Hello internet pals of music. Today is Monday and time isn’t real. Here’s a ripping pub rocker from 1977 which has nothing to do with what I wrote.
Something I read this morning on (of all predictable places) Twitter, got me thinking about enthusiasm, the manufactured optimism of the 1980s, and the lifelong backlash of many Gen X (myself most solipsistically, of course) to look down their end of our noses at anything remotely pure.
But I’ve thought about it before.
At least, I’ve made note of that 80s pop culture insanity in my many ramblings that most people close to me have learned to tune out.
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Why did it become so uncool to be hopeful?
Again, I lay the wreath of blame directly at the feet of advertising and marketing. We were all swindled! Bill Hicks was right!
The 1980s was a huge whitewashing to distract us all from the reality of the psychic war humanity was / is engaged in with power and wealth. Life did not go better with Coke.
Thinking of it in that context, no one should be blamed for their cynicism. But without the ability to boldly express one’s pure glee at the discovery of something that fulfills them: love, art, the natural world…then, those forces, which definitely are in league against us, can claim victory.
No, it’s honest to care about what you love, even if tomorrow it’s something different. It’s true and real to be excited. Trill to be enthusiastic.
Express yourselves, like real people and never be haunted again by 80s marketing assholes.
SERMONS! is brought to you by Jamie Ward, a multidisciplinary artist currently somewhere in North America, and Elliot Heintzman…. You can also find Jamie on Twitter and Instagram, if that’s your thing. Like what you’re hearing? Help spread the word!
Musik Klub: “Everythang’s Workin”