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Subject: Something from my blog regarding music and non-conformity.
Written By: wixness on 04/21/20 at 7:21 pm
v9gLmBgUTV4Religious fundamentalism and its associated socially conservative tenets against gender non-conformity, homosexuality and even mild narcotic use were fought in the 80s with rock and heavy metal, the 90s fought the law with rap and hip hop, the 2020s need something to fight authoritarianism more badly than ever too since they seem to be making a comeback even outside of America (look at Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Brazil, India, literally every fudgeing corner of this world will survive the pandemic but will be scarred with systems of repression that enforce the existence of one race, one imprisoning creed, a uniform of expression that doesn’t fit everyone, one relationship between the genders and one destructive measure of value for anything). There seems to be today no rock or metal or any equivalent of to fight religious fundamentalism, and rap and hip hop is so mainstream now at least in my opinion even bootlickers enjoy it and the genre seems to lacks the punch it once had.
Now, rap and hip hop may be still relevant with regards to police brutality but there’s nothing to make people fight the system or vice versa - people are throwing away subscription money for music that is DRM-locked that can’t be played or even kept outside or even in the platform even when downloaded, instead of pirating it to keep to destroy the system that encourages profiteering of culture. There’s no appeal to embrace being gay and doing crimes unlike the 80s and 90s but I think it’s because being into rock or hip hop was “manly” even with sagged pants and nearly drag queen-levels of make-up, while being “woke” since the 2010s (e.g. stuff like the It Gets Better project) lacked any masculine or whatever appeal and so the backlash came steamrolling in like the pandemic today. The state and profiteering are being treated in an inappropriately divine manner; prisons in people’s minds are forced upon or are blindly accepted through social conservatism.
As for people streaming over being able to keep music through stuff like Bandcamp, iTunes or piracy, I think either people are swallowing up neoliberalism like food supplements or people are getting the hang of this stoicism thing (part of its ideology is to not hoard stuff, even a music collection; I still think it’s a misogynistic ideology but you can correct me as long as you are the sort of person that would stand with Rojava, a Kurdish feminist nation within Syria’s borders fighting racist religious fundamentalists, and not the average Reddit user or average Twitter or YouTube user complaining about its biased verification process or how the platforms are too left wing, which spoiler alert, isn’t and they only want your money and are leftist at the very least to save face).
I don’t know if pop music will cut it, at least because it’s propped by capitalism and kind of lacks the edge and obviousness of the aforementioned genres, the obvious rejection of the system. Hell, even “woke” (as in feminist and not straight at least for these women) pop artists are getting sheesh on too for a variety of reasons, e.g. Lady Gaga and cultural appropriation and Hayley Kiyoko and her use of the n-word and doing something else inappropriate.
I am someone who got into rock and metal partly because it fought gender roles that those 80s fudges moaned were making men wear long hair; looking at the world today since 2016 (or even earlier in some nations, like at least 2010 or even 2004 or earlier), I think something with the relatively wide appeal and bite of those music genres (it doesn’t even have to be music) needs to drive us to destroy authoritarian governments and societal norms. A fight someone is conscripted to as opposed to being voluntarily taken on can and does face backlash.
To me, pop music evokes a message of contentedness of the neoliberal and gender conforming status quo at many times; pop music can give a message aiming towards acceptance of the marginalized but I guess it tending to shy away from controversial topics (and how it can receive mainstream radio playback but in a censored form like the song Born This Way by Lady Gaga unlike how some rock, punk, rap and all of heavy metal doesn’t even get airtime in most channels) can mean its listeners can be too trusting of the masters of this imprisoning system.
It is a good thing though that there exists music that isn’t politically charged - I can’t enjoy American Idiot and most of Green Day’s stuff since while I love the melodies, the lyrics were too charged for me (why I tend to stay away from most punk music and a minority of pop punk music like this one - I prefer to listen to music to relax most of the time and would rather not be reminded explicitly in writing as to why I need to be called into action). However, the overarching theme of pop music seems to be that of keeping people happy even if the system fudges you without your consent. Rock and hip hop, even without saying explicitly or implicitly “fudge the police” or “hail Satan”, are non-conforming in presentation and sound - they appear more actively against the institutions that want to suppress them. Pop music is more easily derided sadly I guess if it strays into controversy I think because of some misogyny in part.
