Monday 11 June 2012

Where Have All The Rebels Gone?

Brilliant series on BBC 4, 'Punk Britannia' which takes us back to the late 1970s and how bands like the the Sex Pistols and the Clash shocked parents across the land with their loud music, crude lyrics and outlandish clothes.
At that time it was all Rod Stewart and Abba and i guess Johnny Rotten belting out Anarchy in the UK would have come as a bit of a shock just as Elvis and Chuck Berry would have been back in the late 50s when they removed Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra from the top of the roost.
I have mentioned here before that i consider today's music to be weak, dominated by colourless artists picked by Simon Cowell to clog up the charts with ballads, and many of those are rehashed versions of previous ballads.
Today's musicians wouldn't emulate the bands back in the day by trashing a hotel room, you can't help but feel they would be more likely to tidy it fastidiously and leave a chocolate on the pillow for whoever was staying in it next.
Punk was more rebellious and more disquieting to the 'oldies' than anything we see today. Nobody of my generation is as appalled by Rhianna or Olly Murs as 40-somethings in the 70s were by punk.
Today's music and musicians just seem safe and nice, there is nobody making angry music full of spiky social commentary and it isn't as if today's youth have nothing to kick back against, there are wars, austerity, cuts, youth unemployment, police harassment and university fees which should be driving the backlash, but we get nothing.
So why are young folk who should be picking up a guitar, learning the 3 basic chords and driving another angry punk-esque era so passive? Where are all the rebels?
Has the age came where the youth protesting against anything and everything has ended and we now have a generation that are happy to just accept things, play by the rules and keep their heads down while making no waves, turning prematurely into a younger version of their parents.
Come on kids, you are just where the politicians and your parents want you and that should scare the hell out of you and if it doesn't i despair for you.

3 comments:

Cheezy said...

No good ever came of letting old men in high-waisted trousers dictate what 'the kids' should be listening to.

Lucy said...

Very true, i remember when the high waisted one dished up Robson & Jerome. Scary stuff.

Anonymous said...

lucy,

the internet has enabled the rebels to live their own life without the rest of us being aware of them. example, their is an organized crime version of facebook... we just can't access it.

q