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Punk Rock and German CrisisAfter Punk: Cynicism and Social Corruptibility

Punk Rock and German Crisis: After Punk: Cynicism and Social Corruptibility [According to Thomas Meinecke’s last essay for Mode & Verzweiflung, his and FSK’s attempt to subvert the sociopolitical mainstream via post-punk reading practices ended in 1987. “Last Contribution: Quarantine” concludes that the “dark belief in the good in politics will have to be, sooner or later, replaced with the shining belief in its corruptibility” (123). Such sentiment is unsurprising. For if the meltdown at Chernobyl a year prior was not enough to deter the political and social appetite for nuclear Cold War, then the dynamism of a subculturally spawned apocalypse—punk’s good politics—stood slim chance of altering the trajectory of the public sphere. Attuned to that reality, certain factions of eighties’ punk changed course; they disavowed adherence to chaos and dystopia and instead willingly took up mainstream positions. Thus, while punk fanzines such as Ostrich, brauchbar/unbrauchbar, and Hamburger Abschaum were never meant to last, Meinecke’s pessimism at the demise of Mode & Verzweiflung’s resistive politics should not be taken at face value.2 In light of the culture industries’ ability to level the most apocalyptic moments, his exaltation of corruption and failure must be understood through a different logic, one that underwrites punk’s perhaps most cunning move: selling out by means of adapting affirmative mainstream aesthetics. This chapter details that move, how punk feigned the death of shock, chaos, and subversive consumption to engender the social torpor it despised so much.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Punk Rock and German CrisisAfter Punk: Cynicism and Social Corruptibility

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References (6)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2013
ISBN
978-1-349-46580-4
Pages
123 –155
DOI
10.1057/9781137337559_5
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[According to Thomas Meinecke’s last essay for Mode & Verzweiflung, his and FSK’s attempt to subvert the sociopolitical mainstream via post-punk reading practices ended in 1987. “Last Contribution: Quarantine” concludes that the “dark belief in the good in politics will have to be, sooner or later, replaced with the shining belief in its corruptibility” (123). Such sentiment is unsurprising. For if the meltdown at Chernobyl a year prior was not enough to deter the political and social appetite for nuclear Cold War, then the dynamism of a subculturally spawned apocalypse—punk’s good politics—stood slim chance of altering the trajectory of the public sphere. Attuned to that reality, certain factions of eighties’ punk changed course; they disavowed adherence to chaos and dystopia and instead willingly took up mainstream positions. Thus, while punk fanzines such as Ostrich, brauchbar/unbrauchbar, and Hamburger Abschaum were never meant to last, Meinecke’s pessimism at the demise of Mode & Verzweiflung’s resistive politics should not be taken at face value.2 In light of the culture industries’ ability to level the most apocalyptic moments, his exaltation of corruption and failure must be understood through a different logic, one that underwrites punk’s perhaps most cunning move: selling out by means of adapting affirmative mainstream aesthetics. This chapter details that move, how punk feigned the death of shock, chaos, and subversive consumption to engender the social torpor it despised so much.]

Published: Oct 23, 2015

Keywords: Public Sphere; Popular Culture; Aesthetic Experience; Culture Industry; German Literature

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