I love so much of this, and highlighted that line about community to come back to! I do think it's worth noting that Lolita wasn't easy for Nabokov to publish back in the 50s, either; every U.S.-based publisher turned him down, so he wound up publishing it in France with a publisher who mostly produced smut. And I don't think we'd even know Lolita exists if Graham Greene hadn't written it up as a best book of 1955, although it still wasn't published in the U.S. until 1958 and repulsed a lot of people when it came out. I think the lesson from Lolita is that if you believe in the risks you're taking, you need to go for it and not get knocked back by the people who are challenged by the risks you're taking -- because there are way more listeners and readers who want to engage with risky material than the gatekeepers will ever admit :) Thanks for a great essay!
When Child Psychology first came out - they debuted the video on MTV 120 Minutes (I believe it was on that show?) and when the song reached the "Life is unfair" part, they edited that entire line to say - "Light on a chair. Build a shelf to put over it." (Not really, I just made that up!). But, for real, they did censor the the "kill yourself" lyric with that mixed-up jumble sound. So it sounded like, "Kill Sill Elf or get over it." I'd never heard non-swear-words get censored before. And what is a sill elf? And what did they ever do to MTV?!
That makes no sense. Culture is how organisms survive in their environment. How they change and build rituals to survive.
So being popular is a method of survival within your culture.
Now that many of the social safety nets have been taken away from us and many more people are now in the position where they cannot go against popular culture to survive then they absorb into pop culture.
Your writing gives a view that I don't get anywhere else, and I thank you for it. I'm 66 years old, though, and believe I have heard the complaint about everyone simplifying and self-censoring to meet big media and societal demands, many times before. For example, I agree that people are unlikely to discover discomfort from Spotify. But I have heard all kinds of discomforting music by following up on comments from other sources. And I love it. It's unfair that one has to work so hard to find the nuanced and different. I'm just not sure that it is harder today. Thank you for your writing.
You're talking about a population that's been sitting in front of capeshit movies where there's always a good guy, always bad guy, and zero nuance for the last 25+ years. People who have had parents, teachers, mods, institutions, and corporations aid them in evicting anything offensive to their sensibilities wherever it might pop up, no matter how realistically inoffensive if might actually be. People who say something gives them "the ick" unironically. It isn't even just younger people either, a lot of boomers and Gen Xers have bought into this same mentality. It's a way for powerless people to wield some form of power.
Psychologically speaking, life is harder than it's ever been, and part of me can understand why a lot of people don't want to be challenged in any way, but it's like we've gone back in time to when the puritans ran everything.
Excuse me, while I go find some pearls to clutch. Heh.
In all seriousness, you bring up a lot of things that I have been pondering & reminiscing about lately. When it comes to music specifically, it has been years...maybe even decades...since we've least seen any music or band or artist that pushes the boundaries to "offend" or at the very least, provoke thought & start some discussion, especially in rock music. When was the last time, in recent years, you felt that listening to a certain band or record felt dangerous & taboo? Probably not recently. Why? Because 99.9% of music and bands and artists nowadays are "safe" and palatable for those easily offended. Just like the oatmeal you referred to: easy to digest & you move on without giving it a second thought. That's music today.
I'm not saying that we need a reincarnation of GG Allin to start throwing human feces on the crowd...but we do need someone to throw rhetorical shit in our faces and get shaken out of our complacency & apathy & self-centered lives.
nah, we def don't need another GG Allin. i don't think music must be offensive or contrary for the sake of being offensive or contrary. but even authentic, creative risks and differing opinions aren't expressed now because we're all so censored/restrained and afraid of being canceled. art has always been used as a way to push boundaries and provoke discussion. but now everyone is too concerned with optics to be real. because real isn't safe. real is messy.
I have been thinking about this for such a long time and I couldn’t even find the words to express it (I was probably auto-censoring myself in case any of my friends would “cancel” me for saying this) and you literally transcribed what was on my mind
thanks for saying that. i find myself biting my tongue more often than i'd like to admit nowadays. i think we're all in similar positions. we want to speak freely but are waiting for other people to do it first to make us feel less at risk.
I’ve been trying to articulate this for years. You just did it better. I’m reminded of Ballad of a Thin Man by Bob Dylan. And your last paragraph is the pure essence of everything that comes before it.
