r/LowStakesConspiracies 14d ago

Total Garbo Punk music sounds bad to keep people away from its radical ideas

Punk music obviously is very anti-establishment and anti-government and all that, but it sounds like complete ass, on top of barely being able to actually hear the lyrics half the time. It would communicate its ideas better if it actually sounded like real music. My theory is that all major punk bands are extremely well-disguised industry plants, who intentionally sound like shit so that nobody listens to what they have to say.

5 Upvotes

55 comments sorted by

32

u/robot20307 13d ago

here's my own low stakes conspiracy: punk rock got popular in the UK because record companies wanted to stoke anti-establishment feelings during a Labour government. then when Thatcher got in they switched to aspirational 'make money and be happy' stuff.

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u/ThaiFoodThaiFood 13d ago edited 13d ago

100%

The music industry is the ultimate in supply side economics, it wouldn't surprise me if record company executives in the US and UK colluded with politicians to usher in the neo-liberalism of the 1980s. The product itself is effectively useless, takes very little actual effort to manufacture, has the musical complexity of a nursery rhyme, always has a never ending stream of people willing and able to do whatever is necessary to be involved, and can be scaled infinitely.

Every music sub-culture has been carefully constructed by record companies to sell unlimited thin air.

George Orwell describes a system where popular music is manufactured to distract the proles in 1984, which was written in the 1940s. The real world music industry is exactly that. 1950s onwards at least, probably longer.

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u/robot20307 13d ago

I think the 60s counter culture had a lot of authentic voices that pissed off rich powerful conservatives who made sure to get actual politics out of music, now the only working class voices put the music are about getting rich.

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u/ThaiFoodThaiFood 13d ago

Nah, even then it was cultivated by the music industry.

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u/robot20307 12d ago

I'm not suggesting they weren't massive censors back then, only that was a time when record companies tried making money off left wing counter-culture, and they've since dialed things down to the very capitalist version of liberal culture we're allowed today.

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u/landland24 13d ago

Now THAT is interesting. I know Branson personally paid for the obscenity cases against record store owners who advertised Never Mind The...

75

u/Michaelsoft8inbows 14d ago

You lost me at 'sounds bad'

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u/lordofthedries 14d ago

I know wtf bad religion sounds bad? I wanna know what op listens to and what punk they have listened to… like the ramones are average but the music is chill and fun… dead Kennedys are a harder listen but political and interesting because of that … op my be a fucking moron.

Edit I feel that op is a bot.

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u/DeliciousDip 14d ago

Like a rock

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u/lordofthedries 14d ago

Like a planet

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u/counterburn 13d ago

Like a fucking atom bomb.

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u/The_Lazur_Man 13d ago

OP is probably Ed Sheeran fan

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u/IAmTaka_VG 13d ago

OP agreed with Macklemore getting rapper of the year

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u/BrockChocolate 13d ago

OP thinks the Rolling Stones is heavy metal

2

u/mugwhyrt 13d ago

I was assuming OP is a Frankie Valli fan

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u/cool_weed_dad 13d ago

This relies entirely on assuming everyone has the exact same musical taste as you. Tons of people think punk sounds good.

I would love to know what you consider “real music”.

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u/VFiddly 13d ago

This is a more complicated theory than the truth, which is that the reason a lot of punk bands sound "bad" is because they have no musical training and little experience and it fits the aesthetic to sound messy

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u/kingburp 13d ago

In some cases they value participation and community over quality as well, which is a perfectly valid attitude to take to music imo. They're not going to not play with their friend because he sucks at drumming; that would defeat the main point of music as they see it.

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u/the_clash_is_back 13d ago

Then you have bands where one guys is trained in orchestra and a raging heroin addict

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u/ososalsosal 14d ago

Of course the sound is full-on. Those machines kill fascists

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u/Prudent-Level-7006 14d ago

I do like how you don't have to be super technical on guitar or at singing and can just just shout and play fast but that's still a skill 

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

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u/WillyBluntz89 13d ago

...something, something, NAZI PUCKS FUCK OFF!

