Ask Lemmy

Just my thoughts as someone who came of age in the 90s era as well. Punk has long relied on the idea of violence and aggression, antagonism and “fuck authority” as a mindset. It’s not always as violent as it talks, but it is also far more violent physically than average social norms and is fueled by adolescent male machismo, rule breaking, and recklessness. It’s got codes, social etiquette, unspoken rules, and a message, but since most youth coming into punk, particularly in the 90s, are not emotionally and mentally adults, it’s kind of a wild and dangerous environment sometimes. Plus there’s alcohol, drugs, bad actors, and real violence. Some times it’s idealistic, sometimes it’s edgy, sometimes it’s legit.

When 90s punk hit the mainstream it found its way into suburbia, where, like gangster rap, people singing about inner city violence were now talking to white picket fence kids who’d by and large never seen such violence. But it pissed their parents off and the flocked to Warped Tour in droves. This is where punk split into “listening to the message” and “here for the summer” crowds. The jocks and preppies that popped in a tourists were still assholes, and going to a show where you’d expect the crowd to be welcoming based off the band’s message but find trust funders still spouting their dad’s bigotry and treating a circle pit like football practice; I can see why minorities, women, and LGBTQ found it not as safe as it presents itself. 

It wasn’t just the poseurs either. Justin Geever did incredible damage to the credibility of the scene by spending decades singing about respect for women while using his reputation to rape fans. He’s among the worst, but the “16 is old enough” attitude was prevalent at Warped and is the reason a lot of the early 00s emo/pop punk bands are never going to make a comeback. Homophobia was also at a crux. There were a lot of us who loved and embraced our queer friends, didn’t care, but still joked and made snarky comments, we appreciated them but we hadn’t come to appreciate our manner of interacting was residue from our parents’ lessons and basically we were dicks. Not a lot of 90s punks grew up with punk parents, we had the opposite, so our adolescence was a constant struggle of figuring out what we were unwittingly holding on to that was shit lessons from our childhood and how to actually be the people we wanted to be. If I were a minority I can see why punk has failed to produce a multiethnic tossed salad instead of white, male dominated. I can see why women don’t entirely trust the scene.

I do think one of the biggest changes in the past decade or so is open LGBTQ representation in the scene. My best friend came out quietly and privately in the 90s, but the nature of society at that point meant he wasn’t comfortable being totally out. I have know for decades I’m bi but didn’t come out until my late 30s, and still I don’t talk about it irl much. Both of us were still advocating for years. Now it’s paid off. Queer youth seem to be less cautious about being open about who they are when they come out in public, and I’m glad we were a part of the history of the scene that made it possible. 

There’s also demographics. I grew up in state that is incredibly white majority, Hispanic our second largest, and almost no percentage of everything else. We were consistently 70% white, 30% Hispanic, and Ghost, the one black dude, and Ninja, the one Asian dude (side note, we called him Ninja because he literally dressed like a ninja at every show and hid in the shadows to film everything). I’ve noticed that legacy acts still tend to be the old mix, but bands with members half my age draw far more diverse crowds. There’s some good up and comers but nobody of this gen has become the new Bad Religion, NOFX, Dropkick, Bouncing Souls, or Green Day, so punk is still a bit dependent on nostalgia (which would appear to still be relevant to youth audiences) and while it’s resurging, hasn’t yet hit the apex we got in our youth.