The beauty of punk was that it couldn’t possibly sell out. Who’d want to buy? “It was by definition ugly and nasty and based on an opposition to money and fame and success,” writes Anne Elizabeth Moore, former coeditor and associate publisher of the defunct Chicago-based zine Punk Planet, in her new book, Unmarketable. “Membership was based on the principle that what was made by hand for yourself and your friends was better than what could be purchased.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Whoops! Punk turned out to be highly marketable, as Moore details in story after story, all turning on the ability of corporations to use humor, irony, and weirdness, sometimes so subtly that the underground had no sense of having sold out or opted in. In the late 90s Jones Soda prospered by putting its vending machines in skate parks, bike shops, and record stores, “as if it were a natural part of that scene.” In 2005, prior to the release of Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, a crumpled pseudo-homemade envelope showed up at the offices of Punk Planet. It contained an invitation to check out a Web site called Grrl.com, which “appeared to be a wholly unofficial fan site for hipsters who grew up loving Luke Skywalker,” though it was actually the creation of Lucasfilm marketer Bonnie Burton, a woman who “claims a direct connection to the early 1990s riot grrrl movement.”
But these distinctions won’t stand. Some advertising is art. Some art is advertising. Most advertising is schlock because most people have bad taste, not because of who pays for it. For that matter, most attempted art is schlock too.
Huh? This futile reduction of DIY and punk to homeopathic invisibility would be funny if Moore hadn’t already described plenty of real abuses that need to be exposed and stopped. Pretending to be an ordinary person when you’re flogging merchandise is wrong. Cheating is wrong. Buying legislators is wrong. Punishing graffiti artist John Tsombikos with jail time while letting Verizon off with a wrist slap for graffadi is wrong.
With Betsy Crane, Richard Fox, Mairead Case, Anne Glickman, and Jennifer Brandel, Sun 11/4, 8 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, $5.
