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One of FDL Movie Night’s favorite directors, Dave Markey, returns with The Year Punk Broke, his awesome 1991 indie doc, finally released on DVD, featuring Sonic Youth, Babes in Toyland, Dinosaur Jr., the Ramones and Nirvana on tour, right before the release of Nirvana’s major label debut Nevermind which changed the face of music, going on to sell selling 400,000 copies a week by Christmas 1991, and dethroning Michael Jackson at the top of the Bilboard chart. Was 1991 the year punk broke into mainstream consciousness or the year underground cred was broken by exposure?
The title works both ways. Punk became grunge and would go mainstream–including a fashion spreads in major glossy magazine which are now recycling the trend–corporate interests would come into play; the DIY manifesto also seeped out into the suburbs, creating legions of alternative lifestylers. And the dreaded hipster. Things haven’t been the same since the year punk broke, in both good and bad ways.
Markey’s TYPB is a behind the scene look at touring, performances and personalities–including Courtney Love who shows up backstage, and is well–just Courtney. Invited by Sonic Youth on a two week festival tour,
Join Dave Markey discussing the The Year Punk Broke, Monday September 19, 5pm west coast/8pm east, on the front page of Firedoglake.com. To comment or ask questions, you must register/log in (it’s free, just click the button and your password will be emailed to you.
On Monday, just show up online at Firedoglake.com, log in click the headline and ask your questions in the comment box. Refresh the screen every minute or so to see responses replies and other other comments.
3 Comments
Punk became grunge? I always thought there was a metal influence (Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Malfunkshun, Mother Love Bone, etc.)
I thought it broke in 1994 with Green Day.
Didn’t punk enter mainstream consciousness in 1977? It’s too bad Stephanie Spheeris’s 1981 Decline of Western Civilization hasn’t been released on DVD – it would provide interesting context.
You mean when it finally broke into American commercial consciousness. It had existed in the rest of the world as PUNK/NUWAVE for 15 yrs. when it arrived as Grunge in the US in 1991. Prior to that all or almost all of the acts were English and confined to the European/English or College Radio ( non-com) in the US. scene. I owned what was called an Alt. Nightclub back then that played the music from 1979 to 1997 ( sold it ). How well I remember the arrival of Nirvana in 1991. I then made all my real profit in the next 5 yrs. The scene crashed and burned in summer 1996 , at least in the nightclub world. It still exists today but is once again just a sub-theme and fringe scene.( AKA Goth et al.)