by Jonathan
Music subversion
March 7, 2009 in Culture, Music by Jonathan
When we were young we listened to music that we thought was counter to the prevailing culture. We wanted to listen to music that was free from any association with our parents. We revelled in the music of The Stones, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. Later in the 1970’s we thought punk was the way forward a step movement in another direction altogether. Many people felt they owned the music and the movements that went with it.
But is turns out we were all wrong, hoodwinked in fact by the same big businesses that we were fighting against. The advertisers have finally taken their revenge by subverting our cultures, our youth and our history.
Everything we thought unique and meaningful is now nothing but another jingle in an advert or part of a movie soundtrack. Cleaned and pruned and made to fit a 1000 products that we don’t want or need. In the old days Bob Dylan was the counter culture hero but now the truth is out there. Bob Dylan wrote theme music for The Cooperative Society.
In the 60’s Dylan’s fans revolted, shouted down his performances and rebelled against his use of the electric guitar. We have become so passive that we don’t now see the real sell out. We sit in cinema’s and in front of our TV’s toe tapping to Co-op adverts sound tracked to ‘Blowing in the Wind’ without a blink or bat of an eyelid. We have forgotten our own history and can’t even see the absurdity of the situation.
The wool has been pulled over our eyes the whole music business is nothing but a factory that uses our culture as raw materials, turns it into something smooth and safe and sells it back to us in a consumer friendly form. Everything we listened to in our youth was a con. We have been double conned by the media, the advertisers and ourselves. We let them do this to us because we are sold culture that we believe we make.
Today’s popular music stars are the jingle writers of tomorrow. If you think you are doing something unique and against the way we did it in the past think again, you are just another bit part player in the bigger picture that’s selling us out to each other.
The hippies, the rockers, the mods, the punks, the hip-hop crews all the subversives have been subverted. Next time you find your toe tapping to a 60’s protest song during a Muller Light yoghurt advert use your other foot to kick yourself hard up the arse. We have all been made fools of.
