Whose Rebellion was Punk in the 1990s?

While punk in the United States is often associated with white, male, suburban youth, the 1990s witnessed a dramatic increase in the vocal participation of women and Latinos in US punk bands. The all-Latino, Spanish-language band Los Crudos built a punk scene in the Chicago majority-Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen and went on to captivate the punk scene in the United States and internationally with their ferocious hardcore punk music and unapologetic assertion of Latino identity. The all-women band Spitboy as well as bands with women vocalists such as Anti-Product challenged patriarchy inside and outside the punk scene and fused the anger and energy of punk music with their own experiences of oppression and empowerment. The increasing and assertive participation of Latinos, women, and LGBTQ people in US punk generated responses ranging from supportive to hostile and sparked debate over the ideals and realties of punk values of unity and equality.

The Dystopian Sublime of Extreme Hardcore Punk

With roots in the 1980s and becoming a coherent trend in the 1990s, extreme hardcore punk pushed the intensity of punk music beyond previous levels with beats over 800 BPM, screamed or growled vocals, and guitar riffs built from dissonant and nondiatonic pitch material. Its lyrics often provided dystopian warnings of environmental catastrophe and humanity’s downfall due to globalized capitalism. Analysis and reception history of the music of bands such as Dropdead, His Hero Is Gone, Hellnation, and Capitalist Casualties identify the musical techniques and sublime effects of the extreme hardcore punk subgenre, also referred to as grindcore and power violence.

Introduction

As the United States emerged triumphant from the Cold War and became the world’s sole superpower, the 1990s underground punk renaissance challenged the narrative that democratic capitalism was the best possible world. It did so by transforming punk musical style, politics, and culture to speak to new conditions and revolutionize the punk scene from the inside out. An outline of punk’s history and musical development, as well as an exposition of original methods of musical analysis for punk rhythms, riffs, timbres, and vocals, provide the necessary background for understanding 1990s punk.

Punk’s Popularity Anxieties and the Introspective Aggression of So-Cal Punk

With the rise of the alternative music industry and the mainstream success of a few punk bands in the 1990s, the underground punk scene engaged in a vituperative debate over staying DIY versus “selling out.” Amid this debate, those promoting a discourse of DIY purity insisted on excising commercially successful bands from the punk scene, while others embraced the diversity of punk music or questioned the importance of DIY purity. One style that found some commercial success, So-Cal punk, combined 1980s hardcore punk with melodic vocals, intricate palm-muted guitar rhythms, octave-chord lead guitar parts, and more polished recordings and spoke to the postmodern existential dilemmas of disaffected suburban youth. The music of NOFX’s The Decline exemplifies So-Cal punk style and offers a critique of the decline of American society.

Conclusion

The 1990s underground punk scene fostered a culture and politics of resistance against and an alternative to the triumphalism of US empire. Evaluating the successes and failures of the 1990s punk renaissance offers lessons for future alternative cultures seeking to use music to foster political change. Involvement in antiracist movements and protests against globalized capitalism, such as the 1999 “Battle in Seattle,” battles over inclusion within the punk scene, the dangers of becoming insular, and struggles over concrete political commitment versus sloganeering or “lifestylism” all highlight the challenges of creating and sustaining a music of rebellion.

Crust-Punk/Dis-Core and the Codification of Propaganda Music

Crust-punk/dis-core was the punk musical style most associated with radical leftist and anarchist politics in the 1990s. It drew on the aesthetics, politics, and/or musical styles of 1980s British anarcho-punk bands such as Discharge and Crass. Crust-punk/dis-core exemplifies the attributes of successful propaganda music, as is shown by analysis of the music of the band Aus-Rotten. As the number of bands in crust-punk/dis-core style exponentially increased, crust-punk/dis-core was increasingly criticized for being unoriginal and imitative, and bands with similar politics but different musical styles offered pathways out of stylistic staleness.

Out of the “Dregs of the Eighties” and Screaming at the New World Order

In the late 1980s, the US punk scene was plagued by Nazi skinheads, macho violence, and hostility toward leftist politics. At the dawn of the 1990s, several punk bands challenged this state of affairs by putting radical leftist politics at the heart of the scene, ejecting racists, and opening space for women, Latino, and queer participants. They fostered new and more intense musical styles distinct from New York Hardcore (NYHC) style, and built new institutions—zines, performance venues, and record labels—to give shape to their music and politics. The music of the all-Latino band Los Crudos exemplifies the trend of intense hardcore punk with a strident political message.