Is Punk's utopian dream dead or were the old Punk and Post Punk periods just flukes...

Is Punk's utopian dream dead or were the old Punk and Post Punk periods just flukes? No longer can any autodidact or working class dreamer aspire to stardom, cause you need to have connections in metropolitan places with cliquey and ideologically monotone rags like Pitchfork. Instead of elevating the common man, being inclusive to struggling people(that includes country), these places just cheer louder for established pop acts or already well off mediocrities. Is the future fucking Frankie Cosmos and Clairo?

>implying it was about that to begin with in the us
>implying rollins, mackaye and pals weren't upper class prep school transplants

The punk scene is still alive and well, particularly with crust punk, hardcore, folk punk, and pop punk.

I completely disagree with your premise that nobodies can't make it. It's actually easier now than ever for people to break into musical careers, but they have to tour constantly.

The one thing I do agree with you on is the idealism of punk, and the same can be said of hippies and hip hop; it seems like people no longer think political music can change the world, so I see almost no real musical activism, which is striking to see in punk.

Nor here in the UK - mainly middle class boys. Joe Strummer's dad was a diplomat. Punk was slumming it for fun.

All those are microscenes today with no path to national or international relevance. If that's your idea of making it, I suppose they are.

The one cliché about Punk music is that these people seen their older siblings try to change the world through music and fail, hence the nihilism.

Although I prefer National Socialism in my Punk. Heil Ian Stuart Donaldson!

We know. American punk has always been the domain of hipster art school dropouts, it doesn't have the working class roots it did in Britain.

But once a punk band "makes" it they are no longer "punk". How could someone possibly stand for the common man when they profit hand over fist off of their workingman appeal? Its faux activism that is quickly obliterated when the hasty exit from lower class to petite bourgeios is made. Anyway the whole working class appeal has been replaced by virtue signalling, man hating feminism, and white guilt in the hardcore scene. Oi!

They aren't. Hardcore is awkwardly straddling the line of new identity politics and demanding a place for trans and POC in a musical scene that has and always will be predominately white and CIS gendered, so it comes across as pandering, divisive, and effete.

>No longer can any autodidact or working class dreamer aspire to stardom, cause you need to have connections in metropolitan places with cliquey and ideologically monotone rags

What do you mean by "stardom"? Artists at a high level of popularity always had to deal with major record labels and cliquey press, don't pretend it was any better in "le good ol' days".

If you're just talking about having a musical career, it's ALWAYS been a small minority of people who've been able to make a living off their art and gain a following. In fact, you might say there are more of these people than ever with the rise of the internet breaking down barriers to entry.