Hang the Blessed DJ

Burn Down the Disco

"Burn down the disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play
It says nothing to me about my life"
- Morrissey (in the Smiths, "Panic")

Good music is supposed to convey a message. It is supposed to speak to you. Whether you are aware of it or not, when one creates music, part of their understanding of the world is opened up to you. Or at least, when it's done right.

Yet, so much music today has become stale and lifeness devoid of any real meaning. It's mechanical and done with no passion. Or it is corporate, watered-down music that speaks to no one, yet sells millions because the kiddies are told it's kEwL! Bands constantly churn out their electronic beats manufactured with technical precision, yet lacking of any emotion or message that one can identify with. There's so much boring music these days.

The best music is music that speaks to you. Music that says something that you can identify with. Music that speaks about life, death, and everything in between. Music should serve a purpose!

Your art is your activism. Music is a window into your soul and every story it has to tell. Music is a way to tell others the trials and tribulations in your life; or the joys and happiness of it. There will always be haters, undoubtedly, but when like-minded people hear it, they feel like someone is speaking to them. That someone fights the same struggle that they do! That they are no longer alone in the universe.

I love jazz. Jazz, to me, is the most revolutionary form of music exactly because of the message much of it sends. It was started by blacks in the southern US and for many of those musicians, jazz was their only escape from a world that constantly kicked them down. It was their outlet. It was a way to tell the world how they felt on the inside. It was a way to make the whole world identify with them and their situation. And it worked to a large extent. How could you keep a man down when you understood what was in his heart and in his mind? How could you continue to strangle beautiful human beings who could produce such emotion?



Jazz was the original revolutionary music. It spoke of a freedom that many musicians could only dream of. It made them free while they were blowing on their trumpets and saxaphones. Suddenly, being black didn't seem so bad. Suddenly, some of the white folks realized they were missing out on something. When Duke Ellington said that jazz was the greatest form of freedom; a freedom that many jazz musicians could only dream about.

There have been other forms of revolutionary music since jazz. Rockabilly defied predominate culture. The attitudes of a few poor, young rockers were permeated all across America. Their "uncivilized", lower class ways were becoming accepted.

And then there was punk rock. Punk was in many ways a response to the meaningless disco and prog-rock of the early and mid '70s. It was a return to music that had meaning. Music about the situation of the working poor and those who walked the streets of the urban nightmares that had developed. Punk spawned several other genres and subgenres, including a plethora of bands collectively labeled "post-punk", many of whose music focused more on inner turmoil rather than the external turmoil that most punk focused upon. Then, there was new wave; proof that not all synthesizer-based music has to be completely bland, boring, and meaningless.

Punk also spawned goth rock, which early on, seemed to yearn for a return to the revolutionary spirits of the early 20th century that had slowly been drowned during the Cold War and also during the Nazi regime in Germany. The name "Bauhaus", itself, is a reference to a German art school and movement of the early twentieth century. There was something about the world that just died after 1933. Something beautiful. It's difficult for me to watch many films from Weimar-era Germany and not see a close association with gothic subculture. Films of the era were thoughtful, often gloomy, and dealt with the turmoil of society of that time. There was a genuine feeling in that era that social revolution was just around the corner, but it never fully materialized. It got drowned out after awhile by those who tried to kill it (Hitler, Stalin, post-war American politicans, etc.). To me, goth almost seems like an attempt to revitalize those movements and away from the manufactured staleness of life that resulted from a world order founded on phoniness.

Deathrock also came out of punk and it had the same revolutionary feel to it. Except, deathrock seemed more targeted at social aspects of society than punk; mocking religious fundamentalism, traditional moral values, and mainstream society. If punk rockers fought against the corporate world, then deathrockers fought against attitudes and supposed "wisdom" that had become deeply entrenched in American society.

There were others, too. While, the music of all these genres was in many ways, a call for some sort of change or revolution; many later artists bought into the sound of these musical pioneers shallowly without paying any attention to the message; without understanding what the music was actually about. That's always a risk with music.

Today, corporate culture has once again taken over. Musical "authorities" such as MTV try to flood us with meaningless, shallow pop dribble. They give us ditzy blondes whose minds and bodies reak of phoniness. Their music is about making money. It's about manufacturing fads and trends. It's not about changing society. It's not about our lives. It's not about our struggles.

With all the problems in the world today; with all the sprawling suburban nightmares being built; with all the attempts to create a static aristocracy in America; with the death of community in our society; why isn't there more music that talks about all of this? Why isn't there more music that agitates for change or music that presents an alternate view of the world?

Morrissey's words in "Panic" speak to me. It's time to demolish the disco and kill the blessed DJ! I want music that destroys their culture! I want music that is confrontational and loud! I want music that's about my life and my struggles! I want music that tells me I'm not alone in the universe.