Jay: "Those bands used to be considered punk, hell even Devo was punk, now I don't know what punk is, I don't care for most of it. It all sounds the same, like us. We sound the same, for 17 years. Haha". Greg: "English punk died in '79 or '80. Maybe '82 at the latest (...) I don't think American punk ever died. Part of that is thanks to bands like Bad Religion, of which there aren't many". Jay: "[punk] is too specific in terms of what it is. It used to be, if you got on-stage and screamed into a megaphone and smashed a typewriter with a sledgehammer, you were punk. But now you're art-rock or whatever... ".
In 1991, when asked "does punk rock change the world?" Brett answered "slightly". Jay: "it's changed the fashion world". Bobby: "yes, it's changed people's attitude towards music, it's opened their minds (...) it opened the door for other types of music". Greg: "No. That's an unqualified No. (...) if you could get people to think a little bit you could make some people a bit happier, some people more able to cope with problems in the western world and make a little bit of a difference". Hetson: "it's changed the music industry a lot". Brett: "being punk as a kid meant that I was a misfit. Being punk now is meaningless to me. I'm not punk". Brian: "It was already blown out of proportion by 1985. That sense of community and danger had dissipated as soon as runway models started wearing leather jackets with studs in them and movies like Sid and Nancy came out. The only reason everyone's saying it's all being destroyed now is because they're 14. Punk rock is now mainstream and you can't fix that. It's time to stop worrying about the community that doesn't exist and be more concerned about liking bands for the right reasons because maybe they have something important to say, not what label they are on. Take the time to investigate music a little bit more thoroughly which is one of the few things you still can do that we used to do when we were punk."