Rocco_81

I have to completely disagree.

Marketing ploy to me is that try hard look - Travis Barkers who did rap and "punk" with a mohawk, tats, nose rings and the whole 9. Blink 182 with the goofy jerk off metaphors, sensitive, funny goofy guys who sing about their girlfriend (edgy to a 12 y/o but not to an adult) or Green Day who sometimes sound British and again write about the sorrows of living in sunny California and having an off day with their GF.

The real punks in my day (and still today) wore old jeans, hand me down boots, white t-shirt or whatever else they had to wear that day. They were more likely to have a homemade tat or jail house tat, than $1000's of dollars of ink (what real punk can afford that?) They were as likely to have no hair, or just messy hair, as they were a died and hand crafted Mohawk. But maybe that is just me..

Axl Rose gave not a fawk about most things. Think about it, at the height of their popularity he wrote "One in a million" which absolutely pissed off lots of people. Outside of it being a beautiful song, it added elements of racism, anti-gay, anti-police and anti-political feelings. Now, I'm not getting into if his lyrics were right or wrong, but who else would do that at the peak of stardom? Right or wrong that was a huge ballsy move. I won't even get into the fights, insults, and reckless life he led. Also not showing up to the lame ass rock n roll hall of fame induction was a big middle finger to the establishment as well.

Liam (thought you didn't mention him) was def a sub working class kid from Manchester. He was closer to a football hooligan than your typical artist. Sitting in normal working class pubs, chugging beer, doing coke with models, fistfights with other bands , his own brother, purposely stating Oasis was better than the beatles (an ode to Lennon saying Beatles were bigger than Jesus)..his overall working class attitude and not caring what anyone thought, was/is punk rock, regardless of how their music became more mainstream throughout their career.