Hot Take: I always thought it was kind of dumb to assign a political ethos to a genre of music. Music is fun noises, you can apply any kind of ideology to any kind of music, I mean yeah you see less Nazi smooth jazz band than Nazi metal bands, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the cord structure.
Punk, and other genres, are not purely about the technical aspects of the music. They are also about other things, including for example a fashion, and punk particularly has an accompanying ethos. You can buck that, push the boundaries of what’s considered punk, and if you keep the aesthetic you likely will be considered a heterodox punk… But punk is 100% political. It’s a subculture. It’s not just a purely musical category. Yeah the higher incidence of Nazi metal bands isn’t about the chord structure, that’s an argument AGAINST your point. There are more Nazi metal bands than Nazi smooth jazz bands because the metal subculture (well, certain parts of it) are more amenable to Nazi ideas. If musical genres were purely about the music itself you wouldn’t expect to see that phenomenon, it happens specifically because genres are bigger than that.
Technically yes of course you can smash any genre with any lyrics (I know, I make communist black metal) but materially, everything from the way it’s produced to the people coming at the concerts is super political
Hot Take: I always thought it was kind of dumb to assign a political ethos to a genre of music. Music is fun noises, you can apply any kind of ideology to any kind of music, I mean yeah you see less Nazi smooth jazz band than Nazi metal bands, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the cord structure.
I think this take may be a bit too hot. Musical genres arise out of shared culture and material conditions.
The structure of punk, and it’s simplicity, has everything to do with accessibility. And that accessibility has everything to do with class.
Punk, and other genres, are not purely about the technical aspects of the music. They are also about other things, including for example a fashion, and punk particularly has an accompanying ethos. You can buck that, push the boundaries of what’s considered punk, and if you keep the aesthetic you likely will be considered a heterodox punk… But punk is 100% political. It’s a subculture. It’s not just a purely musical category. Yeah the higher incidence of Nazi metal bands isn’t about the chord structure, that’s an argument AGAINST your point. There are more Nazi metal bands than Nazi smooth jazz bands because the metal subculture (well, certain parts of it) are more amenable to Nazi ideas. If musical genres were purely about the music itself you wouldn’t expect to see that phenomenon, it happens specifically because genres are bigger than that.
Technically yes of course you can smash any genre with any lyrics (I know, I make communist black metal) but materially, everything from the way it’s produced to the people coming at the concerts is super political