Rock and Roll Music
The cliché goes something like this: A certain genre of music, or a few genres, were and are the soundtrack of a generation and an era. To some extent, and probably less than I think, that is true. The explosion of rock in the 1950s, along with the rebirth of folk music, was a part of our lives. The same could be said for rap, hip-hop, and other later genres. The generation my parents grew up in had its crooners and big bands. And some of that music, along with classical music and music from other cultures, is really great art. Singers and songwriters and groups were able to create the backdrop of an epoch. But that is not what this commentary is about.
Abbie Hoffman said it was the music, sex, and drugs that highlighted the great era of change of the 1960s and early 1970s. There are entirely other points of view about the forces that moved so many to step out of a staid social and political environment. Looking at the landscape around me littered with marijuana businesses, I could easily do without the drug piece of it. Many would disagree. Abbie could have also since the drugs put him in jail for a year and sent him into hiding for a much longer time.
The baby boom generation, and subsequent generations lifted rock artists to financial heights taller than Mount Everest. Naming names is beside the point here, but a perusal of the behaviors of that knighted gentry is of interest to me in a world and a nation with extreme income inequality. I don’t want to get sued and further enrich the already filthy wealthy, so let’s do this anonymously and keep in mind that all of these people are gazillionaires and often go to and fro in limousines and private jets. Readers get the picture here. They don’t live lives like we do paying bills, worrying about inflation, etc., etc., etc.
My first anonymous biopic is about a person who didn’t show up at Woodstock, but spoke dirt about the nearly half million of the generation which I come from and identify with and showed up in Bethel, New York in August 1969. That artist is highly talented and is one of the gazillionaires. Slandering those kids because of their lofty ideals against war while laughing about them footing this artist’s bills is the pinnacle of hypocrisy. No additional details. I think if I placed a matching quiz at the end of this commentary, many would be able to match this person with ease.
The next musical luminary comes from a line of musical geniuses that readers could easily identify. Many among the gazillionaire class aren’t the highest on that elite pecking order, but this character made a mockery of the heritage from which he emerged. He also became a holy roller, purposefully set in lowercase letters. Hitting others over the head with right-wing beliefs and actions, while laughing all the way, well, readers know where to, is the height of bald-face idiocy.
The third in the list of who sits on another fortune thanks to the baby boomers who bought this person’s records and attended his concerts. He moves between supporting liberal causes to extreme right-wing ones. Once touted as the balladeer of a significant event of 1960s’ era activism, he turned around 180 degrees and supported a fascistic war and draconian limits of basic rights. Maybe it’s the air quality in a limo?
Most know that these elite people aren’t rocking any boats in any demonstrative way because they’d be hauled off the stage, either actually or symbolically if they challenged the representatives of the power elite in any serious way. Their bank books keep filling up with dollars and we have always footed the bill. They keep us entertained and distracted, so separate the art from the artist. However, that’s a little more difficult if you’ve paid for their sixbucks exotic cup of coffee.
Fame, adulation, and unlimited cash seem to distort the personalities of many. Not much in living is usual. It’s the constant attention of fame and its exponential rewards that can distort personality.
There are many, many other examples of this extreme hypocrisy fueled by unlimited cash. Follow any Democratic Party candidate at the highest level and the sycophants will be right up there on stage with the candidate as income inequality grows across the society. The power elite knows, and these artists know, that it is all about the bottom line. The Republicans have their sycophants, too, but at least for now being a little liberal, at least at a superficial level, is more of a Democratic thing.
I once waited for a Democratic presidential candidate to take the stage at an outdoor campaign rally, and there right out front leading off was a representative from the Hollywood elite. The cash register could almost be heard ringing over the heads of the crowd.
Rock and Roll Music