Punk Rock Gets Eaten Up by the Mainstream

Unlike movements before it, this facet of punk encouraged younger people to listen to this music as the founders of the sub genre got older. When those younger members started bands of their own, they might even be signed to Epitaph or Fat Wreck Chords (“Epitaph Records” 2005). This was the thing that led to the mainstreaming of the music. The sound, which essentially sounded like the earliest punk, exploded with popularity due to the big break of a few artists (Green Day, the Offspring). When major labels found the music profitable, “punk” bands were produced for major label use — and owners of labels like Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords began to seek out other bands in order to do the same thing. Because of this transition of personal politics from preserving music for a small crowd of dedicated individuals to spreading and eventually profiting from the culture, punk was given willingly to mainstream music:

Never has the DIY thing been so readily accessible. Like we said — there’s no more hazing process in punk. You get a crash course in it by who you go out on tour with. You can plug into that network so much quicker now, and therefore reach more kids, which means you’re going to have some semblance of a career. And I don’t see any downside to that. (Greenwald p. 85)

The music in this genre grew softer and more commercial as years went by, and eventually fell to the wayside. Formerly independent labels were given plenty of recognition and funds to develop different kinds of talent as well. Organized music fests like Vans Warped Tour introduced corporate sponsorship to a subculture originally full of nihilism and resentment for mainstream society.

It is also important to mention that by the late 1990s, the popular culture was one of heavy interaction and quick assimilation; a youth that has been marketed to more than any other in history is more likely to surrender their youth culture earlier. At this time in history, the rate of advertising was higher than ever before and teenagers were the main target due to their disposable income (“Demographics and Media” 2005). With repeated messages defining the mainstream as cool, youthful and trendy, and with many different facets of this mainstream to become assimilated into, it is easier to assimilate an entire underground lifestyle, especially when considering the wide potential for communication. By this time, the internet is available to the majority of the United States, and any young person can research and automatically absorb the ideas of a subculture. For this reason, subcultures grow and split faster than ever before from the 1990s on