Pinky asks: "Are people so mad for the Beatles, so many years later, that even a simulacrum brings them joy?"
Read her report on Cheap Trick at the Hollywood Bowl, playing Sgt. Pepper on the occasion of its 41st anniversary.
Monday, June 30, 2008
A cheap trick?
Posted by Ed Park at 5:03 PM
Labels: Cheap Trick, Hollywood Bowl, Pinky's Paperhaus, Sgt. Pepper
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1 comments:
Pinky asks: "Are people so mad for the Beatles, so many years later, that even a simulacrum brings them joy?"
Yes. Moving on...
Pinky's off-the-cuff statement that he/she was a lesser person for having seen a Beatles cover band joggled a thought. It's about something I am going to dub "Presentism."
I don't know what it was like to live in other times and places, but in America during my lifetime I've found that the only socially acceptable stance towards the past is smug amusement at how backward they were, and how much better we've got it, and how all of THEM would certainly love to live in the now with US if they could.
Nothing was more present-tense Sixties than The Beatles. And we have been trained by the people selling pop culture (who have new bills every month/year like the rest of us) that pop culture has, by definition, a short sell-by date. So what do you do with a group working in a pop culture form, that still connects forty years later? (Besides repackage it.)
This isn't a problem for people--they just like what they like--but it is a problem for culture workers committed to Presentism. So you can denigrate the audience ("they're just reliving their old memories") and make absurd, yet unverifiable proclamations ("Group X is just as important, influential, and innovative as The Beatles ever were"). This is all crap, and easily seen as crap by people without a vested interest.
In the world of pop music, cover bands are probably a great sign; they show that audiences are becoming sophisticated enough to tell the gems from the dross. Cover bands are people actively insisting on listening to what THEY like, not passively consuming whatever new (corporate) product is being sprayed all over them. Authentic movements still emerge; new artists that produce gems are still rewarded. But the bar is there, and must be crossed to survive.
Presentism is a self-serving, immature lie, and The Beatles show you it's a lie. They demonstrate how much richer and more fun our life can be if we release from the tyranny of our time, and engage all that has been, and could be.
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