Emo, punk, ska—what was your scene?
Tell me about yourself and then enjoy a dumb crossword puzzle.
I’m still figuring out what exactly I want this Substack to be. While I still plan to post “bigger” pieces (essays, interviews) once a month, I realized that I don’t really love the deafening silence in between.
Between the few pieces I’ve written so far and two interviews I’ve conducted behind the scenes, one thing has become glaringly apparent: it can be very cringey to revisit the ideas and opinions of your youth.
I recently interviewed my friend Ben—his friends called me a poser when I was a teen—and I asked him to consider what made someone in the punk scene a poser back in the day. He took a moment to think, then gave me a very mature answer about how no one is really a poser, they’re simply new to a scene. He then went on to explain that the word “poser” is only thrown around by people who are insecure before I cut him off. “I know!” I yelled. “But don’t answer my question like a 39 year old man—think about what you considered a poser back when you were 19!”
I realize that’s a lot easier said than done. For example, in the post I’m dropping later this month I talk about how I used to believe in vampires and would relentlessly bully my high school boyfriend in an effort to make him more goth. As I read back what I wrote I thought, “maybe I shouldn’t share this, I sound like an idiot.” But you know what, 20 years from now I’ll probably look back at life in my 30s and think the exact same thing.
The point of me bringing this up is, I hope to make this a space to look back and laugh and smile and sometimes cringe at subculture politics and the things we did when we were younger and in our respective scenes. But I don’t want this to be a space to judge ourselves, or others, or even to really dissect it all. I just want to look back and have fun. And I want to make that clear up front, because if you’re someone reading this, I’d also like to hear from you.
I know the punk scene (also the Christian punk scene, which is a whole other thing) and the goth scene and I’ve dabbled in the world of ska, but there are so many scenes I don’t know. Were you a rockabilly kid or a metal dude? I honestly want to know.
So periodically I’m going to do one of the following two things:
Open the floor to you guys—meaning anyone reading this. I may only have a few subscribers right now, but I still want to know. If you’re reading this, I’m asking you?/daring you? to share what your scene was or still is. Or maybe you never really fit in with any particular scene, but was there one that you sort of always admired from afar?
Drop something silly but hopefully fun as a reminder that it ain’t that deep. Today’s silly thing is a Dead Scenester crossword puzzle—maybe the first of more to come. I tried to keep this one short and fairly simple, and I tried to reference a couple of different scenes. I definitely failed to cater to everyone, but just last week I interviewed my very metal friend (I know virtually nothing about metal), so as I gather little snippets from other scenes. I’ll try and branch out.
Well, enjoy this dumb crossword* and tell me a little bit about yourself, if you feel so inclined. And thanks for being here!
* I’ll include the crossword answers in my next post