Punks Not Dead!

Punk rock is the renaissance of  our music scene. It changed the face of music forever. This phenomenon happened during the late 70’s when almost all the music scene is being controlled by large corporations and huge headed-rock stars dominated the scene. Its almost impossible that a young lad can ever picked a guitar without being criticized by his or her peers. Rock music just became sooo boring. Rebellion and raw power soon to diminished because of this improvisation riffs, 7 minute solos and this so called showbiz industry that exploited rock music until it lost its essence. Money was not the issue back then, its all about sincerity and simplicity.

During my adolescent years, I was introduced to Glam Metal by my classmates. Arists like Bon Jovi, Guns n’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers and a lot more popular bands during that time. Back then i always question myself why these kids listen to these bands and try to play their music as if it was a need than doing it for rebellion, expression, or simply having fun. The approach was technical and mechanical as well. It made me question or think if this is rock, why the hell is it so dull? So with my musical driven passion, I tend to discover new things from older people that usually hangs around our village. That was the first time that I encountered and was introduced to the most dangerous band “Sex Pistols”. During those times, we traded cassettes and thank god I had a disco non-stop of Sybil, original tape that the misfit liked, and asked me if i wanted to trade it over to a banned tape of Sex Pistols. Without hesitation I said yes and there it was. It all started from there. In the past, we did not have internet to search on these artist so we go out a lot and talk to people who have been to other countries like London and Germany. Our research was soo keen and it even lead me to ordering tapes from my parents who usually travelled a lot.

And then came the local scene. We had this store called Khumbela botique back in the 80’s and it sells mostly bags and band shirts. My cousin and I went there with our grandpa and saw this tapes that’s under the “Twisted Red Cross” label.  Knowing grandpas, they’re pretty much not open to these kind of stuff but surprisingly when we asked him to purchase some, he did bought a quite handful for us. To be exact, we purchased 5 cassettes each and a shirt. Since then, it moulded my principles and attitude towards life. Punk taught me how to really be an individual. The genre’s rawness just makes you feel saved from mediocrity of pop culture. Until now, I still use this as a tool of broadening my scope especially towards music. A lot of people don’t know that “Punk” is the most widerange of music there is. Kinda like the abstract and impressionist artists. It makes you think and judge the book by its cover if you are not much of a thinker.