Originally Posted by
Sturgeon's Lawyer
I think one thing that's being left out here is the politics. This has happened again and again:
A new musical "sound" comes along that is linked with rebellion: various forms of jazz, rock'n'roll, soul/r'n'b, metal, hiphop, and, yes, disco. It makes a bit of money.
In come the money people who iron it out flat, bring in new acts, and tame it to "sexy" macho strutting and "sexy" female vamping. I can't speak well about jazz, I haven't studied the individual movements in enough detail. But rock'n'roll started as "juvenile delinquent" music, and got Elvissed. Popular metal went from potentially dangerous bands like Sabbath and (yes, I'll admit it) Zep to the hair metal balladeers of the '80s. Disco started as "deviant" music - it was an underground gay thing - and got Rod Stewarted and Donna Summered. (Note that I'm talking about two very talented performers there, but folks like them made disco "safe" for the money people.) Punk, hiphop, funk, r'n'b, they all follow the same trajectory.
Oh, and? The dangerous stuff was still out there. But it gets buried under the commercial shite. The dangerous acts get tamed or shoved under the carpet.
Interestingly, it didn't quite happen to prog. Partially because prog was never really "dangerous" to the status quo, partially because prog was mostly not very political (how political is a seasoned witch?). They tried to do it with some of the biggest selling prog bands - I mean EL&P, who the suits tried to tame-and-sexualize with Love Beach; or Genesis, where they briefly tried to make Phil Collins look sexy - but it never took, because the people who respond to the tamed-and-sexualized music don't have the patience for what those bands were doing.
Let's take a closer look at one subgenre, punk, which has its real roots in the Velvets and the Stooges and MC5 and their ilk, and in another direction in the Who and the Stones and their ilk... British punk had the Clash and Siouxsie and a bunch of other acts, American punk had Ramones and X and Dead Kennedies, but who made headlines? The Punk Monkees, the Sex Pistols, a manufactured band who even covered a Monkees song live. Their cod nihilism and rebellion was perfect for selling and image and records, while the genuinely dangerous acts were kept quiet. (Yes, the Clash eventually made it semi-big, but their hits were generally relatively safe songs like "London Calling" and "Rock the Casbah" and ferghodsake "Train in Vain.")
Follow the money, and follow the politics. They coonjine.
Bookmarks