You Can Not Be Punk Rock Pt. 1

I'm going to give a brief repeat of the conversation that inspired this post.

Friend: Did you hear (name excluded) is dating (name excluded)?
Me: No. I don't care.
Friend: While, he is the most punk rock person I've ever met.
Me: You can't be punk rock.
Friend: He smashed a guitar on stage during a senior project.

Excuse me, but what the fuck?

Sorry to say but smashing your guitar doesn't make you punk rock.

Pete Townshend of The Who fame is often regarded as the guy who started it all. And even then, it started as an accident. (Oh, I've done research!)

In 1964 Pete accidentally smashed his headstock into a low ceiling, breaking it and the audience didn't react like Pete expected. He had just broken his guitar, his lifeblood and the audience didn't even notice. This pissed off Pete, who proceeded to smash the damn thing to get the people to realize what had just happened. After that, it became expected of him. It became part of him, part of The Who, part of Rock N' Roll.

Here's a quote straight from the man himself.

Pete: (After cracking the headstock) I was expecting everybody to go, “Wow, he’s broken his guitar, he’s broken his guitar,” but nobody did anything, which made me kind of angry in a way. And determined to get this precious event noticed by the audience. I proceeded to make a big thing of breaking the guitar. I bounced all over the stage with it and I threw the bits on the stage and I picked up my spare guitar and carried on as though I really had meant to do it.

See, that's the whole thing.

It was SHOCKING!

It was UNHEARD of!

To a guitarist, the instrument is a part of you. An extension of your body. If you want to be graphic, an extension of the musician's cock. It's a third hand, a second voice and your first line of communication with the audience. But after that, smashing a guitar became less and less shocking and more and more expected. It stopped being "Punk rock" when people stopped caring and encouraged the behavior. Like anything with a sharp edge, eventually it gets worn down by the public. Once something enters the mass, it gets flooded and watered down and eventually that edge is completely gone.

For 40 plus years people have been smashing guitars on stage, that's not punk rock, that is old enough to be your father. And you'd never refer to your dad as punk rock, would you?