The Birth of DIY

NSFW.  Like every obscure idea that eventually works its way into the mainstream, the D.I.Y concept (Do It Yourself) has been co-opted by marketers focused on people fixing up their fancy houses who shop at Home Depot and other megastores.  But that's not where DIY started.  In the early 1980's, it was a punk rock thing, and this clip above explains it well.  A bunch of high school kids with lots of pent up energy and not a lot of musical background listened to the early punk rock from the late 70's.  These kids wanted to make their own music.  But no promoter would book them, no record company would record them, no big venue would want them.  So these kids started their own bands, and gave birth to hardcore punk.  They booked their own shows.  They recorded their own records and made their own T-shirts.  Some kids published zines talking about the bands and the scene.  Whatever needed to be done, they did it themselves.

As bands like Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, and many others toured and played, that DIY attitude spread.  I first heard of punk music when Phil, the main punker at Boise High School, sat next to me in History class.  He let me listen to his Walkman, and read me lyrics from the DK's and other bands.  The music sounded pretty horrible to me, but I liked the lyrics.  I was getting into BMX around that time, and I ended up on the only local freestyle team, doing our own shows in the Boise area.  The DIY concept crept into skateboarding, BMX freestyle, and other early action sports.  I started a BMX zine when I moved to San Jose, California, and my career took off form there, completely by accident.  I wasn't trying to get a magazine job, I was just doing what I loved, which was riding, writing, and shooting photos of BMX freestyle.  Around the country and ultimately the world, lots of other high school kids were doing similar things.

In the 1980's, we didn't have cell phones, the internet, blogs, social media and all the communications tech we have now.  But we used what was available and made the most of it.  Those weird kids going to small hardcore punk shows spawned not just a new form of punk music, but a whole DIY mentaility that reverberated through society.  Several whole industries owe part of their existence to hardcore punk and the DIY mentality.

I'm writing about this today, because I'm holding my first Pop-Up Art Show later today.  More DIY.  This event is less organized than most pop-up events.  I had an idea, I wanted to meet some of the other artists in this area, so I made $3 worth of fliers, handed them out and posted them around town, and put up a blog and a Facebook post.  I have no idea who, if anyone, will show up.  And that's the great thing about it.  Pretty much anything that happens will be great.  I can't really lose on a $3 investment.  If anyone shows up and we talk art and creativity for an hour or two, BONUS.

The hardcore music has faded into history.  Those early punkers, like myself, are now middle-aged.  Technology has changed drastically.  But the underlying spirit of Doing It Yourself is still waiting for people to make use of it.  What could you do for yourself today?

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