Artificial Peace: Outside Looking In
This is my go-to song on this topic. Minor Threat's Out Of Step is the obvious DC hardcore choice, but for me Artificial Peace hit much closer to home with Outside Looking In. This song defines for me what it's like to be a punk when so many look at punk only in terms of the particular style of punk they identify with. Too spiky, not spiky enough, not drunk enough, not sober, et cetera. Always halfway in, halfway out, and caught in between.
Saint Vitus: Born Too Late
The title track to their 1986 full length. This time the concept is aimed more at society as a whole, rather than a particular subculture. If I don't fit in with the punks, then why would I think I'd fit in with straight society. I've never had an interest in conforming to their planned out lifestyle. No workplace pot lucks, no pta meetings, no high school football games. You laugh and point, stare at me, but I don't want to be like you.
Die Antwoord: Alien
Die Antwoord's Yolandi Visser takes the concept back to childhood, to school, where most of us learned that we didn't want to fit it. This one does a good job of capturing both the feeling of just wanting to belong and the defiant realization that you're better off on the outside. I don't want to fit in anyway, I was born a misfit. Fuck a normal life.