Some really interesting and thought provoking strands Carre - you are right, I’m not sure todays music buying public are as resilient as they (we) used to be and search for ideas / thoughts / feelings we can get behind. John Lydon sang “Anger is an energy” and that’s so true - we were fuelled by (righteous) anger and ideology - it seems todays public lap up mediocre shit which apathy and nonchalance - no passion / no energy / no feelings ……
No, this rubbed me the right way, I couldn’t agree more. With AI slop added to the mix the oatmeal will be even blander, but I guess that’s another topic. Meanwhile we must protect art by stubbornly making it with disregard to any societal straight jackets or algos, fully invested in the process, because anything else is unacceptable.
Culture is how organisms survive in their environment. How they change and build rituals to survive.
So being popular is a method of survival within your culture.
Now that many of the social safety nets have been taken away from us, and many more people are now in the position where they cannot go against popular culture to survive, they absorb into pop culture.
Diverse culture and art thrived when economies are more socially orientated. Like in the 1920's, 1950's through to the 1970's.
During war we lose diverse culture. WW2 was a period of a very popular pop scene with perverse mini sub culture. These sub cultures existed so people could get the basic things in life. The poor doing whatever they had to do to survive. Look at Onlyfans today.
The aftermath of war returned culture to a more socialist basis allowing much more counter pop lifestyles.
We are currently in a war period. It has lasted 24 years since the 11th of September 2001. Ever since then the culture within the US has deteriorated into the times we have today.
Look at China now that millions are being brought out of poverty. So many niche sub cultures are building.
I live in Asia. The local music scene is building rapidly with some really cool sounds.
Brilliantly said. Great art is what's interactive with your soul. It makes you complicit in the things it describes then asks you how that feels. This is how, for instance, White Lotus works - it asks you questions about yourself rather than telling you what it's about. It's why Magazine Dreams is a far better film than Conclave (to compare two works of more-or-less equal quality and status that I enjoyed recently)
The good news is that Child Psychology is BBR's most popular song today because Billie Eilish used it for an Instagram story or such a few years ago and it went viral. Luke Haines, one of its authors, describes the experience in his recent book Freaks Out!
I love so much of this, and highlighted that line about community to come back to! I do think it's worth noting that Lolita wasn't easy for Nabokov to publish back in the 50s, either; every U.S.-based publisher turned him down, so he wound up publishing it in France with a publisher who mostly produced smut. And I don't think we'd even know Lolita exists if Graham Greene hadn't written it up as a best book of 1955, although it still wasn't published in the U.S. until 1958 and repulsed a lot of people when it came out. I think the lesson from Lolita is that if you believe in the risks you're taking, you need to go for it and not get knocked back by the people who are challenged by the risks you're taking -- because there are way more listeners and readers who want to engage with risky material than the gatekeepers will ever admit :) Thanks for a great essay!
Thank you for writing this. This has been one of my biggest struggles as an artist for the past several years, and you really nailed it.
When Child Psychology first came out - they debuted the video on MTV 120 Minutes (I believe it was on that show?) and when the song reached the "Life is unfair" part, they edited that entire line to say - "Light on a chair. Build a shelf to put over it." (Not really, I just made that up!). But, for real, they did censor the the "kill yourself" lyric with that mixed-up jumble sound. So it sounded like, "Kill Sill Elf or get over it." I'd never heard non-swear-words get censored before. And what is a sill elf? And what did they ever do to MTV?!
Popular culture is a contradiction in terms, if it’s popular then it’s not culture”
That makes no sense. Culture is how organisms survive in their environment. How they change and build rituals to survive.
So being popular is a method of survival within your culture.
Now that many of the social safety nets have been taken away from us and many more people are now in the position where they cannot go against popular culture to survive then they absorb into pop culture.
“We make room for nuance only when it flatters our self-image and aligns with our curated identities.”
This may be one of the things that pisses me off the most nowadays. For a long time actually. Up there with “everything has to be black or white”.
Your writing gives a view that I don't get anywhere else, and I thank you for it. I'm 66 years old, though, and believe I have heard the complaint about everyone simplifying and self-censoring to meet big media and societal demands, many times before. For example, I agree that people are unlikely to discover discomfort from Spotify. But I have heard all kinds of discomforting music by following up on comments from other sources. And I love it. It's unfair that one has to work so hard to find the nuanced and different. I'm just not sure that it is harder today. Thank you for your writing.
