Friday, January 05, 2007

Post-Britpop Rearing Its Ugly Head

From an NME news story:

Albarn said: "I've always had a problem with Jarvis' stance on that, I found it really disturbing when he pulled his pants down in front of Michael Jackson, that just seemed totally wrong. If someone is sick, he's not open to ridicule."He added: "He's got some very odd ideas about reality. I think it's a collective responsibility to say 'No you can't go and do what you're doing', not just to ridicule him. "The world is not full of c*nts; we have a collective responsibility not to slag people off and instead try to understand them."

Now I usually defend Damon Albarn, as I still maintain he's one of the best pop ballad songwriters England has produced (although I can do without the oom-pah stuff these days). But how seriously does the man have to take himself? I don't think Jarvis was ridiculing Michael Jackson for his mental health, more for his pomposity, the specific ghastly nature of that particular performance, and by implication the BPI for allowing it to be staged. As for 'C*nts Are Still Running The World', I think it demonstrates that Jarvis has a reasonably accurate understanding (albeit not a particularly subtle or nuanced one) of the motives of current Western governments. It's leaders and people in privileged positions of power that come under attack in the song - the argument is not that the world is full of c*nts, more that the c*nts tend to exploit all their advantages and benefits, frequently unfairly. It's also, get this, a bit funny. A bit of a joke. Perhaps you should try it, Damon.









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