Embrace Oblivion

10 hours ago

5 min read

Music makes the people come together, according to Madonna. Not really quite the case recently, so it seems, with the Sheeran / Macklemore divide fast becoming the most polarising debate since Hart and Fuller, or since Walkers switched Salt n Vinegar crisp packets from blue to green *. Her Madgesty came to mind most recently when Ali G suddenly reappeared complete with old outfit, old Renault 5, old prejudices still unresolved, and a new film to flog. Rewatching the original series (ignore the first film, it was crap) is an exercise in open-mouthed ‘how the fuchsia’ relativism – not in a month of Reform candidates sincerely not being racist would any of that get greenlit today. Is the reappearance of a character that was just THIS short of blackface, sanctioned homophobia, exploited a caricature of working class culture that came straight from the lips of the right-wing (and paved the way for a perception of young people and those on benefits that underpinned austerity and benefits demonisation) a morality tale for our time? Sacha B-C is an Oxbridge educated straight man from a privileged background, making a massive fortune laughing at supposed stupidity and fecklessness in the working class. He’s very good at it, has chutzpah the size of mountains, and benefited enormously from a permissive production environment that saw all the contradictions, but also saw the money to be made.

The world has changed a lot since the 90s and 2000s. Politics has become atomised, shifted sharply to the right, and there is a real chance of far-right governments across Europe. That didn’t end well last time. Music has become more accessible than ever, but also more commodified, deified, strictured. We all had high hopes that the money made from Britpop and the freedom that was being discovered through electronic music production would combine to produce a revolution of accessibility, creativity, art and collaboration. Instead Britpop vanished up its own cocaine-fuelled arse, the money became a cage to insulate the wealthy rather than a frame to support new artists, and electronic production focused on mass distribution for minimal payment rather than mass access for all talent. Music scenes – especially organic subcultures from working class areas – have quickly become seen as problematic and dangerous, and have been suppressed and exploited rather than seen as expressions of need and desire within those communities. Maybe punk would have gone the same way if it had happened in the late 90s rather than the late 70s, and they had the apparatus of suppression then that they do now. They didn’t; the ideas and ethos took hold for a while, and a lot of good music and good communities were built. A lot of the bands are still earning an honest living out of the music (the less said about the ones flogging butter and spoken tours on the back of how awful they were, the better…) Punk was a reflection and opposition to the political status quo, and the anger and communities that formed around it shaped politics for a period. Not that you'd know it, talking to a lot of old punks these days.

You can’t see that happening now. New artists need a trust fund to break through, and marketing is based on broad appeal, not frightening the horses, not rocking the boat. Grassroots venues have all but vanished, the toilet circuit is all luxury living condos or student housing, the medium size venues are gatekept for established acts, and the big venues belong the billionaire class. Access depends on politics and bankability, not talent or ideas – and that access can be removed at a moment’s notice if you step out of line. Yes, you can produce an album in your bedroom and get it out on TokkingTick or TubingUView, but you will make fuck all money unless you are very damn lucky.

Manufactured music is nothing new – the entire pop ideal was built on it – but that always played alongside an organic, talent-driven music culture that ignored, subverted, and fought against the mainstream – and if it was good enough, was adopted by the manufacturers as the mainstream. Why seeing Ali G pop up again ** is problematic is because of what so many of the pretend-organic ‘artists’ of the time did - adopt the fake chavi-laddishness of the confected ‘benefit’ class, cosplay it in an arch way for the knowing / ironic, money-splashing middle classes, sell it back to the working class like Tyler Durden selling soap to trophy wives, and saturate the market with total shite whilst privileging elder statesman and denying any oxygen to emerging artists.

Ali G didn’t set out to become a political symbol, but he did end up as shorthand for a way of thinking about society, a pastiche of an ‘underclass’ that was sensitive and affectionate in his hands, but became a target for vicious attacks by every politician, TV channel, commentator and columnist with 800 words to write and a deadline to meet. If he’s back now – and lets face it, his creator and back management team have a finger on the political zeitgeist and direction that we’d all do well to note – does that mean we are about to see the next wave of swingeing political attacks on the poor, the different, the disabled, the struggling, that pockmarked the austerity years? Are we in for the next wave of musical bilge that will act as wallpaper paste to the ears, just spicy enough to keep the paying public happy but thick enough to obscure the damage being done to the communities it is exploiting, parodying, and demonising?

Or maybe I should just stop worrying. Ask Madge. She’s still here, still making the people come together – not like the Beatles did, not like The Beloved did, not like the rave scene of the early 90s did, more like a theme park or a holiday camp. Huge prices, ‘exclusivity’ at a cost, lightshows to rival the Large Hadron Collider, merch you need a mortgage for, familiarity, safety, uniformity, 100,000 people wearing the same, singing the same, thinking the same. The clocks are striking 13 and we have always been at war with Oceania. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever. With an Ed Sheeran and Metallica soundtrack ***. The anger ether conceives the machine. Christ knows how many times we’ll be fooled, but I’m guessing we’re in for a whole new world of pain. Booyakasha.