Evolving Music Trends & My Experience With The Inevitable “Sell-Out”

 

Last night, as I sat in my room, headphones on, watching a YouTube video from the 70’s of a live rendition of Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” far too loud to be audibly healthy, with Rick Derringer on guitar, wearing quite a smashing little gold lamé jump suit number, I couldn’t help but be a bit disgusted at the overt display of LOOK AT ME in the performance… the likes of which I never seemed to connect with at the time! Now this was one of my favorite tunes of my early teen years growing up… and it’s just now that this occurs to me… why is that? I mean, sure, I get it – that’s what the business… I mean ART FORM was all about then right? Rock like a mother with zany mad-cap chops dressed like a girl. What’s not to like? But the difference between Kiss’ “look at me” and the Edgar Winter’s “look at me” is that Kiss never took themselves so seriously. UPDATE - since this writing, that last statement was proven inaccurate by listening to Gene Simmon's self aggrandizing blabbering of the band's "success". To him, sales = success, and I'm sorry say, you corporate weenie in gargoyle's clothing... that ain't it!

Though at times, this ‘glitter’ era of rock n’ roll was less musical and more theatrical, but it was a necessary stepping stone that helped walk us out of the doo-wop, bee-bop, bubble gum phase that still clung to mainstream music despite the 60’s influence. But at least that influence morphed into the Ramones and Stooges and MC5's 'Kick Out The Jams’ attitude that eventually lead to the birth of punk rock, sent to earth to save us all from disco. Even Kiss did a disco song. Pathetic!

It was only a matter of time before music fans eventually got sick of the hairspray, the spandex, the over-self-indulgence and flagrant hypocrisy and began to ask the question aloud, “what happened to rock n’ roll?” and “when did androgyny become a requirement?" and "does spandex make my ass look fat?" This opened a gap between what was pure artistic innovation, and what had become a mindless musical PRODUCT. And from that gap emerged a pure pubescent rage that brought garage bands back into style. A raw phenomenon, devoid of chops, costumes, make up and even skill... but FAR more honest. So it was there, in the midst of this perfect cultural storm that PUNK ROCK was born... a musical genre that NEVER took itself seriously… or DID it?!

Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something New

When punk came along in the mid to late 70’s, even though I was heavily into the the chops, glitter & theatrics of bands like T-Rex, David Bowie, Alice Cooper and Yes, I was relieved that there was ‘something more’ than dressing up in women’s clothes and ‘vogueing’ while you HAPPEN to be playing music.

So I unwittingly transitioned into a punk with Zeppelin roots, Beatles sensibilities and a Bowie fashion sense, which was met with mixed reviews.

It worked fine for a while as I was enjoying the newness of my new found punk rock attitude and all the seeming ‘freedom’ it brought with it. Clothes, unimportant. Hair, unimportant. Job, education, social standing… all VERY unimportant – this was a “Made For Mike Shannon” movement! Note Exhibit A below (no it’s not named Exhibit A, I just typed it for effect)... pictured below is me on the drums in 1980, in my first year at Carlton U. in Ottawa, playing in a band called “Syph Hillis & The Nocturnal Emissions”. Yes, I was proudly an Emission! But considering the name of the band, and the year, and the fact that we were playing “Someone’s Gonna To Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight” by the Rezillos… the drummer clearly did not get the memo regarding the shifting trends where hair style was concerned. If I sucked at the drums, the hair most assuredly would have been an issue. But as it turns out… I ROCKED!

But the message, the protest… THOSE where what was important! “COOL… that seems like a pretty good cause”, I thought! So I latched on to the mantra that embodied punk rock… “Don’t do what THEY say you should do!” and I was ALL IN!... until, I realized, over time, that what they were ACTUALLY saying was “do what WE say you should do!”

And It Starts

This startling revelation came out in living technicolor when I realized that I was suddenly 'not cool' if I muttered anything complimentary of Zeppelin, and especially the Beatles. Suddenly I became the antichrist in my sacred circle of apparent social safety. To further poke this phenomenon, I stood on the stage between sets in a punk club in Hull, Quebec in 1981, and proclaimed boldly into the mic, “I don’t care what you fuckers think, Led Zeppelin ROCKS and the Beatles are BRILLIANT”… cricket, cricket, cricket. You'd think I just dissed Joey Ramone.

