Despite the lack lustre facade of consumerist conformity that dominates rock & roll nowadays (typified by Damon Albarn's "This is business! Tell me about it!), there smoulders a much more serious undercurrent, one which has yet to return to the bright days of 1968, but may of course do so in the right circumstances. Lets take a brief look at some of the recent developments in this matter.
A few years ago, The Manic Street Preachers became one of the first rock bands from the west to play in Cuba, meeting Castro as guests of honour. This year, John Pandit of Asian Dub Foundfation refused the offer of an MBE on the grounds of its blatant association with imperialism. This month, George Michael released a single and video("Shoot the Dog") which condemned in clear terms the Bush and Blair axis of war now building up.
That was surprising enough, but now it appears that Will Young, yes He of the Pop Idol phone-in vote poll, is a Marxist. As reported in a local London newspaper:
"Will doesnt fit in. Hes educated and acutely aware of whats going on around him. In that sense he's less easy to mould and manipulate... "Will has his own views and ideas, which record industry bosses dont always like." Just as worrying for his masters were Wills rather unfashionable views on how Karl Marx was one of His heroes. the singers extraordinary pronouncement recently that He was a Marxist is said to particularly to have annoyed certain people at BMG, it seemed, according to one insider.
Will is puported to have said :"Marx did get me to where I am. Marx warned about losing creativity. Making money is at the forefront of people's minds." [Evening Standard Thursday 25 July 2002].
Well alright, dont rush to the barricades just yet on that alone. But it does suggest, taken as a whole, that there are more worthwhile opinions bobbing around just below the surface, and not necessarily from the people we would assume to be automatic socialists. Exact historical parallels are always difficult, but in many ways, the recent Blair regime has had the feel of Eisenhower's enforced consumer-paradise on the 1950s; only now are people beginning to realise that a Partnership between people and business means exploitation, social engineering and war. The initiative in opposing it in the 1960s did not come from the established communists, but dissident Trotskyists, Maoists and young rock stars. Perhaps the pattern will repeat itself.