Editing Lester Bangs (section)

== Writing style and cultural commentary==
Bangs's criticism was filled with cultural references, not only to rock music but also to literature and philosophy. His radical and confrontational style influenced others in the punk rock and related social and political movements.<ref name= Bustillos /> In a 1982 interview, he said:

{{blockquote|Well, basically, I just started out to lead [an interview] with the most insulting question I could think of. Because it seemed to me that the whole thing of interviewing as far as rock stars and that was just such a suck-up. It was groveling obeisance to people who weren't that special, really. It's just a guy, just another person, so what?<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.furious.com/Perfect/lesterbangs.html |first = Jim |last = DeRogatis |title = A Final Chat with Lester Bangs |publisher = Perfect Sound Forever | website = furious.com|date = November 1999 |access-date = August 6, 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100117095828/http://www.furious.com/perfect/lesterbangs.html |archive-date = January 17, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

A performer with his own band, he also appeared on stage with others at times. On one occasion, while [[the J. Geils Band]] were playing in concert, Bangs climbed onto the stage, typewriter in hand, and proceeded to type a supposed review of the event, in full view of the audience, banging the keys in rhythm with the music.<ref name="Cider">{{cite book |first= Stuart |last= Maconie |year= 2004 |title= Cider with Roadies |publisher= Random House |location= London |isbn= 0-09-189115-9 |page= 227}}</ref>

In 1979, writing for ''The Village Voice'', Bangs wrote a piece about [[racism]] in the punk music scene, called "The White Noise Supremacists", wherein he re-examined his own actions and words, and those of his peers, in light of some bands using [[Nazi]] symbolism, and other racist speech and imagery, "for shock value". He came to the conclusion that generating outrage for attention was not worth the harm it was causing fellow members of the community, and expressed his personal shame and embarrassment about having engaged in these racist behaviors himself. He praised the efforts of activist groups like [[Rock Against Racism]] and [[Rock Against Sexism]] as "an attempt at simple decency by a lot of people whom one would think too young and naive to begin to appreciate the contradictions."<ref name=Bangs79>{{cite book|last=Bangs |first=Lester |author-link=Lester Bangs |date=1988 |editor-last= Marcus |editor-first= Greil |editor-link=Greil Marcus| title=[[Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock 'n' Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock 'n' Roll]]|publisher=[[Anchor Press]] |page= 282|isbn=0-679-72045-6}}</ref><ref name=WNSpdf>{{cite web |url = http://www.mariabuszek.com/mariabuszek/kcai/PoMoSeminar/Readings/BangsWhite.pdf  |first = Lester |last = Bangs |title = The White Noise Supremacists |publisher = |work= The Village Voice| via= mariabuszek.com |date = April 1979 |access-date = April 11, 2021 }}</ref>