The past half century of American history has proved itself extremely cyclical. In many ways we’re now approximately where we were in the mid-70s and early 90s: we’ve got a troubled economy and a resurgent political right that’s ramping up the culture wars to dismantle any recent achievements by the political left, and the left is busy watching its optimism curdle into cynicism and generally feeling beaten down. That might be part of the reason why three of the acts I’ve recommended in the Reader over the past month—Odd Future, Iceage, and Cult of Youth—use such terrible imagery that they’ve compelled me to qualify my praise.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Bear with me and I’ll explain. The pop-cultural tactic of deliberately offending people hasn’t left the artist’s toolbox since it first crept in there—which would’ve been right around the time pop culture began to exist—but it tends to be confined to the margins during good times. There’s always an audience, however small, for provocation qua provocation, which explains the ongoing existence of third-generation Big Black rip-offs screaming ugly songs about tabloid murders to rooms half full of neckbearded dudes. Similarly the pop charts have always included acts that get “concerned” parents’ drawers in knots. But during not-so-good times, objectionable content seems to get drawn further into the mainstream—for instance, the Black Monday crash of 1987, the late-80s savings and loan crisis, and the early-90s recession can all be seen as causing, not merely coinciding with, the explosive rise in the popularity of gangsta rap. Artists who appeal to countercultures almost by definition appeal to young people, and countercultural young people tend to skew leftward—or if not leftward, at least antiestablishment and anticonservative. When the establishment looks broken and conservatives go on the warpath against basically everybody else, it’s practically a given that artists like these will flourish.
In the Reader‘s guide to the Pitchfork Music Festival, I wrote about Odd Future, saying that “no one would care what they were saying if they weren’t very good at what they’re doing, which they are.” Which I still feel is true. But maybe it would be closer to the truth to say that no one would care if the group weren’t obviously striking all sorts of chords with listeners, including many who know better.
I can’t condone drawing swastikas on shit—I have some pessimistic ideas about people, including the belief that it’s easy for them to be indoctrinated, even by accident—but I understand why it might make sense to a young fan of Iceage or Odd Future (who are well-known for drawing swastikas on shit). It’s an almost instinctive response to being handed a planet in the sort of condition ours is in right now. Given the cultish fan bases growing up around both acts and the number of others already following their lead, I’d say that the artists defining the face of young music are going to be screaming “fuck the world” for the foreseeable future.
