Strange Notes from the LA Punk Underground: The Durability of Darby Crash and the Germs

dc.contributor.authorBrown, Peter
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-13T22:42:05Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.date.updated2015-12-11T10:05:30Z
dc.description.abstractThis essay examines the durability of Darby Crash, lead singer of the Germs, one of Los Angeles's earliest punk bands. Crash committed suicide in 1980, but he and the Germs continue to fascinate those familiar with their music and story. This ongoing interest is the result of numerous factors, including the Germs' music, Crash's disturbing worldview and charisma, and our more general obsession with celebrity and death. After offering a brief account of Crash's life and his involvement with the Germs, I discuss his largely closeted queerness, one of the apparent reasons behind his suicide; I consider the idea of authenticity and its importance in the ideology of rock and punk. Then, I contextualize Crash in the culture of the United States and Los Angeles in the late 1970s.
dc.identifier.issn0007-7720
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/78807
dc.publisherUniversity of Toronto Press
dc.sourceCanadian Review of American Studies
dc.titleStrange Notes from the LA Punk Underground: The Durability of Darby Crash and the Germs
dc.typeJournal article
local.bibliographicCitation.issue2
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage222
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage199
local.contributor.affiliationBrown, Peter, College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU
local.contributor.authoremailu9112501@anu.edu.au
local.contributor.authoruidBrown, Peter, u9112501
local.description.embargo2037-12-31
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.identifier.absfor190200 - FILM, TELEVISION AND DIGITAL MEDIA
local.identifier.absseo950201 - Communication Across Languages and Culture
local.identifier.ariespublicationf5625xPUB7381
local.identifier.citationvolume41
local.identifier.doi10.3138/cras.41.2.199
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-80051999914
local.identifier.thomsonID000295419600005
local.identifier.uidSubmittedByf5625
local.type.statusPublished Version

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