By Callum Warner-Webb
A New Era of punk bands have started to sprout up across the world. A new blend of necessary punk with a familiar disdain for modern culture.
A fight against political madness? Powerful and poetic language? Cathartic and empathetic? Yes, yes and yes. Bands like Shame, Blinders, IDLES, Viagra boys and fontaines D.C. (amongst others) are making themselves heard all across the world and people are listening. Becoming more and more popular everyday this new taste for punk is spreading fast. An exciting trend that’s unearthing a whole new world of underground artists.
With bands like IDLES touching upon taboo topics like toxic masculinity and Fontaines D.C documenting the bleak opportunities that Irelands small towns have to offer, Punk is showing its empathetic and poetic side and people like it. Popularity shows with IDLES being nominated for “best British breakthrough act” at the BRIT Awards 2019 on the back of their second studio album Joy as an act of resistance, being the only guitar band out of six nominees. Although the award was eventually given to Tom Walker (a singer-songwriter from Scotland) this surely shows that punk has got its foot in the door of popular modern music and is poking its head out of the underground.
IDLES, in an interview with the BBC go on to describe the importance of musical diversity in the modern age by saying “There’s not much choice for kids, I think it’s important for them to see the other side”.
Although recently spearheaded by big hitters IDLES this movement has been bubbling under the surface of the music industry for years, with the help of rock and roll promoters like This Feeling lead by Mikey Johns creating amazing opportunities up and down the UK for new guitar bands. These opportunities have fuelled an influx of new artists, all of which are putting their own personal stamp on this new flavour of modern punk. new bands such as The Blinders who, after working with This Feeling are now playing sell out show to huge crowds that love their political, dystopian and tribal influenced punk.
Though perhaps just a subculture, this new age of punk is ultimately a necessary response to the political climate of the modern age. In the past, punk has always festered and blossomed in times of political and social turmoil. When people feel like they’re not being listened to they will stand up and make themselves heard. And perhaps that’s exactly what we need when suicide is the biggest cause of death in men under the age of 45, young people are feeling more and more undervalued by their political leaders every day and an estimated 3.4 million women have been victims of sexual assault in the UK.
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