How corporate sold punk.

the grrrls start a riot!

Via Instagram/@trampstamps	"The first time I saw Tramp Stamps was on my “For You” page on TikTok. They were emphatically lip syncing to their newest song, gingerly letting these vulgar, yet vaguely feminist words leave their mouths. Their sound is punchy, unapologetic punk, with the self-prescribed title of “Riot Grrrl”. At first I didn’t see anything wrong with this trio of candy coloured women, they even seemed a little bit charming. In hindsight I feel a bit silly for not listening properly to the full clip, a realisation that would hit me as soon as I opened the comments. Hundreds of clamouring voices banded together to echo the same sentiment, taking specific issue with the lyric “I’d rather die than hook up with another straight white guy”. And I agree. How can a band that claims to be feminist double cross themselves by fetishising LGBTQ+ and POC voices? There had to be more to this There is undeniable proof that Maino, the lead singer of Tramp Stamps, signed a recording deal with Dr. Luke for Prescription Songs. There’s two fundamental problems with this: not only is the point of Riot Grrrl to speak the personal truth of feminists without the contraints of corporate, but Dr. Luke is notorious for abusing the trust of female artists, most famous for his lawsuit with Kesha and subsequent sexual abuse allegations from multiple women. Nothing came of the charges, but you’d be downright wrong to deny the voices of many victims whether that be with prosecution or without, because abuse is never Punk. The lack of authenticity was only a fraction of the problem, and the three women scurried to defend themselves against the snowballing mob that hurtled towards them. But this isn’t the first time the industry machine has tried to bottle and sell Punk in any of its varieties. Look no further than the abashedly northern YungBlud, an artist who parodies many of the issues working class Englanders face whilst secretly being born with a silver spoon under his tongue. He joins the masses of male performers who wear skirts, not as a form of gender expression, but as a way to performatively masquerade as liberal in order to appeal to more women. He also spits into the audience and uses his own phlegm as hair gel, and I’ll be honest, I’m retching whilst typing this. My eyes are literally filling up with tears as I hold back my vomit, but I digress. None of these are unique crimes, sure. If twitter was around in the 80s and everything was as extensively documented as it is now, I’m pretty certain that I couldn’t in good conscience stream the majority of the artists I love. So can you be a punk whilst being a hypocrite and abuse apologist? I don’t know really, who’s to say? I’m one of the many kids with an internet connection in this joint."

"The first time I saw Tramp Stamps was on my “For You” page on TikTok. They were emphatically lip syncing to their newest song, gingerly letting these vulgar, yet vaguely feminist words leave their mouths. Their sound is punchy, unapologetic punk, with the self-prescribed title of “Riot Grrrl”. At first I didn’t see anything wrong with this trio of candy coloured women, they even seemed a little bit charming. In hindsight I feel a bit silly for not listening properly to the full clip, a realisation that would hit me as soon as I opened the comments. Hundreds of clamouring voices banded together to echo the same sentiment, taking specific issue with the lyric “I’d rather die than hook up with another straight white guy”. And I agree. How can a band that claims to be feminist double cross themselves by fetishising LGBTQ+ and POC voices? There had to be more to this

There is undeniable proof that Maino, the lead singer of Tramp Stamps, signed a recording deal with Dr. Luke for Prescription Songs. There’s two fundamental problems with this: not only is the point of Riot Grrrl to speak the personal truth of feminists without the contraints of corporate, but Dr. Luke is notorious for abusing the trust of female artists, most famous for his lawsuit with Kesha and subsequent sexual abuse allegations from multiple women. Nothing came of the charges, but you’d be downright wrong to deny the voices of many victims whether that be with prosecution or without, because abuse is never Punk.

The lack of authenticity was only a fraction of the problem, and the three women scurried to defend themselves against the snowballing mob that hurtled towards them. But this isn’t the first time the industry machine has tried to bottle and sell Punk in any of its varieties. Look no further than the abashedly northern YungBlud, an artist who parodies many of the issues working class Englanders face whilst secretly being born with a silver spoon under his tongue. He joins the masses of male performers who wear skirts, not as a form of gender expression, but as a way to performatively masquerade as liberal in order to appeal to more women. He also spits into the audience and uses his own phlegm as hair gel, and I’ll be honest, I’m retching whilst typing this. My eyes are literally filling up with tears as I hold back my vomit, but I digress.

None of these are unique crimes, sure. If twitter was around in the 80s and everything was as extensively documented as it is now, I’m pretty certain that I couldn’t in good conscience stream the majority of the artists I love. So can you be a punk whilst being a hypocrite and abuse apologist? I don’t know really, who’s to say? I’m one of the many kids with an internet connection in this joint."

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