Angry With Alternative Music Lifestyle Hypocrisy.

Greetings.

I feel it necessary to vent, since I am most vexed, and in need of release. The issue I have is without a doubt, one of those first world problems which has no importance in the wider scheme of things, but gets right in under my skin, and agitates my lymph nodes.

Punk and Metal share linked roots, because metal is basically punk with blues infusion and both its gonads left in place. I respect that. I respect the history of those musical genres as well, and the rich generational history of the fandom also. Of course, we know that some metal bands, like Metallica, sold out and forgot their roots, because they hate Napster even though bootlegging is what got them their fame. Plus, if you make music because it earns more money than you could ever spend, you probably aren't worth listening to anyway. It is love of a thing, that makes a person create art, not desire and avarice.

However, what I was not entirely aware of until today, is just how deep the rot has gone, when it comes to alternative music listeners and lifestyle, and how far they have sold out for profit.

As some of you may recall, I posted a thread about my new "battle jacket" (this being the jacket a metalhead wears, which bares the names of his or her favourite bands by way of sew on patches). I have affixed my patches from my old jacket, and although I do need some more patches, I also wanted to put some basic spikes or cone studs on there. Now, during the seventies, before the advent of my arrival on Earth, punks were already modifying their gear with spikes and studs and razor blades, barbed wire and probably Ebola swabs as well for all I know.

What I do know for certain, is that none of them had to take out a bloody mortgage on one of their organs, in order to pay for materials with which to achieve a spiked, violent looking end result on their jackets and other sundry modified items. The same goes for the metalheads of yesteryear. No self respecting old school thrash fan would have spent masses of cash on modifying his or her battle jacket, when they could have spent the money on beer and decibels.

So imagine my utter, complete, and volcanic rage when I discovered that to put the required number of spikes on my new battle jacket, in this era of metal fandom, it would cost more than one hundred pounds from a site which is literally called studsandpunks.co.uk ! I am only talking about just under five hundred little studs here, not a custom made, pre-studded designer shoe! And that's only to get the studding process STARTED mind you, to cover an area of 490x80mm across the shoulders of my jacket. I was thinking I would start small, get the shoulders coated in metal, then go to my yearly pilgrimage to Bloodstock Open Air, get more patches, put them on, and see how much free space was left to cover completely in metal. Well... Even at half that price... Screw that!

The whole appeal of self modified clothing, was that it was a cheap way to badass up some clothing, and the habit became popular in an age where getting hold of hardcore gear was like trying to pull blood from the crust of the Earth beneath your feet. Have we really fallen so far, that even the punks have decided that it is cool to charge a fellow anti-establishment, pro freedom, anti-capitalist through the nose for BLOODY STUDS OF ALL THINGS?

I love heavy metal, and I respect its origins in punk and elsewhere. But I cannot respect what certain aspects of the fandom have become, using our traditions as a way to make money, stacks of it, and boatloads more than the wares they are flogging are worth. Now, I am sure I could get these studs cheaper elsewhere, if I wanted to order in from China, and yes, they would more than likely be much crappier studs, I know that.

But the point stands. I am pig sick of everything that used to be done on the cheap, because it could be done on the cheap, now being impossible to do without sitting down and doing a crap load of paperwork and banking before actually getting on with.

And while I am having a rant in general... What the hell is going on with the availability of studs these days anyway? Not one of the local haberdashers carries them, none of the music shops, none of the clothing stores. It's like the only people selling this stuff are on the net, and I hate, I hate, I HATE shopping on the God damned internet. I just want to walk into a place with say, forty or fifty quid, shop around for different styles of stud, and then walk out again with a bag full of metal, and a smile on my face. Am I allowed to do this simple bloody thing? NO I AM NOT! No, I have to go onto the net, and involve myself in a bloody card purchase if I am ever going to get a hold of anything to put on this jacket other than patches.

This period in history, and the sheer hypocrisy which is rife within it, is seriously making me want to spit nails. And you know what, it is also making me think that I might as well just stick to patches with my jacket, much as it will irk me, because I refuse, point blank, to pay designer prices, for stuff that I want to put on my clothing my own damned self.

Screw the whole industry, but most of all, screw punks selling things at inflated prices. That is the most gigantic hypocrisy I have ever heard of in the entirety of the alternative music scene. A big middle finger to that whole scenario.