The fall out was swift and amazing. I was practically ostracized from ‘the scene’ for that remark. But only the punkiest of punks commended me saying, “that was one of the most punk rock things you could possibly do.” And I realized that they were, in fact, correct by the purest definition of ‘punk’. It was all about be yourself, make no apologies, no filtering, no censoring. Well this endorsement from the scene’s most ardent punks kept me afloat, but it was clear that most everyone else didn’t get that, and I was labeled as a glitter rock infiltrator of their punk rock ranks, a pretender, and the worst insult of all... A SELL OUT! Perhaps I should have cut my hair, but I said it, and I’m sure it cost me a couple of drum gigs at the time. But I'm glad I stuck to my guns because the truth of the matter is that Zeppelin really DOES rock, god damn it, and the Beatles ARE fucking brilliant! And no movement in the world can refute those 2 facts!

So as time wore on, it was my detractors that were exposed as the posers, and are probably just now ready to admit that the Led Zeppelin that they grew up with, but eschewed for their new found punk rock attitude – or more accurately, succumbed to peer pressure for acceptance – are now ready to admit that they are actually rock n' roll gods and now are actually able to ENJOY the music guilt-free! But for 30 years, they suppressed the urge to like them just to be excepted into a club that has long since lost its relevance. Dying trend lemmings can be quite stubborn at times… and very amusing.

The Dreaded "Sell-Out" Moniker!

So in all musical styles and trends and fads… we come full circle in public attitude and perception, right back where we started, making virtually no dent, over time, in the public vernacular as we so loftily hoped we would. This leaves us with only with a marked influence on fashion and the actual style of music played during that time, which tends to change religiously every 10 years no matter how punk rock you are. But for the hold-out punks of the 80’s with your egg-white spiked up hair and Macy’s safety pin & zipper motorcycle jackets, at least you’ve got the home makers of Coral Springs, Florida to blend in with fashion wise. It's inevitable... those in the game long enough almost always sell out. But the term 'sell out' seems to be always thrown around when an artist tries to spread their wings a bit to try something new (see Dylan going electric). No you say?… is the suggestion here that Siouxie and the Banshees envisioned the “Kiss Them For Me” MTV video decades earlier when Syd Vicious was playing drums for them in the days Sioux couldn’t carry a tune on an oil tanker?

And how about Elvis Costello, the “angry young man” of the late 70’s who was banned from SNL for a couple of decades because he sung Radio Radio on the air despite their emphatic directive not to. He likely never saw his collaboration with Burt Bacharach coming 30 years later.

Maybe Lou Reed never envisioned sharing the stage with Luciano Pavarotti to sing Perfect Day in 2001, 29 years after it’s release. Props to Luciano for extending himself into pop culture, but to this writer, the original reigns supreme.

 

Then there's Led Zeppelin being honored IN the White House in 2012? The flippin' WHITE HOUSE MAE! I’m surprised they didn’t throw a TV out of the window to see if they could breach the bullet proof glass.

Regardless, for innovators, the act of 'keeping it fresh' and 'staying relevant' is always a slippery slope. For fans, except for the very, very few who staunchly hold on to their early influential values, we all eventually 'sell out' so we can latch on to the next big thing and then call people, who were just like we were a month ago, “POSERS”. And those old war horses like Johnny Rotten (I mean John Lydon a-hem) and Iggy Pop and the Ramones become caricatures of themselves, holding the torch for a time long forgotten, well past it's shelf life, while shrouded in the present – which is as it should be. Guys like that have no choice but to drift quietly off into punk lore irrelevance with the inevitable march of time, except in the hearts and minds of those of us who were fortunate enough to be there at the time, during our most formative years.

It is only we former punks who look fondly back and tip our hats with respect, admiration and thanks. But that’s where the thanks end for those salty war horses. Sadly, those thanks are not enough for a 60-something former-rocker who just wants to settle down and live comfortably for the couple of few decades. It’s unavoidable... eventually, REAL life gets ahold of you.

