Death in Vegas

Abstract

Abstract This chapter engages with punk and nostalgia and punk’s new role as an important site of cultural heritage by looking at two heritage events: Punk London, a yearlong set of events held at various iconic British venues in 2017, and Punk Rock Bowling, an annual festival of all things punk rock that was held in Las Vegas until 2019. The author argues that citing punk as being “as iconic to the UK’s heritage story as Stonehenge and the British Museum,” as the London event did, is especially peculiar, as the main target of early British punk’s ire was the English monarchy, and many early British punk gestures were intended to undermine hallowed British institutions such as the fashion industry, the BBC, and the monarchy. Both Punk London and Punk Rock Bowling give clear evidence that the heritage discourse has become a key element in generational identity formation, moving it away from imperialist history and closer to mediatized events in the recent past. This chapter also tries to account for some of the disjunctions that a punk retrospective calls to mind, with especial reference to the preservation of punk rock relics, the paradox inherent in fetishizing punk rock memorabilia, and the anomalous experience of seeing live punk performances in a festival setting made by a bunch of elderly punk rock acts—in, of all places, Las Vegas, a city known for exhibiting the worst excesses of capitalism, one of punk rock’s initial targets.