Punk. Style or lifestyle?
The bands included in the 1979 documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization” certainly epitomized (and pioneered) the punk movement of the late 70’s and early 80’s on America’s west coast. And although their lyrics were generally raw and disturbing, they were often poetically laced with political and cultural agendas reflecting their distaste for the social norms. I seriously doubt, however, that the likes of Darby Crash or Greg Ginn, at that time, could define the word bricolage if their life depended on it.
Their repurposed use of typically proletarian objects such as safety pins, chains and cheap fabrics symbolized their disdain for the mainstream and ironically categorized them into a class of bricoleurs, likely due to their financial limitations. Being restricted to the confines of a sixteen dollar per month apartments forced them to use readily available objects to express their stylistic anti-conformity.
It could be said, then, that their lifestyle defined their style, in that they deliberately abandoned the comforts of a working-class paycheck in exchange for the opportunity to pursue their art and subsequently constructed their style from the ubiquitous items of their surroundings.
There is probably a lesson here, but for the life of me I cannot figure out what I have to learn from a twenty-two year old suicidal drug abuser who readily admits to hurting himself to keep from being bored. Anyway, R.I.P. Darby Crash. I’m sure my parents would have a few choice words for you and your influence on my early teenage years.
