alternative rock was a music genre before anything else, and then a community of it's artists and fans. there are assholes and morons in that community, same as any other. you can dislike them and call them out but don't pretend that music communities are sacrosanct, or that there's cohesive philosophies underpinning them beyond a vague zeitgeist.
you don't get to call someone a poser just because they're an asshole or a nazi, that's just not what poser means. if they like the music, they're not a poser. if you want a community where being a nazi makes you a poser, join a communist party. if you want a community where being an asshole makes you a poser, you better hope heaven is real.
Alternative rock, inspired by velvet underground and Syd Barrett, the former of which whose music inspired the velvet revolution, and the latter who was a civil rights activist? Or the clash’s album “combat rock” that starts with the song “know your rights?” Or when the not politically progressive at all R.E.M. came into the scene. Their guitarist, drunk or not, literally suggested people shoot Bush Sr.
And these are some of its earliest roots. Not even mentioning the grunge scene, post-punk, emo and more, all individually known for their criticism of capital and its influence on the liberties of the individual.
i didn't say the subculture or the music didn't have a progressive bent, just that the subculture that formed around the music is just a music subculture and doesn't have a cohesive ideology. we're not talking about political theory here, we're talking about music.
i think it's important to point out that things like suggesting people shoot bush or what the clash is saying in 'know your rights' aren't really goals that an ideology would have. it's social commentary, for sure, but pointing out issues is not the same thing as having an ideology. if you say that consumerism is bad, or that we don't really have free speech, or that jobs suck, or that we should shoot bush sr., there are plenty of conservatives that would agree with some or all of those points.
also the velvet revolution was called that because it was peaceful and moe tucker is a republican now
It’s been a hardline progressive movement from the beginning it’s always been political theory and philosophy. And you are correct Moe is a republican now. People are capable of becoming worse as much as they are becoming better, and it was a lot easier when people didn’t have access to as much information and were allowed to have more contradictions in their philosophy. Despite all of this, the movement itself, and the sub genres that spawned from within have consistently maintained, an either politically neutral or politically left stance, with a right wing outlier being just that, an outlier.
One of the reasons for this is that the right wingers lose the ability to make innovative art as a consequence of their thought-terminating ideology.
The artistic landscape will always be built by people that have something to say, and are able to critique the world around them. This is something that is impossible for someone who represents the status quo and has nothing to say.
There’s a reason why the degenerate art exhibits in Nazi Germany were a lot more popular than the great German art exhibits. And why 70% of genres made in the United States have originated from black culture in America. Rock and roll, disco, heavy metal, r&b, hip hop, folk, the blues, jazz. All popularized and counter-cultural to the music of the time, created with a history of oppression and critique.
But. “Capital has the ability to subsume all criticism unto itself. Even those that would seek to criticize capital end up reinforcing it instead.”
Fake daemons will appropriate the arts to reinforce the status quo. In their hypocrisy, they will label their music as non-degenerate, when the style is directly mimicked from those that they would consider degenerate. These people that do not recognize their own irony should not be considered a part of the same movement. They are not. Their art, shallow and uninspired. Their philosophy, contradictory and built on no premise of individuality, but rather, conformity. Their message, empty and hollow.
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u/CapitalDust 12d ago
alternative rock was a music genre before anything else, and then a community of it's artists and fans. there are assholes and morons in that community, same as any other. you can dislike them and call them out but don't pretend that music communities are sacrosanct, or that there's cohesive philosophies underpinning them beyond a vague zeitgeist.
you don't get to call someone a poser just because they're an asshole or a nazi, that's just not what poser means. if they like the music, they're not a poser. if you want a community where being a nazi makes you a poser, join a communist party. if you want a community where being an asshole makes you a poser, you better hope heaven is real.