Alternative Music and The Outsiders In 1980s Punk: Cobain and Westerberg Pt. I
Reaganomics, Conformity in Punk, Hüsker Dü and I ‘’Can't Wait To Sell Out’’!
If we consider everything that has been discussed (‘’Loser’’ – The Hero Of The 1990s), grunge differs from hardcore punk, especially, when considering the importance of not selling out. Kurt Cobain’s approach to the issue is closer to
The Replacements than any hardcore punk band. Therefore, if the punk identity is only defined in hardcore terms, grunge, especially Nirvana does not fit into the punk categorization and marks an evolution from it. Krist Novoselic explains: ‘’that was the thing with Kurt. He wasn’t a doctrinaire punk rock disciple. He had an open mind about things’’ (Hughes and Larson, 2008, pp.33-34). He explains that, in grunge, ‘’the new guard held the sceptical sensibilities of the subculture along with the inherent rebellion of it all…no longer was punk to be despised-it had landed in the mainstream, albeit neutralised by a clever use of semantics’’(Novoselic, 2004, p.21). Novoselic suggests that grunge was intentionally crafted and meaningful. He explains that grunge was a form of rebellion and more inclusive, and open minded than punk.
The same can be observed in The Replacements who had often been categorized in the alternative category despite their punk background in the Minneapolis scene. The Replacements – a band which incorporated more classic rock'n'roll elements and were heavily influenced by Alex Chilton, and The Box Tops, were marginalised by the hardcore punk scene. Despite having the punk-distorted sound on their first two albums which resembled the work of Hüsker Dü. Also, they had an anti-conservative attitude. For example, songs such as ‘’Androgynous’’ (1984) (later covered by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts) addressed homosexuality, yet the band have been neglected from the 1980s punk scene.
Bastards Of Young (1985)
The Replacements got signed by Warner Bros owned -Sire Records in 1985 before Hüsker Dü, making them the first punk band to be signed by a major label. Bob Mould from Hüsker Dü, referring to the outsider status of the Replacements, concludes that: ‘’maybe the overlords of the existing hardcore scene saw them as poseurs. But those people didn`t know shit anyways’’(Mehr, 2016,p. 101). Frontman Paul Westerberg believes that: ‘’[They] didn’t see us as a punk band, but we embodied more of what a punk was than they did‘’ (Mehr, 2016,p. 101). Bob Mehr notes that Westerberg was also dubious of the po-faced herd mentality that quickly overtook American hardcore audiences in the early 1980s. ‘’They used to all show up in the same uniform,’’ he recalled: ‘’And it became political and it became serious and it became deathly…it was not the way we wanted to go’’(Mehr, 2016,p. 101). The Replacements didn't join the aggressive attacks on Reagan and Westerberg was a cynic about politics, he made it known that: ‘’there's nothing that bores me more than a hardcore band that says, ‘’Reagan sucks,‘’ he said. ‘’that’s about as overused and easy and silly as ‘’Let's make love tonight, baby’’. I mean, yeah, Reagan sucks-so?’’ (Mehr, 2016, p. 101). However, this does not mean that the band neglected commenting on the issues caused by the Reagan administration, as songs such as
‘’Bastards of Young’’(1985) reveal :
‘’Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten….
Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, no way he'll be here tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
It beats pickin' cotton or waitin' to be forgotten’’ (Westerberg, 1985)
Westerberg comments pessimistically on the baby boom generation and tax deduction, just as the hardcore scene in California had (in case you missed it, read here). Such pessimism reflects the 1980s Savings and Loans Crisis. This was a moment when ‘’the deregulation policy implemented between 1980 and 1982, was supposed to bring a solution to losses via the increase in interest rates caps. However, it made the situation even worse’’(Ureche-Rangau and Burietz, 2010). The crisis led to bankruptcy of half the savings and loan banks. David R. Francis further observed that: ‘’the rich did get a tax break in the 1980s in the United States. The working poor did not’’(Francis, 1992). Reaganomics resulted in the largest tax cut in American history in 1981 and it is important to note that youth rebellion in the form of grunge was a reaction not only to the politics and rhetoric of Ronald Reagan but also to such conservative ideologies.