I love that since the 2010s people have been trying to be more caring in stark contrast to the 80s and 90s movements of pure rebellion and the 2000s cliqueiness (I still have some of that 2000s mentality though). but to those in power or sympathetic to them, the 2010s mentality is translated to them as embracing “degeneracy” and “destroying tradition”. Some traditions do just need to be destroyed though to be honest, like anti-feminism.
What do you think? I also apologize for any coarse language here that's not been automatically filtered since I wrote this on a platform that permits such.
Subject: Re: Something from my blog regarding music and non-conformity.
Written By: Voiceofthe70s on 04/21/20 at 9:31 pm
Interesting piece. It occurs to me you would love the song "Lady Stardust" by David Bowie from the classic "Ziggy Stardust" album from 1972, if you haven't heard it already.
Lady Stardust
by David Bowie
People stared at the makeup on his face
Laughed at his long black hair, his animal grace
The boy in the bright blue jeans
Jumped up on the stage
And Lady Stardust sang his songs
Of darkness and disgrace
And he was alright
The band was altogether
Yes, he was alright
The song went on forever
And he was awful nice
Really quite out of sight
And he sang all night long
Femme fatales emerged from shadows to watch this creature fair
Boys stood upon their chairs to make their point of view
I smiled sadly for a love I could not obey
Lady Stardust sang his songs of darkness and dismay
And he was alright
The band was altogether
Yes, he was alright
The song went on forever
And he was awful nice
Really quite paradise, and he sang
All night, all night long
Oh how I sighed
When they asked if I knew his name
And he was alright, the band was altogether
Yes he was alright, the song went on forever
And he was awful nice
Really quite out of sight
And he sang all night long
Subject: Re: Something from my blog regarding music and non-conformity.
Written By: wixness on 04/22/20 at 10:13 am
Interesting piece. It occurs to me you would love the song "Lady Stardust" by David Bowie from the classic "Ziggy Stardust" album from 1972, if you haven't heard it already.
Lady Stardust
by David Bowie
People stared at the makeup on his face
Laughed at his long black hair, his animal grace
The boy in the bright blue jeans
Jumped up on the stage
And Lady Stardust sang his songs
Of darkness and disgrace
And he was alright
The band was altogether
Yes, he was alright
The song went on forever
And he was awful nice
Really quite out of sight
And he sang all night long
Femme fatales emerged from shadows to watch this creature fair
Boys stood upon their chairs to make their point of view
I smiled sadly for a love I could not obey
Lady Stardust sang his songs of darkness and dismay
And he was alright
The band was altogether
Yes, he was alright
The song went on forever
And he was awful nice
Really quite paradise, and he sang
All night, all night long
Oh how I sighed
When they asked if I knew his name
And he was alright, the band was altogether
Yes he was alright, the song went on forever
And he was awful nice
Really quite out of sight
And he sang all night long
Thanks but I chase more a melody. I'm not sure about this yet since I don't feel like I'm in a good position to get into any music I haven't heard of at the moment.
Subject: Re: Something from my blog regarding music and non-conformity.
Written By: 2001 on 04/22/20 at 10:24 am
I haven't watched the video but I have read about how parents wanted violence and nudity in all sorts of media banned. I think the 1980s or early 1990s is when you start seeing movie ratings or "Parental Advisory" stickers on music albums. It was driven largely by religious protests and you can tell with the way nudity or talk of sex is more likely to get your movie restricted (as opposed to violence) ;D
As for music being more or less rebellious, I was surprised punk didn't make a comeback during the Trump years. I guess hip hop is plenty rebellious, think "This is America" by Childish Gambino or "Freedom" by Beyoncé. But i still feel it pales in comparison to all the anti-war rebel music the 2000s produced (not to mention the previous decades).