You're talking about a population that's been sitting in front of capeshit movies where there's always a good guy, always bad guy, and zero nuance for the last 25+ years. People who have had parents, teachers, mods, institutions, and corporations aid them in evicting anything offensive to their sensibilities wherever it might pop up, no matter how realistically inoffensive if might actually be. People who say something gives them "the ick" unironically. It isn't even just younger people either, a lot of boomers and Gen Xers have bought into this same mentality. It's a way for powerless people to wield some form of power.
Psychologically speaking, life is harder than it's ever been, and part of me can understand why a lot of people don't want to be challenged in any way, but it's like we've gone back in time to when the puritans ran everything.
Vivinne Westwood
Excuse me, while I go find some pearls to clutch. Heh.
In all seriousness, you bring up a lot of things that I have been pondering & reminiscing about lately. When it comes to music specifically, it has been years...maybe even decades...since we've least seen any music or band or artist that pushes the boundaries to "offend" or at the very least, provoke thought & start some discussion, especially in rock music. When was the last time, in recent years, you felt that listening to a certain band or record felt dangerous & taboo? Probably not recently. Why? Because 99.9% of music and bands and artists nowadays are "safe" and palatable for those easily offended. Just like the oatmeal you referred to: easy to digest & you move on without giving it a second thought. That's music today.
I'm not saying that we need a reincarnation of GG Allin to start throwing human feces on the crowd...but we do need someone to throw rhetorical shit in our faces and get shaken out of our complacency & apathy & self-centered lives.
nah, we def don't need another GG Allin. i don't think music must be offensive or contrary for the sake of being offensive or contrary. but even authentic, creative risks and differing opinions aren't expressed now because we're all so censored/restrained and afraid of being canceled. art has always been used as a way to push boundaries and provoke discussion. but now everyone is too concerned with optics to be real. because real isn't safe. real is messy.
Thank you so much for this.
I have been thinking about this for such a long time and I couldn’t even find the words to express it (I was probably auto-censoring myself in case any of my friends would “cancel” me for saying this) and you literally transcribed what was on my mind
thanks for saying that. i find myself biting my tongue more often than i'd like to admit nowadays. i think we're all in similar positions. we want to speak freely but are waiting for other people to do it first to make us feel less at risk.
I’ve been trying to articulate this for years. You just did it better. I’m reminded of Ballad of a Thin Man by Bob Dylan. And your last paragraph is the pure essence of everything that comes before it.
I am all for diversity. Diversity of thought first and foremost! Love this.
Some really interesting and thought provoking strands Carre - you are right, I’m not sure todays music buying public are as resilient as they (we) used to be and search for ideas / thoughts / feelings we can get behind. John Lydon sang “Anger is an energy” and that’s so true - we were fuelled by (righteous) anger and ideology - it seems todays public lap up mediocre shit which apathy and nonchalance - no passion / no energy / no feelings ……
No, this rubbed me the right way, I couldn’t agree more. With AI slop added to the mix the oatmeal will be even blander, but I guess that’s another topic. Meanwhile we must protect art by stubbornly making it with disregard to any societal straight jackets or algos, fully invested in the process, because anything else is unacceptable.
Culture is how organisms survive in their environment. How they change and build rituals to survive.
So being popular is a method of survival within your culture.
Now that many of the social safety nets have been taken away from us, and many more people are now in the position where they cannot go against popular culture to survive, they absorb into pop culture.
Diverse culture and art thrived when economies are more socially orientated. Like in the 1920's, 1950's through to the 1970's.
During war we lose diverse culture. WW2 was a period of a very popular pop scene with perverse mini sub culture. These sub cultures existed so people could get the basic things in life. The poor doing whatever they had to do to survive. Look at Onlyfans today.
The aftermath of war returned culture to a more socialist basis allowing much more counter pop lifestyles.
We are currently in a war period. It has lasted 24 years since the 11th of September 2001. Ever since then the culture within the US has deteriorated into the times we have today.
Look at China now that millions are being brought out of poverty. So many niche sub cultures are building.
I live in Asia. The local music scene is building rapidly with some really cool sounds.
Brilliantly said. Great art is what's interactive with your soul. It makes you complicit in the things it describes then asks you how that feels. This is how, for instance, White Lotus works - it asks you questions about yourself rather than telling you what it's about. It's why Magazine Dreams is a far better film than Conclave (to compare two works of more-or-less equal quality and status that I enjoyed recently)
The good news is that Child Psychology is BBR's most popular song today because Billie Eilish used it for an Instagram story or such a few years ago and it went viral. Luke Haines, one of its authors, describes the experience in his recent book Freaks Out!