Kiss This: Punk in the Present Tense - Tapa blanda

Looks at recent developments in punk rock music, and argues that much of it has been commercialized, undermining its original philosophy of rebellion and alienation.

Kiss This is, in the words of author Gina Arnold is, "a true crime story". The crime that has been committed is no less than the slow annihilation of an art form (punk as it was originally conceived), and Arnold is not shy about pointing out the murderers: Tipper Gore, Green Day, Courtney Love, Geffen Records, Airwalk shoes, Lollapalooza, Inc., and even the progenitors the Sex Pistols themselves are all implicated here. Kiss This is a short history of the hip, the hard, and the real -- and how the accounting elements of the music industry exploit every pop culture trend until it doesn't have a breath left. The post-Nirvana feeding frenzy left behind a trail of waste and deception, completely perverting the terms "alternative" and "grunge" until they might as well have been trademarked. Nothing was or is real once its been packaged.