Right... That's better... I'm done. Your turn!

If you don't like internet shopping then you will pay more, fact of life these days, the high street went the way of most punk bands around the 70's.

If you can stand ebay, it really is a treasure trove of things. I am an artist and I get all sorts of things from there, goose feathers, bits of leather, canvas, Printmaking materials, all sorts, much cheaper than any shops.

You are guaranteed to find studs on there cheap if you can bear to look, and not necessarily from China, use the UK only function.

And if you set a paypal account, you needn't use a card all the time, you can even pay after delivery in 14 days, which is good if ever anything didn't arrive. I use paypal online whenever it is available, saves entering or saving card numbers and it has safety and guarantees refunds.

I was never really a punk though I recall in the mid 80's wearing a star studded denim jacket in France with a big scarf. One of my first art jobs was as an artist for an authenitic retro clothing company, mostly American flying jackets, 501's, 50's cashmere cardigans and silk scarves, there were a few studded items, as you can imagine my sense of style was eclectically chic.

www.ebay.co.uk... item3f4014d083

These look a little more reasonably priced mate. EBAY 100 pcs

You have stirred the memory of some of my old jackets, Born in 77 I was a child of the metal and grunge era proper army surplus jackets were a must at one point, back then you could get actual second hand army jackets for about twelve quid. They were all but indestructable and fire retardent too.

As I got more into punk I remember buying a beaten up denim jacket from a charity shop. It was not beaten up enough so we tied it to the back of a mates car and dragged it around for a few miles before I studded it. I bought the studs at the local alternative clothing shop who also sold some of the most vibrant hair dyes ever, an essential for my mohawk at the time.

I finished my jacket by painting the cover of a nofx album on the back in acrylic and then varnishing it. I would love to have that jacket back.

I seem to have turned your rant into a happy trip down memory lane and that is something I refuse to appologise for

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

I looked on eBay first funnily enough. The trouble is, that most of the sellers there are only selling the sort of stud which comes with the short tails on the back, and they tend to fall off. My old jacket had the ones with the inch long split tails, and those things do not fall off unless someone goes at the cone with a pair of pliers. No one wants to sell me those at all. So the next best thing is screw back studs. These I can use, and to prevent their eventual spinning loose in a moshpit, or being twiddled till they fall off by bored metalheads in a queue to get into a gig, I can fill the thread with thread sealer before I put in the screw...

But the price. Even the best quality studs cannot be worth more than a tenner per five hundred pcs, retail. Believe you me, I know what good metal costs, and what it looks like, and they simply do not make little studs for jackets from the good stuff. This should be SIMPLE STUFF TO GET DONE! The work of but a single afternoon to identify an emporium, and visit it, or heaven forbid, dirty myself with an internet purchase... I have been looking into this stuff for about two bloody weeks, and have found not one single seller who is prepared to be reasonable in their pricing.

Perhaps I am bad at the internet. Either way, this was supposed to be a fun thing for me to do, not something to slog away at, staring at a screen for EVEN LONGER THAN USUAL OVER!

a reply to: TrueBrit

Wow, nicely done. I almost heard you take that big breath after hitting enter.

Internet shopping is the last hope of "mom and pop" businesses. The conglomerates took over. Sorry about that.
Metal still rules, It's OK to lighten up with some alternative folk on occasion. Even some country can be nice.

Here, try this and see if it fits.

a reply to: nonspecific

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

Well...

You both pwn me hard when it comes to internetting apparently.

Where the hell were these results when I was.... Never mind... They are here now... Just breathe....

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: nonspecific

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

Well...

You both pwn me hard when it comes to internetting apparently.

Where the hell were these results when I was.... Never mind... They are here now... Just breathe....

I am an internet ninja, No really I am known for the ability to find stuff and often have to do it for friends.

A spanish friend was stopping with me a few weeks ago and needed to buy a car, after watching him look for about 5 hours I grew impatient shood him away from the keyboard and the right car at the right price was outside about 2 hours later.

A good hint is to use the word wholesale when searching, as a business owner you can usually pull of the blag if they get funny.

As HST said....

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

I totally understand the identification with fashion to music.

My fashion that directly points me as a blues singer/songwriter is my cowboy hat and Python cowboy boots....

wait...

a reply to: network dude

Cheers for the attempted sonic boost!

