‘The Offspring’s ‘Americana’ Rode Resentment And Respectability Politics All The Way To The...

Gotta admit, this is a really interesting & intriguing take. Granted, there's some context to the band's overall career and how precisely "punk" they have been... but I certainly agree with the viewpoint the author brings up. You can hear similar songwriting perspectives on other Offspring records, too.

 

This was a great read. It gives me a lot to think about and makes me a little grateful that I never listened to the Offspring beyond casual radio play.

 

That argument falls flat for me because it requires assuming that lyrics of general application must fit all specific fact patterns equally in order to be valid/non-problematic. It's essentially arguing all these tracks should have been laden with specifics negating theoretical structural impediments for various behaviors, which would have made the songs (a) less impactful/universal and (b) more bloated/clunky. It keeps asking "what if [insert sympathetic possibility]?" when that's an exercise you could engage in for millions of songs to ill effect. It's telling that the author doesn't argue that the traits depicted in the songs (emotional baggage, criminality, irresponsibility, etc.) are good by any means, merely that they're potentially excusable in certain scenarios. Which, fine, but that's a pretty weaksauce critique, all things considered, and certainly not something genre-specific. But as to genre, we can have punk that skewers "the man"/"the system" and punk that also skewers perceived individual failings, and you can read both strains in an ungenerous fashion if you so choose to. This author chose to, and specifically by importing elements not found on the albums proper. Which made for an interesting read, as Jason notes, but requires buying into more premises than I'm willing to grant.

 

tbh I'm a little mad that someone wrote this article before I had the chance to, because this is basically what my internal monologue is every time I listen to this band lol.

anyways, this raises a ton of valid points -- i still feel my blood pressure rise a lil bit every time I think about how much songs like She's Got Issues/Want You Bad/etc definitely contributed to my internalized misogyny as a teenager, much less the dudes I know.

I do think the article's take on the record as a whole as a statement of "treating socioeconomic failure as personal fault" is a little bit of a reach. Walla Walla is a weird song, and I do see that theme coming through in it. Otherwise... the title of the record is a play on the name of the country lol, which always signified pretty clearly to me that the point was "American society is messed up" and not "laugh at the lower class because it's their own fault."

I also don't really see how The Kids Arent Alright shifts blame onto the kids? If anything, when I was young + heard that song, my takeaway was more along the lines of "hey, those burnout adults started as regular kids, and that means that there's something else at play here, more than just the individual." I don't see where the author drew their conclusion from on that one at all.

 

Funny, The Ringer has an Americana article today too. I guess it's the 20 year anniversary of the album.

A Track-by-Track Review of the Offspring’s ‘Americana,’ 20 Years Later

 

I mean... yeah. They wrote some great songs but its always been obvious enough that The Offspring aren't one of the more 'PC Punk" bands.

 

This is good, haha. Thanks for sharing.

 

just. say. no.

 

The tone of this article is absolutely hilarious. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

No shade at all, I really love this absurd fancy gentlemen thing you do with your posts. One of the first fun trips down someone's comment history I've had in a while. Cheers!

 

Yeah maybe. Idk. I never really thought about it. Just a bunch of catchy punk songs to me