The D.I.Y Ethos and Marinetti

After reading Marinetti and his Futurist Manifesto and discussing some underlying themes that relate to contemporary art and music, I have began to examine how some of his ideals relate quite closely to punk rock and the ideals of D.I.Y. The acronym stands for "do it yourself" which preaches independence from others in as many aspects of your life as possible. The D.I.Y attitude came about in punk rock when bands with no musical background or skill began playing and writing. Traditionally, bands were formed by actual musicians and a dramatic tun occurred with the birth of the punk scene when actual talent was no longer important. Bands like The Hunches taught themselves to play, wrote all their own music, and developed the most distinct sound in their unconventional instrumentation and recordings. The name itself pertains to a hunch, or the gut feeling and intuition over reason and logic.

Marinetti preaches many similar ideals to those expressed in punk rock; the ideas of radical social change, youth over age, and the glorification of social unrest and violence. However, many ideals of both punk rock and the Futurist Manifesto are clearly very ideal and almost contradictory. Quite often, these very radical ideas do little more in terms of a social revolution but more in regard to questioning authority and self empowerment.