Culture and the Clash

The Judge said '5 to 10'
But I say double that again
I'm not working for the clampdown
--The Clash

I don't know how I missed this in Slate:

Debunking Punk
What the Clash meant to rock 'n' roll.

Slate digs deep and finds that *surprise*! The problem with rock bands and rock in general is that the class wars (!) have divided the masses. Evidently, the only thing that is constant in great rock bands, is the egalitarian nature of the old english classes that allowed poor boys and middle class boys to hang out (Lennon-MacCartney, Richards-Jagger) and co-write songs.

Two white working-class boys meet when young; bond over their mutual love of American rhythm and blues; and found a songwriting partnership. Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richards, Strummer-Jones—the mythic co-credits run like a spine through the heyday of album rock. Look more closely, though, and you start to see another, more intriguing pattern. One boy is from a relatively stable, more solidly middle-class home, while the other is from a poorer, less respectable or broken home.

Okay...so:

..... England was still, in relative terms, class stagnant. And when its economy stopped expanding at the generous postwar pace, the meritocratic ideal came under enormous pressure. Jobs in the professional elite were now increasingly being filled by the children of the professional elite, a pattern that continued into the '80s and, some data suggests, intensified in the '90s. Put more bluntly, education was no longer a fig leaf; it was a weapon by which service professionals could protect and defend the class status of their own children. Here, in other words, the Lennons and the McCartneys parted ways for good.

And that meant what to this writer?

London Calling was released on Dec.14, 1979, in the United States. It butted up against Thatcherism in England and Reaganism in the states. In music, it butted up against the Sugar Hill Gang in the Bronx and REM in Athens, Ga., or hip hop and the depressingly named "college rock." For the past 25 years, these have been the dominant sounds of pop, the sound of the center no longer holding.

That's right...as the writer belches it was the "last real rock album". Once the fragile alliance of England's poor and rich (remember when England was soooo much less class oriented?) was toast afterwards.

Where to start in on this gibberish?

So rock exists, but because the English had some problems with egalitarianism....? First off, this whole theory is bunk simply because of the great rock output of many English artists since this time. Oasis, Blur, The Stone Roses, The Smiths, The Cure and boatload of amazing English artists have emerged. Oasis, for one, had one of the best runs on the world's rock charts since the Beatles. And Oasis didn't need a 'middle class/working class' angle: they were all working class.

Forget that, where does this asinine theory come from anyways? Strummer was homeless at 18, and hardly middle class when squatting in abandoned homes.

Nevermind the bollocks of that theory, what about the BS about their being no great music since? This is so typical. Find a fan of swing music in their 80's, and they'll tell the music died when Elvis came along. Do the same with a fan of the early rock bands and he'll tell that the music died with Buddy Holly. Find a fan of New Wave, and music died with 'Appetite for Destruction'...only to be brought back to life by, *yuck*, the Killers. Lame*10.

That lame allusion to the falconer and 'mere chaos' and judgement day in that last sentence is just incredibly stupid. Hip hop was a brand new type of expression, that obliterated any advancement in rock since Dylan emerged. He also leaves out House, New Wave, the emergence of R&B, grunge, industrial, garage.....nevermind. I'm getting overklempt.

I guess I'm surprised by the fact that a magazine like Salon or Slate will graft their social theories onto culture in a such a shameless attempt to reimagine history. I'd love to say "hey why don't they keep the music and politics seperate?' but you know I love it deep down.