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The significance of artistic criticism in the production of punk subcultural authenticity: the case study of Against Me!

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 14; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13676261.2011.559215

1469-9680

Mitch Douglas Daschuk,

Diverse Music Education Insights

This paper examines the manner in which web-based punk subcultural micro-media utilized the forum of the album critique in discursively negating the ‘authenticity’ of the American punk act Against Me! following their decision to sign with the major Sire record label. Conceptualizing punk subcultural collectivities as Bourdieuian ‘fields’ of consumption, a discourse analysis methodology is utilized to demonstrate that the impetus of the band's emergent stigmatization as ‘sell-outs’ stems less from anxieties surrounding punk's mainstream co-optation than the processes through which subcultural knowledge producers strive to authenticate proper conventions of taste – and distaste – in accordance with a symbolic economy of ‘subcultural capital.’ This paper also considers the manner in which Against Me!'s debut album with the Sire label strove to initiate a dialog critiquing the contemporary utility of punk subcultural conventions of proper artistic production. Demonstrating how this initiative contributed to differential accounts of the band's authenticity within the oppositional fields of ‘restricted’ and ‘large scale’ knowledge production, I argue that this case study reinforces Bourdieu's notions regarding the overarching function of authenticity claims within the wider field of cultural production.