As conservatives constructed a new right wing (with evangelical Christians forming the base), the left wanted to alienate itself from socialists. Reagan supported employers who desired to destroy labour activism. Similarly, he fired ‘’more than 10,000 federal air traffic controllers who were part of a union that was striking for a pay increase. Reagan replaced these workers with military personnel on active-duty orders, a move that quickly destroyed the strike and the union’’ (Saylor Academy, 2012). Furthermore, Reagan slashed tax rates by 50 percent for top American earners by 1986 but neglected to offer lower income citizens a similar cut.
Justifying that high tax rates prevented the progression of talent across different fields, ‘’Reagan argued that the best way to encourage job creation was to reduce the taxes for high-income Americans because these elites had demonstrated a talent for creating wealth’’ (Saylor Academy, 2012). This resulted in the Economic Recovery Tax Act (1981) to increase the bottom tax rate from 11% to 15%, whilst top tax was lowered from 70% to 50%. For the first time, the United States lowered and increased tax at the same time. Alongside the act, to increase a household's tax deduction, the social security numbers for each dependent child needed to be provided. This led to ‘’the disappearance of 7 million ‘’children’’ on April 15, 1987’’ (“Reaganomics” and its Critics, n.d.). This indicates desperation and a lack of financial support as well as an increase in financially unstable households.
Due to such an environment, Generation X ‘’would be the first generation to experience a lower standard of living than their parents and had developed an ironic style of consuming popular culture as a consequence of prolonged exposure to media and advertising‘’ (Moore,2010, p.118). Reagan marginalised the lower classes and this resulted in the underground, also the Seattle scene, to adopt an outsider mentality (not fitting or conforming to the dominating ideology). The fact that such an outsider mentality became popularised in the mainstream and gained momentum indicates the large volume of Americans affected by such marginalisation.
Professor John Komlos notes that the troubling characterisation of the generation (as discussed in the previous post, read HERE) was due to Reagan's Economic Recovery Tax Act (1981). He concludes that the act had created seven deadly consequences that are still felt in the contemporary:
‘’The rise in inequality increased the frustration of the less skilled and less educated because they were experiencing downward social mobility; hence, relative incomes mattered in generating frustration; desperate people are easier to manipulate and will do desperate things including voting for an unqualified presidential candidate who promises to end their misery; this is linked to the phenomena of deaths of despair documented by Case and Deaton (2017)’’ (Reilly, 2019).
The phenomena of deaths of despair relate to drug, alcohol abuse or suicide deaths. Related to the lack of opportunities, inequalities and a bleak social, and economic outlook as Dr Jennifer Dixon indicates (Dixon, 2021). As drug abuse was a national issue before the popularisation of grunge, the fact that it had become a popular aesthetic in the 1990s reveals a problematic society. The media and fashion glamorisation of heroin and diet culture presented self-destruction as fashionable.
In 1986, former First Lady Nancy Reagan addressed Americans on CNN about the drug epidemic with her 'Just Say No' campaign. The same video as front man Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots remembers he was made to ‘’watch for an hour in the evenings, Nancy Reagan looked into the camera and told us, 'Just Say No’’ (Weiland, 2011, p.45). Drug abuse is often associated with weaker economic households. This illustrates that the problem was a national concern. Soundgarden's guitarist Ben Shepherd remembers that:
‘’[The] generation was completely different, and I don't understand it. This is going to sound square coming out of my mouth, but right when Hüsker Dü got signed, it seemed the generation of indulgent, bloated rock stars was over and the new kind of rock stars coming out were normal Joe blow kids that knew better than to do coke every ten minutes. But now, once again, the heroin thing - it never goes away. It's all media crap to think it actually comes and goes -it's been there the whole time’’ (Blush, 1996).
