Most Punk Rock Cities (state, better, places, people)
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No I don't mean music. I mean, the cities that have a more punkish attitude, like they just don't care. They don't care over establishment, or labels, or whatnot.
Maybe a bit pretentious... and if you'd like to call it the most pretentious city, then go for it. I kinda dig that mindset anyhow. I mean, what's better? Being worried about following the establishment? Or not being worried at all and being an annoying pretentious person?
I will not vote until... I make a clear decision, but my bet is gearing towards New Orleans and Austin.
Okay, discuss. And also feel free to post other cities that I may have forgotten. I kinda did it on a whim.
Do you mean like anti-establishment? And why does that translate to pretentious?
The first cities I think of when I think of a history of an anti-establishment sentiment are Oakland, Philadelphia, Portland and New Orleans.
San Francisco and NYC are shells of their former selves. Way too yuppified and wealthy nowadays.
I'm not sure I agree with you that having a punk/don't care attitude is the same is pretentious. I think pretentious people and things very much care about the opinions of others and they expect others to live up to their standards. Punk/don't care on the other hand are anti-establishment and are happy to let folks do their own thing.
Anyway, I think New Orleans has the most punk/don't care/anti-label attitude. As a city New Orleans is quite unique and really does its own thing. Austin is probably in second place (although to me it sometimes seems that Austin's stance is a bit too manufactured and self-conscious, whereas in N.O. it is more natural). I haven't been to Portland so I can't comment on it. I don't think the other listed cities have much of that attitude.
How could you not add Cleveland onto this list? You won't find another major city who is as disenchanted with popular bull culture than C-town. The reason you don't have it on your list, even, is a statement to this. You know who Harvey Pekar is.
Wright Thompson says that Cleveland is "a communal act of defiance against a nation's celebrity culture." ESPN - OTL: Believeland - E-ticket
Wait wait punk=/=pretentious. I don't understand. Pretentious people are the ones who care about things like label of their wine, etc. right? Confusion. You think LA is a place people don't care about label?
But of your list, Austin and N.O. sound right. I'd go with N.O.
Chicago has lots and lots of them. Not trying to be racist but like 60% percent of the white people i see look very pump rockish and like skeleton on their shirt. But then again the last time i been up their was a year or 2 ago. i was in the schaumburg area.
No I don't mean music. I mean, the cities that have a more punkish attitude, like they just don't care. They don't care over establishment, or labels, or whatnot.
Maybe a bit pretentious... and if you'd like to call it the most pretentious city, then go for it. I kinda dig that mindset anyhow. I mean, what's better? Being worried about following the establishment? Or not being worried at all and being an annoying pretentious person?
I will not vote until... I make a clear decision, but my bet is gearing towards New Orleans and Austin.
Okay, discuss. And also feel free to post other cities that I may have forgotten. I kinda did it on a whim.
And also again, this isn't about music.
This is sort of confusing criterea. You're calling it most punk rock, but it's not about music. Not following the establishment and going your own way doesn't always go hand in hand with annoying, pretentious people. Pretentious people are just looking to impress you with their own supposedly superior knowledge or style.
When I was a teenager in the 90s the punk rock scenes were hardly anything goes/free spirits at that point--they were focused on their own sort of codified style. You couldn't wear or do anything that wasn't considered "punk"--by that time the original "anyone can do it", DIY aspect of punk only meant you could "do it their way" as opposed to diverse styles that originally made up the punk scene in New York in the 70s. But as you said, you're only using punk rock as an adjective.
That being said, as far as cities that have their own style and don't give a shat about what other cities think--I'd say New Orleans will be an example of that. But it's just part of it's own historic culture--they're the black sheep of the South--the one that was full of Catholic immigrants, Creole blacks, and later assorted other misfits(gays, beatniks writers, etc).
Portland used to be more of a misfit blue collar city where random eccentrics could basically do their own thing back in the 80s and 90s--however that changed when Portland's own stereotypes of being weird and wacky became a marketing campaign to attract young twenty-somethings and then yuppies to overpriced condos. That being said there's still a lot of weirdos here--but the old school goofy Portland stuff that was started by real freaks--24 Hour of Church of Elvis, clown house co-op, is all sort of pushed out to the margins due to gentrification. The most punk thing you can do in Portland these days would be wear dockers and be completely average--though I think that's basically the latest hipster trend at this point.
Back in the day, Greenwich Village, and then SoHo, and then Brooklyn, but a yuppie invasion has put that to an end in those places. Ditto Boston. Detroit and Cleveland once upon a time as well.
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