About the only band who are doing anything even vaguely rock n roll nowadays are the Manic Street Preachers. This band have always been known for being outspoken and never apologising for what they have done before. Remember this is the band who refused to perform for the Queen at the opening of the Welsh Assembly (sp?) as they are stauch sociallists. They did, however perform for Fidel Castro, saying that they would be honoured if he attended thier gig in Cuba (the first band from the West to perform there). I even long for the Galagher brothers to go back to the way that they were before.
This generation has been palacated. But it’s not by traditional powers. It is due to multinationals, who now hold the power, and not by governments. We live in a world of McDonalds, The Gap, Nike, Microsoft, etc. ‘Where do you want to go today?’ We even live in a world, people, where we are told that we can be better people only if we wear Adidas clothing. Individuality is out. If you like rock music, it has to be bands like Limp Bizcit, Wheatus and Papa Roach and not (god forbid) bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, The Who or Nine Inch Nails. Conforn or be damned. Which is why I have taken to calling myself a freak.
Interpersonal communication is also out. We buy moblie phones so that people can phone and talk to us wherever we are. And how do we communicate on them? We send text messages. Rather than sit down and hand write a letter, we e-mail others. My god, we have even taken to sending birthday and christmas cards by e-mail. We can buy a present from Amazon.com and get them to deliver it, wrapped, to the recipiant on the correct day.
Only on the internet are we trully free to be ourselves. Even then we hide behind screen names, only revealing our true names to the chosen few. Freud would have a field day in this world. And Marx would be lost. Religon is no longer the opiate of the masses. Brand names, computer games, the internet and fims are. With the majority of popular books being turned into films nowadays, people decide not to read the book, waiting instead for the inevitalble film.
What can we do about this? Not a lot I’m afraid. Stop the world. I, for one, would like to get off.
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