What Have We Learned?

Through all the stomping, screaming, rocking, dancing, writing, playing, gigging, jamming and protesting… (spoiler alert!) money still drives the bus. The fact is that we must all eventually make a living, which usually means that we pass the pioneering torch to the younger crowd and move on to earning a living. Out with the old and in with new. It’s only the precious few that can maintain their core ideals and keep the gravy train rolling without eventually becoming a punch line. Though we felt our influence was profound, it was really only the sound of the music and the clothes that changed… as seemingly every other ‘meaningful thing’ that revolved around the Movement-de-Jour was just business as usual. It's a sad story!

Fast forward 40 years and I'm back in my room, headphones on as I played Frankenstein, it awakened my 1970’s glitter rock nostalgia and the reality of what I just expounded upon came crashing down on me which prompted this magnificent festering. I then took a moment to fast forward my musical experience 10 years from that point to my punk rock years in the 80’s, and sadly, the same equation holds true. Backward to the 60’s… hhmmm. Gurnge in the 90’s? Hip Hop? Country Western? Even classical music is wrapped up and packaged like Pez. After carrying the torch for 3 distinct movements over 3 full decades, it became clear to me that NOTHING IS SAFE FROM SELLING OUT! There IS no perpetually pure art form.

Trends come and go and at the time, they are “EXACTLY WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR”. But the fact was that you really had no idea what you were looking for. But you did crave DIFFERENT. And Punk Rock was, for me, that different thing! But eventually, like with everything, the freshness wears off, the cracks are exposed, the innovators grow up and move on, the posers take over, the money creeps in and the magic of it all creeps out into the universe, ready to seep back into the next “different thing”. By the mid 80’s, what was left of the punk movement was only a packaged product to sell to the masses. Masses that were devoid of any innovation or protest themselves, but armed with a no limit credit card for that $280 Macy’s safety pin and zipper motorcycle pleather jacket and some retro-issue $200 Doc Martins that they can show off at the next fund raiser to give off the impression that they’re “with it”… 15-20 years after the fact.

With this, I lowered my head in equal parts of sadness, shame and embarrassment. Sadness for a time long since passed. Shame that I unwittingly took part in this process despite my protesting. And embarrassed that I couldn’t see it at the time despite the fact that I was SURE I knew EVERYTHING! But even with this reality smacking me in the face, killing my buzz, making me sad, I still couldn’t help but crack a smile. I turned off YouTube and fired up my iTunes and cued up The Bad Brains’ “Sailin’ On”.

While the tune thrashed around about in my head, distorting all sense of time and reality as that tune always does for me, before the 2 opening bars were finished… the feelings came flooding back into me again, just like the music of all genres, all times, and all styles, creating a sub-culture of the ones who were lucky enough to be there at the time. I could not help but thrash my head back and forth with the blistering speed of the drums, distortion of the guitars, and barely discernible vocals in this wonderfully substandard recording. And while the angry protest of this thrash reached down and grabbed my balls and pulled me out of my seat, squeezing out dormant aggression through my 52 year old pores... I just could not help myself as I assumed the position, and thrashed out the last 2 verses... on a left handed air-guitar…

and... I... was... AWESOME!

Trends, styles, fads, fashions, cultures and genres – all of them in their hey day were fresh and new and controversial. But they all come, and they all go – and ALL of them eventually succumb to the corporate sell-out machine, leaving behind them a wake of ‘best-of’ records, ‘remember-when’ videos, faded t-shirts, Johnny-come-lately pretenders and a dying fashion trend that is shown the door only after spending a couple of shameful, demeaning months on the clearance rack. But for this 60’s hippy... this 70’s rocker… this 80’s punker… and this 90’s grunger… each era was resplendent with Led Zeppelin roots, Beatles sensibilities and a Bowie fashion sense… whether my peers liked it or not. Regardless of the inevitable sell-out that always follows innovation... those formative years were indeed, a magical time.

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