Politics & Power Quote by Lester Bangs

A sneer dressed up as prophecy: Bangs is betting that cultural poverty might do what the music industry can’t - make rock feel dangerous again. The line pivots on a bitterly funny inversion. You’d expect him to mourn the fact that “kids can’t afford to see it,” but he treats that barrier as a cleansing fire. When access gets priced out, the spectacle collapses, and what’s left is the cheap, loud, homemade impulse that birthed rock in the first place.

The subtext is a takedown of professionalization. “New Wave” in late-70s America was already hardening into a market category: the right hair, the right clubs, the right labels, the right critical buzz. Bangs refuses to let it become a boutique genre for downtown tastemakers and label reps. He’s mocking a scene that calls itself new while behaving like an old industry - centralized, curated, expensive.

“Garage bands” is doing a lot of work here. It’s not nostalgia; it’s a demand for decentralization. The garage is the anti-venue: no cover charge, no bouncers, no brand. Bangs’ intent is almost punitive: if the gates are up, kids will build a different door. He imagines grassroots not as a slogan but as an economic condition, where necessity forces invention and the music regains stakes because it’s made by people with nothing to sell except noise and need.

It’s also Bangs warning critics (himself included): if “New Wave” only lives in reviews and trend pieces, it’s already dead.