Mike Colussi

Mike Colussi is a son of a bitch

Then vs. Now

Often I'll talk to older punk rockers, be they still in the game or retired, and they'll often make reference to "punk nowadays", or cite what it used to be like. I hear such lines as: "It's so easy now". I'm sure facets of the punk scene are much easier now, but just as time changes, some things change with it, and some things stay the same.
I could probably do a decent amount of research with proper citation and write a pretty good paper on the sociological differences and similarities between '77-'89 (ish) punk scene and the mid ninetines to post 2000 punk scene.. but instead I'll just touch on a few points based on things I can remember those older than me saying.
I would like at this point to note that I would love to see people write more research papers for their own interest (even though I'm not willing to do it)

"You can just download all your music now"

Yep, we sure can. Gone are the days where your only source for cool new music was taping your friends stuff, distros from touring bands or at shows, or mail order (I HATE waitinf for records).
But that stuff still exists, and boy it feels good.
That said, with the advent of downloading, it just makes it harder/worse on the music fan I find. Instead of giving a band an honest chunk of listening time and money, I'm smacked over the head with thousands of bands all the time. People are practically expected to know every "bigger" band out there, and all their songs. Everyone is an expert on every type of music. It's not that it's easier .. it's just not as much fun.

"Try walking around with a mohawk back in the 80s"

Try walking around in tight red stretch jeans now (70,000 hits.. when will it go away?). People still aren't accepting. Maybe, maybe, it was less accepting in the past but still if I walk out of the house and go downtown, the mall, or the university campus, decked out in my usual punker attire, I am guaranteed to get in some sort of verbal confrontation, at the least.

"There are so many bands now, and shows all the time"

Hall rental prices have gone up incredibly. Band expectations for the bands YOU got to see in small clubs in the 80s are through the roof. Gas prices have, you got it, done what they've done.
It's never been harder to get a scene together., which leads me to...

"It's so much more popular now, it's on TV, the warped tour etc."

Yeah sure, maybe.. err what? When punk first started you had Sex Pistols exploding everywhere, The Clash were huge, the Ramones. These bands were all the Death Cab for Cutie and Killswitch Engage etc. of their times (in terms of popularity), they had huge draws and everyone wanted to be a punk. Much of what is now segregated into many difference "scenes" was once united under the all common banner of punk. Goths, metalheads, indie rockers, new wavers, punks, .. they would all goto punk shows.

Now what is considered punk is mohawks and studs and bullshit.