"Punks today just make me sick
Sellin' out just ain't what makes me tick
Jackass punks are all bores
Sellout punks are all whores
Skinheads ain't working class
You're just a pain in the ass
Generation of Swine!
- The Queers, "Generation of Swine"

You know, I'm getting a little tired of everything punk. Actually, what I'm tired of is most people's definitions of punk.

Punk is not fashion. I'm sorry, but a punk can sport Chuck Taylors, a leather jacket and a mohawk, or Ambercrombie and Fitch crap. It's doesn't matter. If you say someone isn't punk for what they wear you should go jump off a bridge.

I think most punk styles look ugly. I wear Chuck Taylors, but they don't look ugly. They look cool, they're old-school. I'm kind of glad that the 'punk' look has been co-opted by the mainstream; hopefully punks will be sickened by corporations cashing in on their looks and will start to dress normally. Then people would probably listen to punks a little more. Hey, fucktard: how are you an individual if you wear a mohawk like a million other 'individuals?'

Punk is not just music. It is also not a certain preference in music. Sure, most music that's fast and is primarily driven by power chords would be called punk, but so is a lot of other stuff. What pisses me off about punk music is that it's such an elitist little club. If you listen to this band or that band, you're not punk. Shut up already! I listen to folk and the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. Does that mean I'm not a punk? Oh, well, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. If I had to choose between the diaphanous pleasure of being branded a punk by the cognoscenti of music snobbiness or listening to the music I like, I'll chose the latter, thank you.

I'm not saying I like a lot of popular music, though. Most popular music gives me a headache. Don't think I wrote that to sound cool or 'punk,' I'm saying it because it's true. Britney Spears and her female teen-idol ilk simply cash in on adolescent guys' fantasies and most young girls' stupidity. If I want porn with my music I'll pop on some Screeching Weasel and read a Playboy (I am eighteen, after all). In the last ten years music has really gone down the shitter, rock 'n roll is almost dead. Nu-metal is hopefully a trend, and it already looks like it's dying out. There was a great idea: take an already lousy genre (rap, the thoughtless type. There are some good rap bands out there) and combine it with music that features guitars tuned so low they sound like an elephant passing gas after a meal at Taco Bell.

Then again, punk isn't about politics, either. Would you call George W. Bush a punk? There are many 'punks' who go ignored, too. Look at Henry David Thoreau: he went to live near a pond and then wrote an awful book about it. And tell me that 'Civil Disobedience' isn't punk.

So what is punk? I honestly don't know. The term's been thrown around so much (like the word "Alternative" - don't get me started on that hollow word) that it's lost all meaning. It's like when someone says a work - let's say 'lake' - over and over again. It turns into a droning monosyllable, an utterance that has lost all its meaning. Punk is becoming a dead metaphor.

I don't really want to be called a punk anymore. I graduated high school; I'm a little too old to be part of a clique. I like the music, the ideas (individuality, inclusiveness, progressive politics) and most of the people, but not the word. "It's a real cool club and you're not part of it." Fine by me.

Do you have a problem with this essay? I am not surprised in the least. E-mail me at nirvanasongs@yahoo.com and tell me what you think. I will ignore streams of four-letter words.