One of the fundamental elements of punk rock ethos is to respect one another regardless of gender, sexuality, or race. Whether it’s abiding by 924 Gilman’s Rules, listening to an Anti-Racist Action Benefit compilation you were given at Warped Tour, or covering the second-best Dead Kennedys’ song, reinforcing this philosophy has been ingrained in the alt-music world. While it’s great to be in scenes that embody the same moral values, representation is just as important. It’s gratifying enough to see younger generations starting up garage bands and making videos on TikTok, but to see the diversity amongst these bands brings a sense of joy to even the most curmudgeon of pop punk edgelords.
Watching the rise in popularity of a band made up of black teenagers like The Paradox, has been a breath of fresh air. There is a long history of alternative bands and artists in the realm of punk, emo and pop punk that have included black members and they don’t always get the recognition they deserve.
As Black History Month comes to an end, it’s important to celebrate these bands and representation more than 28-29 days of the year.
So here’s a Black History Month playlist that will hopefully stay in rotation throughout the year.
Sure, there are some staples that stick out over others like Bloc Party, TV on the Radio, or Gym Class Heroes, but then there are bands like indie-darlings Black Kids and mid-00s pop punkers Whole Wheat Bread (a band that sounds like Dude Ranch-era Blink 182) who flamed out far too soon.
There is also historical precedence with bands from the 70s punk scene like the iconic X-Ray Spex, fronted by feminist punk legend Poly Styrene. The Somali-British Styrene embodied an energy in her singing and performance that would influence riot grrrl acts two decades later. Detroit in the 70s brought the likes of Death (not to be confused with the 80s metal band Death), a band that essentially disbanded shortly after recording a handful of songs, only to reform nearly four decades later. Any playlist celebrating punk and punk-adjacent bands fronted by black artists would be remiss to not include Bad Brains or Fishbone and this is no exception
(Actually that’s a lie, considering H.R.’s homophobia accusations, I didn’t feel comfortable including Bad Brains on this playlist, but it also felt like a crime to exclude them, so as a compromise I used a cover Denzel Curry made of “I Against I” that rules).
Fishbone already cemented themselves as the band that should have had Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ career, and further became an IYKYK watercooler talk moment when Questlove almost got fired from The Tonight Show for playing the band’s song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” for Michelle Bachmann’s walk-on music.
Forty songs felt appropriate for historical and aesthetic reasons. While this, of course isn’t a comprehensive list, there was an attempt to diversify the bonds of the alternative music spectrum. Early in the playlist, songs by some of the aforementioned historical bands are interspersed with more modern band that maintain the vibe including one of Brittany Howard’s 100 side projects Thunderbitch, and everyone’s favorite headbutting Batman asskicker Wesley Willis. The playlist includes bands inspired by 80 skate punk like Twenty One Children and Rough Francis (Formed by the sons of a member of Death and can be heard on the recent Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 remake) that then transitions into more melodic-oriented sounds that include The OBGMs, Meet Me @ the Altar and Burning Years representing different sides of the pop punk umbrella. Soon after, the playlist careens through some more emo and emo-adjacent songs with bands like the completely underrated Oceanator, the endearing Proper., and the very fun Aye Nako. The third act of this playlist dips its toe into the indie rock pool with the band Roseblood (former The Thermals bassist Kathy Foster’s band), an amazing Smashing Pumpkins cover by Bad Rabbits and, just for shits and giggles, a ska song by SkaTune Network extraordinaire JER.
This is truly the tip of the iceberg when it comes to black-fronted bands within the realm of alternative music. It may take a little bit of digging through reddit threads and youtube rabbit holes, but there are amazing resources like AfroPop Worldwide - including an article that was used pretty heavily in the research for this playlist. This author would also like to recommend checking out the podcast Black People Love Paramore, the writing of Hanif Abdurraqib, this interview with Measures of Music founder Christine Osazuwa.
Erik Casarez is a writer with pieces featured in The San Antonio Current and websites Mxdwn.com and Geeks of Color. He currently writes and take photos for KOOP 97.1 FM in Austin, Texas. He has served as a producer for two different podcasts Cover Stories and Mixtape Stories. You can find more of his work on Substack, TikTok, and Instagram.