Thursday, March 25, 2004
(11:44 PM) | Anonymous:
So you want a revolution?
The Beatles represent the pinnacle of 60's music. They challenged the conceptions of what Rock N' Roll could do, they challenged the prevailing morality of the time and they even supported subversive political movements. Or so we are told by oldies radio and VH1's Behind the Music. What we actually see in the phenomenon of The Beatles was an example of how incredibly repressed the West ruled by global capital are. The Beatles did not challenge the conception of what Rock N' Roll could do, they merely made what others had done before them a commercial success. The Beatles did not challenge the prevailing morality of the time in any important way. Elvis danced, the Beatles had long hair - who gives a flying fuck? As for their politics, we see a perfect example of guilty white-men who embrace leftist thought as therapy, since we accept people in theory we don’t have to worry that the things we actually do are killing them. Do you want a revolution? Then burn your records because pop culture isn't giving you signs of where to begin.The ideological function of a group like The Beatles is quite obvious in our blog-style analysis - they exist as an opiate. I am not suggesting that their is some vast, Right-wing conspiracy to use Rock N' Roll to subvert radical causes, rather I am suggesting that groups like the Beatles arise out of our angst when we are called to become what we already are, something new. I am suggesting that part of our humanity is the desire to see a radically new creation; I apologize that I cannot separate this from theological language but we see in religion a certain starting point for this radicalism. There is something inside of us that screams, "Hell yeah I want a revolution!" and groups like The Beatles alleviate the stress of this desire. They allow us to be rebellious without rebellion. Revolutionary without revolution.
This is not the sole function of The Beatles or groups like them. They also serve as our conscience that has the right to question our desire, after all they are revolutionary. So when we cry, "We want a revolution!", The Beatles respond, "We'd all love to see a plan." And though we all know that revolutions don't have plans, it breaks the frenzy and ends it. "But when you talk about destruction. Don't you know you can count me out." Though we know revolutions, by their very nature, don't allow safety and that we must all be destroyed for anything new to come our conscience, formed by this rightful subversive group, says “Be safe.” They very fact that The Beatles stopped playing live shows when their music started to become more "subversive" (without subversion) points to the fact that their music is a non-event. This points to their total lack of meaning to anything revolutionary. Groups, communities, are where revolutions happen, not in your bedroom with two stoner friends while you desperately hope your parents don’t smell the pot.
Once again we see that the fundamentalists have accidentally shown us the way, burn your Beatles albums! If The Beatles are bigger than Jesus, bigger than actually doing something subversive, then something has got to change. It begins by burning down our idols and beginning to recognize who are icons are.
