Punk

What a delightful surprise to find this outstanding series. So many music documentaries are narrated by word salad tossers who talk over the music ~ competing with the artists & their art. The narration in Punk comes from the participants in the punk movement themselves. The artists tell their stories while sitting on some very fascinating couches that became, for me, co-stars in the story.

The documentary traces punk from the late 60's through what's left of punk today. I enjoyed punk in the early days, but drifted on to other music as I aged and as the internet changed the music game. After watching Punk, I'll be exploring old & new bands.

This is a well crafted, perfectly paced film that left me wishing for chapter 5.

It was good until episode 4. When you grew up in the 90s in the punk and hardcore scene. People didnt listen to Green Day. They were the band for the kids we always got into fight with because we were punks, the posers who suddenly thought they listen to punk over night because they bought a cd they played on friday when they were partying. thrash metal heads. Hardcore dudes. Not one word of Suicidal Tendencies, MDC, RKL, Misfits, GBH, Discharge. DRI. CRASS, Rudimentary Peni. Nomeansno.The link between Motorhead and punkrock scene. Cro Mags are not mentioned. Just Harley Flanagan as a kid. They jump over so much important bands.. I know you cant get over all bands. but 15 minutes of Bikini Kills when you dont mention the bands above? The history of Bad Brains have been told 15 times the last 20 years in different documentaries. We know how good they were. . Not once have we heard the history of Discharge. How they really got the punk rock scene to blend into hardcore. How Thrash metal and hardcore found a common scene in the early/mid 80s helped many hardcore bands to the next level. Instead you get 30 minutes of green day talking about how many millions records they sold. But still. The first 3 episodes are golden. And the last 10 minutes of episode 4.

Absolutely outstanding documentary about the history of punk with a who's who of punk. Loved hearing the stories and the revival of punk in the 90's. Could not recommend highly enough.

Accidentally came across this two nights ago and watched them all back to back. I lived this through the early 80s on the fringe she my music tastes were/are varied. Learned a lot of things I didn't know about but I also wish they would focused on some other bands and dived down a little bit deeper on the different clubs and even more on the fashion etc. But at the end of the day it was fantastic!

There are some great moments in the earlier episodes for sure, but I believe the filmmakers went a little too far in trying to please everyone. As in any other genre of art or music, there was great punk rock and well... there were shameless posers.

Part four was a complete throwaway. If you understand the ethos of Iggy Pop, The Buzzcocks, The Clash, Sex Pistols and other pioneer punk bands, its pretty hard to reconcile it with Green Day and the like. Post-Nirvana punk took a hard tack towards pop/commercialism. The music suffered as well.

At one point in Part 4, one of the Green Day people actually bragged about how many records the band sold and pointed out that they out sold Nirvana. Oh the irony! These dudes are just not too bright. Its cringeworthy listening to them speak.

Let's put Green Day and their ilk solidly in the shameless poser camp. Its skateboard pop.

Say what you will about Kurt Cobain, but his demise was eerily similar to the death of punk rock in the early 90s. When your art form is based on fierce integrity and honesty, it can't survive in a bought and sold medium. One might as well just kill themselves.