I was looking at the cover of Martha Wainwright’s latest album just now. It is called I Know You’re Married, But I Have Feelings Too. It occurred to me that in a much gentler time that this would have been a contraversial enough choice of title. Now it just has a vaguely clever feel to it.
I am not advocating a return to such prudish times, of course, but there does seem to be something rather dull about living in an era where pop culture struggles to make a stir anymore.
Remember Madonna’s racey Like A Prayer video? Or Sinead O’Connor tearing up a photo of the Pope on national television? What about the (unintentional) controversy that surrounded The Cure’s first single Killing An Arab? Newspapers and parents foresaw the end of our civilisation in such events. Kids were drawn to these artists all the more because of the outrage.
Indeed, the best plug that Father Ted ever got in our parish was when the priest condemned the show’s depiction of the clergy during one of his tedious Sunday sermons. Inevitably, everyone started watching it then.
These days, the Daily Mail cite the influence of My Chemical Romance’s music in the tragic suicide of a teenager and the people who are out protesting on the streets at this news are the band’s teenage fans complaining about what the newspaper wrote.
Aye, it is a strange world, my friends, when the current state of your pension plan frightens the life out of you and pop culture’s most outrageous antics are greeted with a barely stifled yawn.
Filed under: Music, Society | Tagged: Pop Culture
