I grew up in NYC where Punk rock was not an underground thing. You would go to Greenwich Village and you would see people who were into the music. Therefore, I consider bands like Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Blondie, Joan Jett (even though she said two weeks ago she is not punk) and Iggy Pop part of the genre. I think the music that came after is not the same thing.
The first three episodes of the 4-part series Punk on EPIX focused on the ’70s and the ’80s, but tonight at 9p, they are bringing it to West Coast and covering Alternative and Grunge music. Since I love New Wave, I never like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, so I did not like tonight’s episode.
While that is me, I know so many people who love that scene and are going to enjoy this episode. They have some legends from the era like Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Nirvana/Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl talking about the scene.
They talk about so many people hating them because it is considered that they sold out. They say they didn’t. What they claim is that they just learned how to make money with their music. Which, to me, is the very definition of selling out.
Going back to how is the Seattle scene Punk? I am not quite sure. To me, New Wave spun off of Punk and Grunge spun off of New Wave. It is the same way Hair Metal came from Classic Rock, it is an evolution (not saying better just evolving) but not the same genre which is why they have a different name. In fact, I think that Emo Rock is more Punk than Alternative.
So I guess this was more a rant than a review. Which is how I watched the episode. Having said all of this, it was an interesting episode. I just would have liked it more if it was not part of this series because it is totally different than the first three shows. If you run out of material then stop and don’t use filler. Save it for the followup series.
If you missed the first three episodes, then watch them on Epix now. It is a really cool look at a genre of music that it is the father of so many other music genres.
