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Dialogues@RU is published annually
by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey
Volume One
Spring 2002
To
Live Without Dead Time: An Inquiry into
Political Art and the Art of Political Struggle -
Page5
Elliot Aronow
Like the SI, punk rock sought to offer an alternative to the boredom and drudgery of modern existence. Facets of youth culture, such as fashion, drugs and most importantly, rock and roll, had been watered down and made into cute parodies of what had once been a thriving locus for rebellion and anti-authoritarianism. Faced with the choice between disco and arena rock acts such as Boston and Kansas (as well as other bands named after various American locales), many adolescents began to feel they were somehow "being cheated and exploited for their disposable incomes" (Marcus 6). Rock music had ceased to tap into the feelings of anger, aggression, sexuality and anti-authoritarianism that had been expressed in the works of Elvis, Chuck Berry, the Velvet Underground and countless others during the 1960's. As opposed to speaking to what Burger refers to as "life-praxis," artists sought to separate their work from the everyday and instead focus on the notion of being professional showmen (Burger 170). In reaction to this falsified and alienating rock world, built on elaborate stage shows and laser light effects, small, localized scenes, comprised of a few people who knew each other (much like the Lettrist and SI) started in London, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Among the key groups in this nascent punk scene were the Sex Pistols. This reaction to the clichés and restrictive paradigms of rock music allowed for punk to take "a load of old ideas and sensationalize them into new feelings" (Marcus 77).
Sharing a pre-thematic and unrealized kinship with the SI, the Pistols sought to introduce a new vocabulary to the banal landscape they were told to accept and uphold. With that, singer Johnny Rotten of the Pistols exclaimed, "I am an antichrist /I am an anarchist/ Don't know what I want/ But I know how to get it/ I wanna destroy passerby!" (Sex Pistols LP). Never before in a pop song did someone speak with that much venom and contempt for the status quo. To the large corporation which had manufactured the latest acts and groups, pop music was intended as a way to produce and sell inoffensive and easily reproducible acts that could serve to drain adolescents of some money while they politely bobbed their well groomed heads. As the Situationists had asserted, the art generated by the Spectacle serves to perpetuate it, thus creating an infinite cycle (Debord 65).
Punk, however, looked to go beyond the cycle, and as the Situationists had begged "Demand the Impossible" (Marcus 26). By using conventional methods of dispersing music, such as major record labels and television shows, punk bands were able to put forth ideas and images which had been previously non-existent in the realm of pop music. In a brilliant showing of how a shocking piece of "street art" can "move units," the Sex Pistols engaged in a detournement of their own.
In an attempt to garner publicity, the Sex Pistols distributed promotional flyers around London depicting a portrait of the Queen Elizabeth. The portrait shows a smiling queen, sporting a full head of permed hair and the royal crown. If left alone, this would be a rather conventional publicity shot of her Royal Highness, a simple, flattering image designed to instill patriotic values in the hearts and minds of British youth. Recognizing the iconic status of the Queen, the Pistols detourned this potent image, thus entirely changing its meaning. Inserted into the border of the photo (so as to frame the Queen's smiling face) were the lyrics to the Pistols newest single "God Save the Queen/She ain't no Human Being." Accompanying this textual addition was a safety pin, inserted into the Queen's lips. Through this detournement, the smiling, gracious and elegant queen has become transfigured into a hapless dolt and a parody of her status as a national and global figurehead is created. The suggestion then made by this image is that the queen's status is not divine or even earned, it stands as a symbol of the class inequalities and social hierarchies that England was/is plagued by. By calling attention to the mediated image (the gracious and dignified Queen) of the Queen and then attaching another meaning to it than was originally intended, the Pistols managed to merge their political critique with a common piece of art, a handbill for a concert. Through this colonization of everyday materials, one could speak to the realities of daily life and offer new critiques of the status quo.
In accordance with the avant-garde impulse to renounce art that does not speak to daily life (for example, the corporate puppets of apolitical, recycled rock and roll), punk bands sought to add new dimensions to pop music that radically veered away from the traditional topics found in conventional music. As opposed to singing about a lost (heterosexual) love, or universal peace and understanding, the lyrics of punk songs spoke to the harsh realities of life under advanced capitalism. Paralleling the Situationist slogan "Club Med- A Cheap Holiday in Other People's Misery," which was used to detourne various billboards around Paris, the group Gang of Four stated, "… the problem of leisure/ what to do for pleasure?" Once removed from its status of "musical vacation for the masses," punk rock asked its viewers to rethink the world that they told to accept since they were school children (Marcus 264). While it is highly unlikely that punk audiences were well versed in the musings of cultural theorists, one cannot deny there exists a connection between the high philosophy of Burger, Debord and the SI and young British malcontents who vocalized and articulated the grievances of a youth culture struggling with economic uncertainty and cultural ennui. By detourning images that were intended to foster patriotism and loyalty (such as picture of a national heroine), the possibility of creating alternative readings of tradition and history could be realized.