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ARTS SCENE from a youthful rebellion, its rhythms are often fast and upbeat via stripped-down musical instrumentation. Punk rock’s primary ingredients include catchy, inventive lyrics alongside electric guitar, bass and percussion. Today, there are hundreds of variations. In fact, spin-offs sprout up as often as Miami drivers honking their horns on I-95. Notable styles include new wave, post- punk, hardcore, pop punk, emo and indie. The Who – 5:15 The Who’s 5:15 is a true representation of punk rock in the 1970’s. The song’s melody is swift, while Townshend’s lyrics are poetic. The lack of punctuation is indicative of the decade’s carefree mentality. In this case, the song’s signature words (uppers and downers) are deemed as iconic vocabulary. Digging a little deeper, 5:15 is filled with a cornucopia of free and bound morphemes. Specifically, suffix (a morpheme is defined as the smallest element of English grammar) while on the flip side, articles and determiners are few and far between. The song’s message is extremely captivating because it’s derived from words that hold very strong images: sexually, magically, tightly and sadly. It is this literal and figurative relationship that not only identifies a key characteristic of the band, but also ignites our enthusiasm for language. Lastly, The Who (Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle, Moon) pioneered visually charged, raw stripped-down lyrics. They also managed to bully language into behavior, which is why they’re classified as evolutionary grammarians. Dead Kennedys – Gone With My Wind Well, it doesn’t get more 1980’s punk rock than the Dead Kennedys (Flouride, Biafra, Peligro, Pepperell). This west coast band is notorious for bashing conservative ideals and right-wing ideologies. As you could imagine, they’re the poster child of the First Amendment. Americana, to me, is filled with apple pies and corn flakes. However, for the Dead Kennedys, it’s littered with satirical jabs at foreign policies and Wall Street jokes. The Dead Kennedys’ Gone With My Wind possesses four diversified sentence types (statement, command, exclamation, question), which also share a reciprocal relationship with punctuation. The majority of the lyrics are statements (gives information). Next are questions (asks for information) followed by commands (establishes authority). Finally, exclamations (catalyzes enthusiasm) are used least. What’s even more interesting about the Dead Kennedys is their music is filled with elements of Saves the Day (Conley, Bali, Carrero, Lang) is a power pop punk band from Princeton, New Jersey. Since the band’s conception, Conley has produced a bevy of “confessional-style” songs. His ability to weave ingenious lyrics with avant-garde subjects has made them a force-to-be- reckoned-with. Conley’s transformational thoughts are an instrument for language creativity, which exist far beyond our neighbor’s bland white-picket fence. And by varying grammatical and lyrical structures, Saves the Day developed a new creative style. The grammatical phrases of Saves the Day’s Rocks Tonic Juice Magic (RTJM) rely heavily on verb and noun phrases. Why is that? It’s because during the 1990’s, punk songs transitioned away from long-winded prepositional and adjective phrases. Another unique aspect of RTJM is its approach on punctuation. We see a collision of previous philosophies (1970’s, 1980’s) in order to form a hybrid in the 1990’s. This flexibility has a direct relationship on the lyrics’ aggressive sentiments and vocal delivery. Messages and intentions are now stretched out to create an additional layer of impact. In all of my years of singing along to Saves the Day, I’ve yet to become bored Hailing from Ontario, Sum 41 (Whibley, Thacker, McCaslin, Jocz) epitomize this millennium’s version of punk rock. To their credit, they’ve created four platinum albums and three EPs, and are the recipients of two Juno Awards (2002, 2005). One of their greatest accomplishments came in 2004, when they took home The Good Woodie Award for Greatest Social Impact. Various clause types are seen in Sum 41’s With Me. Most prominently, the repetition of subject, verb and subject compliment clauses. The methodology behind this grammatical style is that in today’s punk climate, emotions rule supreme. An example of this is I am nothing without you. This trim confessional-style cements the group’s identity while hinting at punk rock dispositions of the 1990’s. With concerns to punctuation, we see an amalgam of previous techniques. With Me possesses unpunctuated fragments as well as complete descriptive statements. All together, Sum 41 brings emotionally concrete subject/verb clauses with a new school flare. Conclusion Lyrics exist as a preservation of time, where grammatical evolutions are deciphered just as easily as their transformational decade stereotypes. From the 1970’s to today, both punk rock and language continue to inspire because they capture the human spirit. Therefore, I want to thank bands such as The Who, Dead Kennedys, Saves the Day and Sum 41 for showing us that grammar can impact a phrase, melody or feeling. The grammatical lessons learned are felt with every strum on the guitar. ML MIAMI LIVING 89 punctuation; which is the antithesis of The Who’s 5:15. This is clearly an example of language change – the passing of fragments to the birth of lyrical sentence structure. Musically, the Dead Kennedys manufactured hardcore anarchy in quick two-minute songs. Overtly radical lyrics such as What’ll happen if I push this button? Start World War III for fun produce a vehicle for emotion. In my opinion, this band is classified as the prototype of political unrest during the 1980’s. Their music targeted people with power and thus, catalyzed action. Saves the Day – Rocks Tonic Juice Magic with their sound or clever wordplay. Their artistic panache is located on every grammatical branch they break. They are, without question, the torchbearers for punk rock in the Y2K era. Sum 41 – With Me