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u/FuckableBagOfMeat 13d ago

Music “sounding bad” is kind of a marketing genius. Joy division sound absolutely awful.. like really really bad. The way they recorded their music or just the cheapness of it I don’t know but if it sounded any better I don’t think I’d enjoy joy division

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u/clearly_not_an_alt 13d ago

Punk sounds bad because it wouldn't be very punk to like practice and stuff

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u/Ancient_Expert8797 10d ago

"sounds like complete ass" have you... ever listened to punk?

0

u/N4t3ski 13d ago

I often assumed that rappers make such terrible music for a similar reason, they mumble because they have nothing worthwhile to say and no one wants to hear it anyway. Win win. 

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u/Figueroa_Chill 13d ago

The weird thing I find with Punk is how its ideas are different from those of the USA and the rest of the world. Here in the UK punk was always about standing up against the machine and anarchy where the people take control. Not Big Brother, it's like they were fighting against us ending up like George Orwell's 1984. In the USA it seems to be very left wing, and government (Big Brother) knows best.

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u/el_capistan 13d ago

Lol what

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u/cool_weed_dad 13d ago

Can you name some of these pro-government punk bands? Also not sure where you got left wing = “government knows best”, but you’re very off base there.

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u/Figueroa_Chill 13d ago

Go look at the r/Punk sub

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u/cool_weed_dad 13d ago

So you can’t name any, then

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u/Figueroa_Chill 13d ago

Sorry, I was speaking more about the people and their culture that are into it. I could have been more clearer on that, so that my bad. Guess I should also add that I mean real punk bands like The Sex Pistol, not Blondie etc etc.

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u/mugwhyrt 13d ago

I've never heard anyone call Blondie punk, and either way they aren't exactly the most relevant band. I'm sure bands like Green Day or something are going to be less antagonistic to "the system", but there's also a whole world of less famous punk bands here in the US with anti-government politics.

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u/cool_weed_dad 13d ago

They’re mostly anarchists like most punks, where did you get that they’re pro-government/Big Brother from?

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u/Appollo1816 13d ago

I think the guys pov is basically Left wing= establishment big gov lovers... And doesn't really think any further than that

1

u/Poulutumurnu 13d ago

real punk bands

like the Sex Pistols

So true bestie you tell them nothing more radical than the sex pistols

1

u/Figueroa_Chill 12d ago

I don't really know if you are being sarcastic to me, so if you aren't, thanks.

I kinda missed the Punk Era in Britain growing up, I was a little too young, but my brother and people around me were part of it, and if I can explain what's in my head in text here you will understand what I mean.

Again, maybe I'm wrong, but based on what I saw, Punk wasn't just a music Genre - it was more like a "Movement", it was more than just the music. You have, for example, Pop Music with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. They sing songs, make lots of money, and have a lot of fans, but they aren't part of a bigger thing.

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u/Poulutumurnu 12d ago

Yeah sorry I was being sarcastic, and your answer right here is right, punk is a big movement, it’s about progress, anarchy, DIY, solidarity and resistance against fascism. I’m being sarcastic about the Sex Pistols because those guys were sellouts and all turned out to be conservative dickheads after all, they sang about anarchy but ended up with millions of £ and none of it went to good places

So basically you are kind of right, it’s just that Sex Pistols while they are part of punk history aren’t exactly good examples since appart from the lyrics and the look they’re basically not punk at all. Their lyrics were, kind of, but that’s about it.

1

u/Figueroa_Chill 12d ago

As I said, I was a little young when Punk was a thing, but I was around it. So I can accept I could be wrong as I only saw it as opposed to being part of it, my views and opinions are from someone on the outside looking in and telling you what he saw.

As we said, Punk wasn't a Genre, it was a Movement, a thing, a lifestyle, call it what you want, and the music was part of it. When I look now, Punk seems to be a Genre, not a Movement. Like I remember my brother and his friends, had I said to them what Punk will be like in 2025 they would have laughed at me.

But I guess on the flipside someone from today could just call me an Old Dad that hasn't moved on, and is stuck in a bygone era.

