Punk music isn't pretty, it's not like other genres where it's polished words and a melody you spend months perfecting. The beauty in it comes from the rawness and the emotion. In the early days, the 70s and the early 80s it was about a displaced generation angry about being ignored and standing up the the status quo to have their voices heard. When I came on the scene in the early to mid 2000s, real punk music had died in the 80s with the hardcore revolution, and we were too young to really appreciate the grunge music our older siblings listened to. We were again a generation left without a way to express ourselves. The emo punk scene was never about fighting the man or the status quo, we didn't give a shit about what people outside the scene thought. We were going to be the emotional revolution, it was okay to be sad, you didn't have to hide your broken heart and when you fell in love you put yourself into it 100%. We were going to change the world, not through violence or force like the skinhead and hardcore movement before us, but through empathy, feelings and social connection. Looking back now in my mid 30s, it's not surprising that we failed, we were just a bunch of awkward idealistic kids without a purpose or direction who just wanted to belong...to be a part or something bigger than ourselves. In the end we didn't really change anything, our voices were never really heard and the scene floundered and died out...we didn't change the world, but it was beautiful for those of us who had the privilege to be there and live it, and there will never be anything like it again.