, it's challenging to authority. (That's the devil's music, son. No, dad, it's the Grateful Dead.)
[Okay I'm dated, so what?]
Rock and Roll forever!
posted by mule98J at 10:28 AM on March 18, 2012
It's about those who kill in the name of God.
Even in America we have those (very religious folks) who are a heartbeat away from reactionary violence.
I recently saw a thoughtful film that made a case for Rock and Roll as a vehicle that helped break up the Soviet Union. Before you laugh, think about how it works here in America, where our system is more flexible, and constitutionally tolerant of challenges to authority. If Rock is anything, it's challenging to authority. (That's the devil's music, son. No, dad, it's the Grateful Dead.)
[Okay I'm dated, so what?]
Rock and Roll forever!
posted by mule98J at 10:28 AM on March 18, 2012
Hippybear, i agree that the article gives no particular support to the Iraqi killings being linked to music or a political-musical movement. I've read previous articles that do mention emo-style music as being related, and others that say that's merely a cover and there's really no such music scene there, just youth who are often gay and themselves link that to Western culture through dress, music, politics, etc. (understandably, given their environment). I don't know enough to know where the truth lies, just enough to find it tragic.
Mule98j, I do think music can make a difference politically, and it wouldn't surprise me if it played some role in the Soviet Union's collapse. Protest music is an old, maybe ancient, art form, and easier to propagate (at least in its live form) than messages requiring physical media for delivery, such as books.
posted by notashroom at 10:45 AM on March 18, 2012
Mule98j, I do think music can make a difference politically, and it wouldn't surprise me if it played some role in the Soviet Union's collapse. Protest music is an old, maybe ancient, art form, and easier to propagate (at least in its live form) than messages requiring physical media for delivery, such as books.
posted by notashroom at 10:45 AM on March 18, 2012
This is a chord. This is another. This is a third. Now form a band start a revolution!
The drive these kids have is awesome, and their choice of expression is especially apt. Punk is counter-culture almost everywhere, and goes against almost every social construct, no matter what the society. It's loud, jarring, visual, and unapologetic. In short, it's difficult to ignore. In the short term, it makes dissent easy to target; in the long term, it means that government removal of dissenters is visible.
Fashions eat up way too much of punk's influence. It really was about attitude. It's surprising to see its resurrection in oppressed countries play out so literally thirty years past its peak, but then again, it makes perfect sense. We'll punk the present regime out of power.
posted by Graygorey at 9:46 PM on March 18, 2012
The drive these kids have is awesome, and their choice of expression is especially apt. Punk is counter-culture almost everywhere, and goes against almost every social construct, no matter what the society. It's loud, jarring, visual, and unapologetic. In short, it's difficult to ignore. In the short term, it makes dissent easy to target; in the long term, it means that government removal of dissenters is visible.
Fashions eat up way too much of punk's influence. It really was about attitude. It's surprising to see its resurrection in oppressed countries play out so literally thirty years past its peak, but then again, it makes perfect sense. We'll punk the present regime out of power.
posted by Graygorey at 9:46 PM on March 18, 2012
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Hippybear, I don't think the bullying, torture, and murder of emos in Iraq has to be a binary homophobia-or-music subculture choice of oppression. It can be both at the same time, easily united under the umbrella of "reject Western values and influences we see as undermining our traditional culture." It doesn't really matter, in the end, whether one young man was killed because he was perceived as gay or emo or punk or progressive; he is still just as dead and those who look like him, hang out where he did, threaten those whom he threatened, are still just as much at risk.
posted by notashroom at 9:22 AM on March 18, 2012