‘’Can't Wait To Sell Out’’: Hüsker Dü
In regards to the punk identity, bands such as The Replacements, who took on a less radical display of their protest and focused on an introspective approach, highlight the limitations of the genre. Just like The Replacements, grunge musicians were signed on major labels, and bands such as Pearl Jam were never signed on an independent label at all. They lacked the DIY approach which contradicts the scene's professed style. Often the 1980s hardcore scene criticized the 1970s punk artists due to their frequent drug use and lack of political involvement. In this sense, the Minneapolis punk scene followed the introspective behaviour of the New York scene. The Replacements were more in favour of the scene, especially, Johnny Thunders. The Minneapolis alternative scene would also spark rivalry between the artists, especially between The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. This limited identity in the punk scene and political expectations is one of the reasons why the Seattle scene became a world-wide phenomenon as the identity and expectations were not as limiting. Grunge is closer to the Minneapolis alternative scene as both did not take on the straightedge mentality of the 1980s hardcore punks.
Journalist and pop culture critic Martin Keller asserts that ‘’their impact on rock music was huge. I don't think there would've been the Seattle scene without them and the Hüskers’’ (Collins, 2017, p 321). Hüsker Dü had paved the way for what the grunge scene in the 1990s would popularize for the mainstream. Originating from the Minneapolis scene- a musical scene which would culminate in attention from major labels and the discovery and success of Hüsker Dü in 1986.
Karl Mueller from Soul Asylum explains that ‘‘that whole grunge thing started supposedly in Seattle- I mean, think back, the Hüskers were grunge before anybody else was ‘’(McMurray, 2011,p.75). Hüsker Dü infused pop melodies with hardcore elements (like Nirvana) and influenced the next generation of musicians including Soundgarden. Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden recalls that the first show he ever saw was Dead Kennedys with Hüsker Dü and ‘’ Hüsker Dü were just totally mind blowing. I went back to school the next day and told everyone’’ (McMurray, 201, p.83). The element of selling out was embraced by Hüsker Dü, as Mike Madden recalls the frontman Bob Mould saying that he ‘’can't wait to sell out’’(Collins, 217, p.278), challenging the anti-corporatism energy in punk despite having history with the hardcore punk label SST. Bob Mould explains that ‘’the only way modern politics keeps forging ahead is by groups threatening the established order’’(Hurchalla, 2016,p.302) Therefore, criticising hardcore punk scenes necessity for political protests.
Hüsker Dü embraced the idea of selling out, something that hardcore punk did not accept and wanted to avoid. Selling out for hardcore punk was a sign of falsity, materialism, and capitalism. Hardcore punk did not accept this and marginalised any musicians who were suspected of such. Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, from a hardcore punk perspective, were bands who could not be credited as punk. This singular factor overpowers their music. Hüsker Dü themselves wanted to be alienated from the punk identity, wanting to be known instead as rock'n'roll band. Singer Bob Mould recalls that there was pressure and demand from punk fanzines to conform to a set identity. They would ask:
‘’Are you into anarchy? What`s your politics? Who did you vote for? Did you register for the draft? Do you have a job? Oh, four out of five right-you passed-you passed the punk test-you're punk’’. All the questions would be the same for every band, and if you say ‘’no, I don't think war is a bad idea at all, then fuck, you're fucked. It's a party line. It happens that I`m not into anarchy at all, I think it's a foolish idea’’ (Hurchalla, 2016, p.297).
This clarified that there was pressure to be like other hardcore punk bands and that punk was about conformity to a set of ideals. Krist Novoselic admitted this issue and explained that ‘’if punk was about freedom, why conform to some kind of moulded identity? If I wanted to wear a uniform, I'd join the military’’ (Novoselic, 2004, p.24). Mould states that Hüsker Dü aims to talk to ‘’everybody: we’re not talking Straight Edge; we're not talking hardcore; we're talking to everybody’’(Hurchalla,2016, p.302). Indicating that Hüsker Dü did not agree with the hardcore punk mentality and paved the way for grunge.
