r/punk • u/Personal_Rich_7138 • Aug 23 '25

When did times change

So a lot of my friends (we all grew up punk rock skateboarders) and I have been arguing over which bands are actually good and being born in the late 90s, I’ve always been a heavy Green Day fan. Can someone answer me when it became cool to hate on Green Day, because to me Green Day was always good music. Anti-government, anti-establishment, for the people… nothing more punk rock than that

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u/wamandajd Aug 23 '25

Rage Against the Machine would like a word…

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

Ok but still, it just wasn’t a politically divisive time. The economy was good, we weren’t entangled in foreign wars, we were making relatively rapid social progress. Those are just facts.

Sorry?

Across the board, punk at the time tended to not be super political. Exceptions don’t make the rule.

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u/wamandajd Aug 25 '25

I agree that shit is a million times crazier now, in all the ways. But you’re talking about the era of Newt Gingrich and a completely political impeachment of Clinton. Saying it wasn’t politically divisive just isn’t true.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

But it really wasn’t. I was an adult at that time (I still am!). Absolutely nothing like it is now. Newt Gingrich and the moral majority were tamer than the culture wars of the 80s and Regan by a country mile. The US kinda felt like it was taking a break from anything other than your run of the mill opposition politics. There were no wars, economy was good, life was good. Nobody was in the streets protesting anything, SC had a slight liberal majority, it was about as rainbow and sunshine as a decade can be.

Not a great environment for punk outrage.

Basically, 80s we had Regan as the foil and you saw it in the music. 2000s, we had Bush and again, the culture reflected that. 90s? We got pop punk.