Okay, confession time. I was never a “punk”. Nobody who knew me as a teenager would ever call me that.
Now granted, in high school in the mid 80′s I did love punk music (and still do).
I partied and hung out with a bunch of bona fide punks, and I even got pretty good at slam dancing.
But I was a coward, way too straight-laced to get a weird haircut, body piercings, or any of the superficial paraphernalia that defined punk at the time.
So why am I here in my 40′s, with a wife, a house, and three kids writing for a blog called Punk Views on Social Media?
I’m here because a couple of strong voices in the space - Geoff Livingston and Richard Laermer - made the connection and got me excited about the idea. I’m here because I’ve been inspired by a group of like-minded digital punks who refuse to accept the status quo (because who the fuck speaks Latin anyway?).
And as strange as it sounds, I’m here because as I get older, I’m becoming more punk all the time. In my head. And because I believe social media needs a few loud, messy guitar riffs right now.
5 reasons social media needs more punk
- Punk doesn’t take itself too seriously. What most people didn’t get about punk was that it was a joke. I don’t mean that it wasn’t important. I mean that at its core, punk was parody, a joke played on the rest of the world. You all dress one way? Fine, we’ll do the opposite. You value top-forty disco? Fine, how about this aural assault? Like the jester at the banquet, the punk is the one who sees through the poses and the pomp, and sees where to poke the holes. On social media, I’m finding the most valuable people are those who take their ideas seriously, but not themselves.
- Punk is about playing (loud). The punk attitude is about playing – playing a part, playing with ideas and roles, and playing out different possibilities. Taking them apart. Turning them inside out. Cranking up the volume. This constant state of play is what allows people with a punk attitude to keep evolving, changing, growing new brain cells. And in social media, it’s the attitude that drives creative connections and brilliant moments of serendipity. It’s also why nobody can ever script or template success in social media (beware the “proprietary systems”). You’ve just got to get in there and play it out.
- Punk says anybody can do it. Punk was the ultimate DIY movement. You didn’t need to be a classically trained musician to play punk, and you didn’t get your clothes – or your ideas – from Woolco. This was the ethic that made punk like early social media: chaotic, confusing, but ultimately a flat playing field where anyone could play. That’s why I feel like I have a right to put my content alongside anyone else’s. Because, actually, I do. Not because I’m special, but because anybody can. As Martin Luther King Jr. never (ever) said: “Don’t judge me by the colour of my Klout score, but by the character of my content.”
- Punk sneers at popularity. Sorry popular kids. Punks are iconoclasts by definition. We learned in high school that popularity doesn’t equal substance. We learned not to idolize airheaded jocks and bitchy prom queens just because we were expected to. So in social media, the more popular you are, the higher your follower count, blog ranking, or Klout score, the more the punks will challenge and dissect the work you do. Fair is fair, so we won’t disrespect you as people. But we will demand more of you. To question your ideas and hold you accountable for the very influence you seek.
- Punk begs to differ. The idea of punk is to try out alternatives. To put a little twist on normal and see it from the other side. I named my own humble blog (warning: link-pimpage ahead) Beg to Differ because I’m obsessed with difference – and from a marketing and branding standpoint, differentiation. How do people and products stand out and get noticed? And that’s really the point of this exercise too. The key question is: how do we keep social media fresh, democratic, and open to anyone with real value to share?
There you have it. I don’t care if you think “punk” is a dorky concept. I don’t even care if you think all these self-proclaimed punks are full of shit. Go ahead and say so in the comments below. Loudly.
But whatever happens, I’m going to keep trying to convince you that there’s value in finding the outliers, celebrating the oddballs and iconoclasts, and playing the jester at the banquet.
So how about you, punk? How are you going to stand out from the crowd?
image: Jeff the Trojan
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Dennis Van Staalduinen is a brand storyteller and plain-language junkie from Ottawa, Canada. He once was a professional actor, traveled the world as a keynote speaker, launched a dotcom start-up as a vice president of marketing, and named a Kentucky Fried Chicken sandwich. But not all at the same time. These days he advises executives through his company Brandvelope Consulting and changes poopy diapers in his spare time.
Fair enough, I'll hop on board with the last 4 points (that's 80% conformity on my part....not punk at all!). But punk definitely took itself VERY seriously as it gained traction. Bona fide punk legends were vilified almost as quickly as they'd risen, often for miniscule contradictions in what a dedicated core of self-appointed purists deemed 'not punk'. Perhaps the early US punk acts offered a bit more fun, but there was little joking on the subject matter from the likes of Strummer or Godard in the early days, or Rollins and Mackaye later on in the US as hardcore punk came about.That said, John Lydon did start to shill for ridiculous butter commercials not so long ago, so obviously he doesn't take himself seriously in the slightest. Or he just really loves easily spreadable butter products. Any road up, I'm fully aware of the irony involved in arguing for the seriousness of a subject on a post making the point that we shouldn't take this all quite so seriously, so I'll shut my punk mouth. Loudly, of course. ;-)
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