by Robert M.
Cluesman
Rock & Roll has as its deepest root slavery and the desire to
break free from bondage. When Africans were first uprooted from
their homes and brought to America as slaves in the early 1600's,
something no one predicted happened. Cultures mixed and spawned a
child of their own. A child born of blood; its mother and father
being Europe and Africa. The rhythems of Africa mixed with the
melodies of Europe. Spirituals lead to Gospels lead to Blues.
"The Blues had a baby and they called it Rock & Roll"
-Muddy Waters
After World War II, African-American youth venting the
frustrations of life in poverty no longer wanted to hear songs
crying for the abuses they'd suffered. They created a music of
their own that the older generation couldn't touch. A new Blues
that celebrated and shouted rather than lamented. They Rocked.
"Elvis Presley killed Ike Eisenhower"
-Jerry Rubin
In 1950's "white" America, there was no room for the individual.
One's duty as a teenager was simply to become an adult with a
college degree and a job, climbing the social ladder much the same
way their parents did. One thing made the teenagers of the 50's
different from their parents though: television. Via TV, they saw
the oppression of African-Americans, the colonization of the Third
World, and the confines of their own lives. Rock & Roll was
liberation from the bondage of history. A Way to rebel from
society that expected everyone to become a cog in the machine of
industry. It was something teenagers owned and no one could take
away... Or could they?
Less than 10 years after its inception, Rock & Roll was the sole
property of producers and record label owners, much as it is
today. Young people were frustrated for the same reasons they
created Rock in the first place. In the mid 60's, social injustice
and disillusion with the capitalist system promised America a
revolution. What America got was a cultural revolution. Making
Rock political, fusing it with American Folk, and linking it with
the destruction of the capitalist system kept it in the hands of
the youth, but not for long. By the early 70's, the social
revolution was crushed and Rock & Roll was once again a record
company property. Keeping Rock political alienated young people
who were tired of being preached at and disappointed in the
failure of the revolution. The way for record companies to gobble
up Rock and regurgitate it in a form acceptable to the status quo
was opened. Overproduced "big-bands" dominated the airwaves. Young
people emerged to battle this with, yet again, a new Rock.
Embittered by the failure of the revolutionaries and (still) the
effects of poverty and an unequal place in society, Rock became a
howl of discontent. Some called it Punk.
"We did it to take back Rock"
-Joey Ramone
"I helped destroy the sixties!"
-Iggy Pop
Between 1969 and 1977, Punk Rock reigned in American streets.
Starting in Detroit with the infamous bands "MC5" and Iggy Pop's
"The Stooges" and moving to The New York Dolls and The Ramones in
New York. Punk was what rock had always been; a rejection of class
ladder climbing. The record companies quickly caught on and once
again began super-marketing such bands as The Sex Pistols by 1976.
Since Punk, one can say that the story of Rock has been the
struggle between the Record Companies and the streets. We took it
back with Punk and they absorbed it and spit it back out. Punk had
a baby and called it New Wave. New Wave had a baby and called it
Alternative. Alternative had a baby and called it Grunge.
Since Grunge began in 1992, the record companies had learned a new
trick. Instead of waiting for a cultural style to emerge, copy it
and sell it back to the people who created it, they planted spies
in cultural scenes of teenagers across the world to detect the
styles AS THEY EMERGED. The first such "spy" was Converse
merchandiser Baysie Wightman. See
http://www.gladwell.com/
for the writing of Malcolm Gladwell with all the relevant
information on this phenomenon. The duty of these spies was to
keep tabs on cultural developments and report back to the
companies who would then process the information with the help of
researchers and psychologists in order to mass market a new style
before it fully emerged in the "underground" scene of teenagers.
Prime examples of this work in action are the emergence of
Rap/Metal bands like Limp Bizkit and the Hip-Hop sponsorship of
Sprite when KRS-ONE appeared in their advertisements.
Electropunk changed everything. Bands like Chicks On Speed, Le
Tigre, Mu Chan Clan, A.R.E. Weapons, The Rapture, The Yeah Yeah
Yeahs and Peaches emerged quietly and, sneaking up from behind the
mass-marketed record company creations, took Rock back.
"Rock & Roll can never die, there's more to the picture than
meets the eye, hey hey, my my."
-Neil Young
Thus we found our way to La Cigale in Paris on the night of
Friday, March 27th 2004. Peaches was in concert and Movement was
the sole media member invited to be in attendance and given access
to the Electro-Diva herself. If you know Peaches, it goes without
saying that the concert was AMAZING.
Peaches is able to use all the technology tricks of modern
concert-making and still retain the feel of the old stadium show.
If you closed your eyes and imagined a drummer, bass player and a
keyboardist up there with her; you'd feel as if it were 1973 and
you were standing in the middle of Iggy Pop's glory. Speaking of
Iggy Pop, Peaches uses a lot of the same tricks Iggy used back in
the day and we're glad to see them. Spitting blood on the crowd,
climbing rafters until you're sure you're about to witness one of
the most shocking moments in Rock, slinging food, strip-teases, on
and on. She also (as you should know) has a duet with Iggy on her
new FatherFucker album called, you guessed it, "Rock & Roll." For
this number, the crowd went wild. A giant screen descended to the
stage and on it appeared Iggy Pop himself for a pre-recorded
choreographed performance with Peaches. She disappeared between
numbers and always came back for the next song with a different
guitar. Her guitar was the only live instrument played.
Concert-Snobs would say this is a rip-off but, then again, they
weren't at the Peaches show.
The one thing we were disappointed to miss was the backstage
debauchery. We've all heard of backstage legends created by
rockstars and groupies. The orgies The Go-Go's used to have after
a show, the orgies Prince used to have after a show, the underwear
antics of David Bowie and friends, Led Zepplin and a shark?!.
Well, none of that was happening here. Some roadies had some
teenie-bopers and a few bottles of wine, but that was about it.
Peaches was in the shower and patiently we waited. We weren't
offered sex with the teenager of our choice. No cocaine off the
bellies of whores. No booze or wine and we must say, we're pretty
god-damned upset about that, but that's the only thing.
When Peaches emerged we weren't sure we were seeing the same
person. We almost didn't recognize her; she's so much cuter in
person.
Robert: Sweetheart, how do you feel about the idea that you and
a few other Electro-Punk bands are the saviors of rock? We say
that you snatched the baton so to speak from the record company
overproduced bands and took rock back much the way the Ramones did
it 30 years ago.
Peaches: Bring it on! That's the way it should be!
Robert: What can you tell me about the power of women in
Electro-Punk?
Peaches: Well just look around you. This place is a
WAR ZONE. (she was referring to the state of La Cigale
after everyone had left. It WAS a war zone) I don't want to
ghettoize woman in Rock. It's just humans making good music.
Robert M. Cluesman is Movement's European corespondent in
Paris, France. He is currently working on the indie feature film,
Flasher and writing his first novel, Traci & Robbie.
WORLD MOVEMENT
