Black Punk Time: Blacks in Punk, New Wave and Hardcore 1976-1984 By James Porter and Jake Austen
d-pi:
The above article is from Roctober #32 back in 2002 (Yikes)
I got this magazine when I was a senior at Pratt. It was the Hip Hop issue of this Punk zine, Roctober. I mailed out for it. I still wear the Fatboys and the utterly ruined Hendrix button. It’s a good little jump off to familiarize yourself with black folks historical contributions to punk rock and it’s various permutations.
That said, I personally disagree with the notion given at the outset of the article that punk was any more white than any other form of rock and roll. Despite the propagandizing efforts of a few misguided fools, it’s plain to see that the Punk movement was diverse in community and spirit and this article supplies some evidence to that effect. If anything, in hindsight, punk was a return to form for Rock and Roll, to the short, electric nihilism that fragged and formed country and blues into rock and roll.
People tend to like to classify things and put them in boxes. it’s retarded. Or rather it’s retardant. If we disregard these arbitrary classifications the truth comes through and it’s exciting. It’s uplifting.
Since I kind of (re)discovered punk for the first time coming from hip hop, it was easy for me to see the connections to it and my culture. It had the same vibe and energy as original school rock and roll and even the postmodern flare and delivery of the rap and hip hop with which I was familiar. It had the same beauty and problems. In fact it shared the same roots. This maybe can be another post altogether at a future date, but both the seeds of american and british punk movements owe a great deal to the music of the black working class. In the US it was Blues cum Rock and Roll and in the UK, west indian roots and rocksteady cum skinhead culture.
This sort of thing makes me happy because the pure math of music defies the poison of propaganda and rattles race’s house of cards to dust. Rock and Roll and punk are so beautiful because in the very sound you hear defiance of the effort to separate people along color lines. Those chords are the sound of people coming together after being separated… I’m off topic. Anyway. Check it out and let me know what you think.
(via hassavocado)