I found something however, which is both relevant to the thread by way of the bands name, and indeed rocks my socks musically!

a reply to: TrueBrit

Fine rant. Fine rant indeed.

They are not 'punk'
They are 'bunk'

I don't care what the genre is, once pop culture gets a hold on anything, it turns it inside out for profit, profit to be made off the pennies of the next generation who want to emulate.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Man, I was trying to calm you down. A death growl with speed metal is going the other direction.
Just remember, it will come full circle when you look at a group of kids listening to their music and think they need to turn that crap off.

It's not a matter of if, but when.........

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: TrueBrit

Man, I was trying to calm you down. A death growl with speed metal is going the other direction.
Just remember, it will come full circle when you look at a group of kids listening to their music and think they need to turn that crap off.

It's not a matter of if, but when.........

I was sat having a coffe in town the other day with an old friend and he was looking around and then said "these kids all look ridiculous and there hairstyles are embaressing"

I did not anwer him, just looked him in the eye.

Then he said " I understand what my dad meant now when he said we all looked like idiots when we were kids."

a reply to: network dude

Haha!

I tend to be at my calmest when the world is going to crap. Death growls smooth the choppy waters of my heart

As for full circle...these damned smart phones... I see kids walking down the road, listening to their phones music player apps at full volume, no earphones, as they issue forth their computer generated beats, mingled with the rantings of poets of low calibre, and wonder at their lack of sophistication. But there again, I have always felt that way about "Street Kulcha".

Metalheads though... Always a heart warming sight!

originally posted by: TrueBrit
Punk and Metal share linked roots, because metal is basically punk with blues infusion and both its gonads left in place. I respect that. I respect the history of those musical genres as well, and the rich generational history of the fandom also.

I love heavy metal, and I respect its origins in punk and elsewhere.

To digress briefly from the clothing issue for the sake of correction, Punk emerged a number of years after Heavy Metal.

a reply to: Motorhead

Sorry... What I meant to say, is that THRASH, was a hybrid of punk and other bits... My apologies.

As you can no doubt tell, I am somewhat aggrieved!

a reply to: TrueBrit

longest rant about something very few people do anymore. I always hated the concept that I needed to dress in whatever fashion my musical preference was and you could only be considered a "real fan" if you looked the part. Punk fans are just the worst. Hair dye, mohawks, boots with spikes ect. Not all their fans are douches. Metal fans can be the same, long hair obscure garage band ripped tee shirt boots leather jacket with spikes. What is truly funny is they always talk about being the counterculture and how they are individuals lol but fail to see that when walking down the street in a group of 4 to 8 people all dressed the same there isn't anything individual about them.

a reply to: freefall2020

I think the whole battle jacket issue, where individuality is concerned, comes down to whether or not you are caught up in some kind of dystopian fantasyland where uniform is required. For example, there are those who believe that unless your battle jacket is made of denim, it does not count. There are still others besides these, who hold that there is a proper order, placement pattern, and hierarchy system dictating patch arrangement on a jacket.

Besides, individuality is about more than what one wears. It is about what ones mind turns to under certain stimuli, how ones emotions flow under certain pressures, more than it is about what one happens to wear.

a reply to: TrueBrit

And the Best Rant Ever award goes to...

True Brit!

a reply to: TrueBrit

Greetings to thee, Brit The True...

Back in my day (read: Sex Pistols, Ramones) we poor folk used black markers, safety pins, and scissors to decorate our favourite attire.

Only them frou-frou rich folk could afford the commercially made studs and spikes.

Yes, even back in my day consumerism had its hands wrapped tightly around the throats of the underground scene.

a reply to: CranialSponge

Well, I am pretty sure that in the British Isles, crappily made spikes and studs used to be available for three parts of sod all for a bag of too many. That's how my old jacket was born after all. I mean, it was made before I was born, and put together for a lark mind you. My father, a Methodist preacher, decided to go to a fancy dress do as a gate crashing biker/rocker/anarchist.

You would have thought, given this apparently interesting idea, that he might have been a bit of a lad, but actually he's a complete moron. Anyway he handed me his fancy dress jacket, and told me that he had put it together purely as a giggle, back in the day. My father was an ignorant bastard for all the time I knew him, and before as well by all accounts, but even he was not dumb enough to spend good money on total nonsense.