Subject: Re: Something from my blog regarding music and non-conformity.
Written By: Voiceofthe70s on 04/22/20 at 11:02 am
I haven't watched the video but I have read about how parents wanted violence and nudity in all sorts of media banned. I think the 1980s or early 1990s is when you start seeing movie ratings or "Parental Advisory" stickers on music albums. It was driven largely by religious protests and you can tell with the way nudity or talk of sex is more likely to get your movie restricted (as opposed to violence) ;D
Oh yes, that was the 80s for sure. The 80s were a return to the 50s after the liberated 60s and 70s. The stickering of albums (and CDs after they became popular in 1985) was spearheaded by the The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), headed up by none other than Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore. Everybody from Frank Zappa to Prince suddenly got a sticker. Zappa used to regularly go head to head with these "mothers of prevention" as he called them (a neat play on words on his band the Mothers of Invention). As for religious protests, again it was in the Reagan 80s that "Evangelicals" came to wield such power and influence. In the liberated 70s they wielded no such power. If they had any kind of protest in the 70s they were soundly pooh-poohed by mainstream society who did not want religious fundamentalism intertwining with (or indeed DICTATING) cultural mores. That's how cool the 70s were. But the evangelicals and politcal conservatives with their origins in the 1950s were patiently lying in wait for the moment to seize things back, and it came in 1981 with the dawn of the cultural 80s. I felt like I was lost at sea when the liberated 70s turned into the conservative evangelical/Tipper Gore/Reagan 80s. And we've yet to truly recover from that.
Subject: Re: Something from my blog regarding music and non-conformity.
Written By: wixness on 04/22/20 at 11:27 am
I haven't watched the video but I have read about how parents wanted violence and nudity in all sorts of media banned. I think the 1980s or early 1990s is when you start seeing movie ratings or "Parental Advisory" stickers on music albums. It was driven largely by religious protests and you can tell with the way nudity or talk of sex is more likely to get your movie restricted (as opposed to violence) ;D ::) Damn Americans and their prudishness. They really hate the phrase "make love not war", do they?
As for music being more or less rebellious, I was surprised punk didn't make a comeback during the Trump years. I guess hip hop is plenty rebellious, think "This is America" by Childish Gambino or "Freedom" by Beyoncé. But i still feel it pales in comparison to all the anti-war rebel music the 2000s produced (not to mention the previous decades).
Maybe punk is too "white" for people to get on board with and it doesn't exactly sound catchy too. If not that people tend to only listen to music via streaming services these days, and music is locked with DRM through them. Punks may refuse to put their music in such mediums since the music could be taken down.
Subject: Re: Something from my blog regarding music and non-conformity.
Written By: wixness on 04/22/20 at 11:36 am
Oh yes, that was the 80s for sure. The 80s were a return to the 50s after the liberated 60s and 70s. The stickering of albums (and CDs after they became popular in 1985) was spearheaded by the The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), headed up by none other than Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore. Everybody from Frank Zappa to Prince suddenly got a sticker. Zappa used to regularly go head to head with these "mothers of prevention" as he called them (a neat play on words on his band the Mothers of Invention). As for religious protests, again it was in the Reagan 80s that "Evangelicals" came to wield such power and influence. In the liberated 70s they wielded no such power. If they had any kind of protest in the 70s they were soundly pooh-poohed by mainstream society who did not want religious fundamentalism intertwining with (or indeed DICTATING) cultural mores. That's how cool the 70s were. But the evangelicals and politcal conservatives with their origins in the 1950s were patiently lying in wait for the moment to seize things back, and it came in 1981 with the dawn of the cultural 80s. I felt like I was lost at sea when the liberated 70s turned into the conservative evangelical/Tipper Gore/Reagan 80s. And we've yet to truly recover from that.
Out of interest how would you envision a society that's moved completely away from the 80s mentality? As someone who was born in the late 90s and raised in a rather conservative background I wouldn't know how this would exactly look like.