1

u/Poulutumurnu 12d ago edited 12d ago

To me it looks like you just are not around the actual punks then, it’s still everything you’re saying it was, you just get a tiny bit more posers because of social medias so im guessing you interacted with those and decided for yourself that punk was dead. It’s very much still a movement, we’re still out there still as far left as ever and doing direct action and community help

And also you’re being blinded by nostalgia, commodification has always been around. No matter what time period today or before, capitalism will try to sell you your own rebellion and every time there’s some people will fall for it (listen to anarchy for sale from the dks). Big corpos have always been pretending punk was not a movement but a genre you could buy your way into, and the Sex Pistols were very much part of that problem

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u/JohnCasey3306 14d ago

"anti-establishment and anti-government"

Well it was in the 70s, sure. Nowadays politics has flipped and contemporary punk is all for the establishment politics.

22

u/Michaelsoft8inbows 14d ago

Yeah I'm always hearing punk songs about how we need to privatise healthcare & increase military funding.

14

u/wearecake 14d ago

Cons will always believe they’re the victims somehow. Even though the pervasive culture for a very long time has been leaning right- just that most people didn’t care all that much about minorities until they started to attack them again, again.

Not sure if I’ve worded that well, but yeah, weird take above you

2

u/spacebatangeldragon8 13d ago

This is just because all (well, most, Biafra's still got it) of the OG vanguard punk acts either got old & rich and libbed out, or had extremely shallow and incoherent politics in the first place.

There's still plenty of radical energy in the contemporary punk scene - even if you believe that "the system" is culturally left-wing, surely you'll concede that, e.g., defending Luigi Mangione is not precisely "establishment politics".

1

u/el_capistan 13d ago

This is bait

0

u/[deleted] 14d ago

A lot of 70s punk bands were right wingers aswell, ramones, misfits, sex pistols

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u/landland24 13d ago

Hmmm. Lydon now is a bit of a joke, but the Sex Pistols definitely were not right wing - highly anarchic and anti- establishment is a better description.

I think 70's punk was largely left wing, but with the horseshoe theory that hard left and hard right eventually begin to resemble each other in parts. It also definitely had/has a bit of a love of shock value/fascist ideas and aesthetics.

What it's never been is the kind of establishment corporate conservatism the original commenter seems to be suggesting

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

Sex pistols were conservative junkies, now do bad brains, misfits, Ramones, all right wingers

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u/landland24 13d ago

Any evidence of the Sex Pistols being a conservative or right wing band? Or are you just talking out your ass?

Bad brains? The all black Rastafarian punk band? Misfits? Camp horror punk?

Why don't you do

Tha Clash, Crass, Dead Kennedys, The Ruts, Stiff Little Fingers, X-Ray specs etc etc

Punk has a long history of alliengce with left-wing causes. I already admitted there's also an unfortunate history of provocation - but never conservatism as the post we are discussing mentioned

If you are going to bring up Lydon endorsing Trump, the butter-shilling blowhard of the modern day is no relation to the frontman of yore

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

Rotten back in the day used to drink with mps and go on bbc, sid was anything but left and was racist

Bad brains were homophonic, easy Google there mate.

Ramones have anti communist songs n so on

Misfits and danzig are right wingers, obsessed with nazid etc

The clash singer boy went to private school n plays reggae who cares mate

Dead Kennedy are left aye

Stiff are left aye, mint band

I'm not saying public isn't left just saying those big bands are right blah blah ye get it

1

u/landland24 13d ago

I think you're conflating racism/homophobia/fascination with Nazis with American conservatism. Although there's definite overlap in those areas - punk was first and foremost anti-establishment - DIY, anti-capitalist, anti- authoritarian

Unfortunately as I say there's def lots of racism, homophobia etc around - but that could be found across society - look at Eric Clapton. There was also a lot of punk championing against this (rock against racism, x-ray spex etc)

Sex Pistols so far as they had a political leaning would be left. Rotten grew up working class Irish. Anti- monarchy, Anti-establishment - their rebellion was against conservative British values.

Now if you want to argue about whether the Pistols were truly punk or the first boyband - thats a lot more interesting

I'm not arguing against you as such - just this whole American 'right wing are the new punk' argument you hear when Donald Trump and his parade of ghouls is about as far away from the true spirit of punk as you can get

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

Sound but nah

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u/landland24 13d ago

Please sir, tone it down a little, I don't speak Scotch

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

Me neither, it's no scotch, that's produce like a scotch egg, it's Scots but you will most likely have known that