

Punk Rock is Bullshit - duggieawesome
http://www.seattleweekly.com/2013-03-06/music/punk-rock-is-bullshit/full/

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paranormal
Is there a word to describe this sort of writing style?

> There was no Microsoft money, no Starbucksian gentrification, no post-grunge
> feelings of cultural inevitability—only the low-tide stench of marine oil
> and clams and the calcified class system of a small Western city built on
> lumber, Alaskan gold, and B-17s.

Every single paragraph of this opinion piece is built on a slightly more
general version of this particular device: using particular weighty symbols or
instances of a concept in action to refer to the concept (kind of like a
metonym). The author's point here is that "Back before Seattle became what it
is today, it was a small, boring industrial town." But the way he said it
certainly has more punch and says _more_ than my version, right?

I just get the feeling that the piece is so awash in this technique that it
comes off as overwrought and preachy.

In any case, I'd like to be able to put a name to this style; it'd certainly
help me in my own writing (having words for things helps me understand them:
their benefits, their dangers).

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mjn
This piece makes more sense when I look the guy up and figure out what musical
culture/aesthetic/ethos he _does_ like. He's the frontman of this band:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTxMldqvTHY>

In light of that, his distaste for the culture/aesthetic/ethos of punk rock is
unsurprising...

~~~
duggieawesome
Haha. Good catch, gotta pivot somehow.

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onebot
Sadly, just seems like the author was never really even punk rock to begin
with.

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ImprovedSilence
meh, punk rock was a counter culture. counter culture always lives on, simply
in different forms. the hep-cat, the rockers, the hippies, the punks, grunge,
the goths, emo, hipster. Culture moves forward, get old and grow out of it.
Punk died long ago, and the new trends went over you head, deal with it.

bottom line of the article is, sounds like the author got old, looked back at
those old photos of himself, and thought "boy was I stupid back then" Every
generation that grows up does this.

