Punk Is Dead... Long Live The Tabloids

(Journalism opinion piece)

Hi my name is Nicolette. I like the Sex Pistols, Joys Division and keeping up with Hollywood gossip.

How is it that I can listen to punk music but still manage to religiously thrash through the tabloids? Well, if you think about it, the A-List iconic humans on this crazy planet are actually running riots of their own.

Kate Moss crosses the line by snorting a crisp, white, cocaine line. Britney Spears has lost her husband and kids, blonde locks and cute frocks; this 90's pop icon has lost the plot. Owen Wilson is our modern day successful suicide attempt. Amy Winehouse, is well, Amy Winehouse, on crack, with tatts, bad hair, bad odour, bad manners and all - but what a voice!

It seems like such a contradiction to hold an interest in the punk movement but still steal mum's Women's Weekly magazines. It seems like such a joke being able to recognise similarities between today's A-List actors, pop stars and models to the previous Sex Pistols. It seem so fake to take an interest in who shoots up before going on the runway and in he who has it all but thinks life isn't worth living.

Yet I find it funny how people, like myself, are turning to such a mainstream source of information to get our weekly doseage of these A-List riots, just so that we can sub-conciously believe that anarchy and punk still goes on. But because the original punk movement phased out after its creators vanished from the scene, true punk is dead, so, long live the tabloids.

I assume that these modern day riots are so attractive to New Zealander's because our celebrities are a pathetic excuse compared to those on the other side of the world. The men like sport and the girls are so ridiculously cliche it is boring.

The best you would read about is how Nicky Watson threw her cocktail on her airhead of a boyfriend after he pays more attention to the All Blacks losing the world cup than to her new boob job.

Face it New Zealand, if our celebrities were to be put in to a list they'd be in N-Lister's (Nobody cares-Lister's/Nicolette isn't interested-Lister's) and that is the fourteenth letter in the alphabet. We don't exactly have rebels running around without a cause and thrusting their pelvises toward rehabilitation centres and insane asylums.

Maybe some of you like it that we're in such a wholesome community and call me biased for working in a magazine store, but when you want "Anarchy In The U.K" - I mean N.Z, you most certainly will find all the punk/tabloids you need in a gluey-paged gossip magazine!