Punk Technique

[Fergie Fulton]

Seems like your playing based on the "image" of punk...I knew right away you were a pick player when you said arm and wrist. Choose a different way to play that works for your sound and comfort...Not the image......Punk is punk

There is only the "image of punk" left, the original time and ethos of punk has gone.
Punk in the UK was more of a social rebellion as it was about the music, it came from those with nothing to lose or nothing to gain from it...it was pure anger and frustration.
Short lived, no i would not say so, the original punk was a 'new wave' within music and in society, today still stands as a symbol of rebellion...so surely not lived.
But what it is used to rebel against may have changed, how it was marketed to other countries may have been a commercialism, but on the streets of the kids in 70s Britain it was about real issues.

Punk gigs normally ended in fights, police, public dis-order etc because it was a letting off of steam, it was taking your anger and frustrations out in the music.....and those around you.
For us to stand up on a stage and just play loud, fast and swear obscenities was letting out our frustrations so allowing others to let out there's.....i played in a band that had a 1hr set of over 50 songs.
The shortest song was a 10 second long 'A' chord played as fast as we could with an obscenity to "#**# off" at at the end....most of the songs were one or two chords that were short and two the point, quantity not quality was what was in order and played fast.

But take out the social elements or anarchy and Punk becomes "New Wave', and many New Wave bands were young musicians, but now with a market.
Song writers, such as Paul Weller, Elvis Costello, Pete Shelly, Bob Geldof, etc paved the way for music by the kids for the kids.
Music always comes in circles, once a form or genre gets exploited and becomes commercial, the business steps in and it become not about the music, but the bucks.
This means executives creating products to sell to fans, old men telling kids what they should be listening to, them creating the musical changes for money.
We are at this stage again in many ways, TV talent shows, boy bands, girl bands, industry created artists etc....but what will be the next thing to come from the streets......i have no idea, but it will happen and when it does, it will be hard not to spot it.

 

[JimmyM]

Well it isn't uncommon. I'm just seeing a lot of punk bassists strum aggressively with their whole arm, but I can't pull it off.

Good. Then you won't have carpal tunnel or arthritis when you're 40 like they will.

You're funny. Again, I want to know how they pull it off.

The vast majority don't.

My pick isn't hitting the strings exactly perpendicular, so the pick slides down the strings (toward the bridge) and it is icky.

Adjust the pick to where it IS perpendicular.

I am not against having a look onstage by any means. I wear my bass fairly low because it's uncomfortable and I feel like a dork with it too high. But you have to have a balance.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

There is only the "image of punk" left, the original time and ethos of punk has gone.
Punk in the UK was more of a social rebellion as it was about the music, it came from those with nothing to lose or nothing to gain from it...it was pure anger and frustration.
Short lived, no i would not say so, the original punk was a 'new wave' within music and in society, today still stands as a symbol of rebellion...so surely not lived.
But what it is used to rebel against may have changed, how it was marketed to other countries may have been a commercialism, but on the streets of the kids in 70s Britain it was about real issues.

It still thrives, it just doesn't have the limelight. If anything, it's growing again, given the current political landscape and the impact it's having on society in the UK.

 

[Fergie Fulton]

It still thrives, it just doesn't have the limelight. If anything, it's growing again, given the current political landscape and the impact it's having on society in the UK.

My original point is music has a time and place, like the first time Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis,or Bill Halley hit our shores, that time and ethos will never be repeated as the times and circumstances will never be the same.

Yes there will be a new musical generation led by youth, but only so long as youth are in charge, recording, producing and writing the music for their peers.
Because Punk has already happened anything like it, even if exactly the same, will be retro...it will not have the same impact as the original as we are conditioned to it.
For example most of the films that were 18 certificate in my youth are shown on prime time TV these days, there impact and worth of that 18 certificate is not relevant in todays world.
Music is the same, punk has to be careful it is not a caricature of what punk is or it becomes a joke like thing...a sort of Shawaddywaddy image of the real thing......punk is attitude first, music second.

 

[deathsdj]

 

[Schmorgy]

TL;DR:
There's no specific "Technique" to punk. There's that body-destroying "look" and "flash" to playing punk songs on bass, but nothing you have to do specially to recreate the sound.


Other than playing the whole band through a single condenser mic in one take.

 

[10cc]

Joy Division is punk. A lot of this world has no idea what punk is.

 

[Stev187]

Probably more accurate to call JD post punk. The early JD stuff (Warsaw) sounds punk, but these guys were doing something different. Hooky's melodic lead bass is very different from what was happening in punk bands.

--Steve

 

[10cc]

So was sid's playing. Bass lines do not make punk.

 

[dvh]

Sid didn't really play. Steve Jones played most of the bass parts on Bollocks. Sid is the ultimate example of the style and attitude before musicianship ethos of punk.....

 

[10cc]

Oh Sid played alright!

 

[dvh]

Clarify what you mean by "played"

 

[JimmyM]

Sid could get through most of the Sex Pistols stuff. He was never great but he could at least play their stuff. There is recorded evidence of it, too.