the wall street journal

Punk rock’s most widely recognized defining characteristic is a complete lack of finesse or talent. This deficiency, or quality, depending on your perspective, tends to be either worn proudly on the sleeve (or tattooed where a sleeve would be), or it is hidden by volume, speed, stage stunts, and/or other creative acts of distraction. When you set out to judge punk rock music, the first thing you have to do is decide for yourself if it’s fair to the artist to separate their substance from their style. You always risk taking the art more seriously than the artist does… and maybe that’s something that needs to be done.