In the latest issue of The Word David Hepworth reiterates the usual free market line that the present form of late capitalism is inevitable and therefore desirable. We all “sell out” so we shouldn’t criticise the Rock and Pop musician who do the same. Now I am no wide eyed idealist but I am feed up with the tired triumphalism of the present status quo. It’s all over the place it says “we can buy off Dylan and Costello, but you know what we’ll also say we use to like the Smiths and even Billy Bragg”, and “ oh and if we mess up we’ll be bailed out by the government and still get £750,000 pay off”. You can hear it every time a phone company adopts your favourite tune to sell another need less phone plan or when your favourite artist or film maker’s work is used to sell processed cheese.
Hepworth isn’t entirely consistent in his position as recently on the his own blog/podcast he was decrying the corporate folderol of sport, fire works, flags, branded stages etc. Do the same rules not apply to hair gel ads on screens at gigs or Dylan ads for thongs? Maybe being an insider of the music industry has relieved him and others of any delusions of that milieu and yet they still like to dream of experiencing their sporting heroes in a purer less money orientated way.
There are lots are reasons why “Born to run”, “Ace of spades”, “Jumping jack flash”, sound compelling, one of them is the myth that the person who wrote it was an outsider. This myth is as important as the myth of the free market, ironically it’s the reason Tom Waits sells more copies of the Word than Dido. Myths and legends are important it’s not deluded to put some store in them, the world of the imagination is necessary to us all; it doesn’t mean we don’t live in the real world, it means we inhabit two.
Most of the things we cherish most in life aren’t valued for their sale price on E-bay. The un-edifying experience of capitalism rubbing our faces in it is just depressing. Finally does anyone really need birthday card of a junky from your granny and oh do you want Toblerone for a £1 with that madam……
Ps the cards were on sale in a branch of Smiths in the City of London
3 comments:
I liked reading your thoughts on this BLTP. I read David Hepworth's piece and wondered, yet again, when the world had changed and how I failed to keep up with it.
I know that an artist has to make (more) money, but deep inside I squirm whenever I see someone, well lets use that old fashioned phrase 'selling out'. And it's because of the outsider myth of rock and roll, you're right - you buy into a band or a piece of music because you believe that they're doing it because it comes from somewhere inside and that it means something, not because they want to use it to flog some shoes. That's where the value of the music comes from in the first place...
Do remember the olden days when the NME and bands used to rail against 'the man'? Sigh.
Cocktails
I think a sigh was what it was it was just one more kick from the man.
nice to have you back from your travels.
Thanks, it's good to be back. Actually, going somewhere like China puts things into perspective - the state is definitely 'the man' over there...
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