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Another argument against rock music

Mar 012012

“Chav-hate has even trickled into the popular music scene. From the Beatles onwards, working-class bands once dominated rock, and indie music in particular: the Stone Roses, the Smiths, Happy Mondays and the Verve, to take a few popular examples. But is is difficult to name any prominent working-class bands since the heyday of Oasis in the mid 1990s: it is middle-class bands like Coldplay or Keane that now rule the roost in music. ‘There has been a noticeable drift towards middle-class values in the music business,’ says Mark Chadwick, the lead singer of rock band the Levellers. ‘Working-class bands seem to be few and far between.’ Instead there’s an abundance of middle-class impersonations of working-class caricatures, such as the ‘mockney’ style of artists like Damon Albarn and Lily Allen.”

(p. 133, Owen Jones: Chavs – The Demonization of the Working Class)

Journalister och klassbakgrund

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Feb 272012

I Chavs – The Demonization of the Working Class (s. 27) konstaterar Owen Jones att endast en handfull av alla brittiska journalister har arbetarbakgrund. Över hälften av dem har gått på privatskola, att jämföra med en fjortondel av hela landets befolkning.

En chefredaktör han talar med gissar att medianinkomsten är runt £ 81,000. Den ligger egentligen på £ 21,000.

Hur ser det ut i Sverige?

När klyftorna ökar blir klassresor svårare att fullborda. I medelklassyrken hittar vi medelklasskids, och beskrivningen av världen blir därefter.

Det man inte känner till – förorterna, småstäderna, glesbygden, arbetarklassmiljöer i stort – exotiseras och demoniseras. Att termen white trash blivit vanligare på senare har att göra med detta, liksom en rad andra fenomen.

För några veckor sedan läste jag en undersökning över vilka partier svenska journalister röstar på, men jag tror att klassbakgrund skulle säga mer om deras verklighetsuppfattning. Parlamenterande är, när man tänker efter, trots allt inte mycket mer än en piss i det politiska havet.

What is a person worth in this economy?

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Feb 232012

“That said, the low status accorded to many non-industrial jobs can be grossly unfair. Part of the problem is that we have developed a distaste for socially useful but poorly paid jobs. This is a spin-off from the new religion of meritocracy, where one’s rank in the social hierarchy is supposedly determined on merit. The problem lies in how to define ‘merit’. The New Economics Foundation (NEF) think-tank published a report in 2009 comparing the social value of different occupations. Hospital cleaners are generally on the minimum wage. However, NEF calculated that – taking into account the fact that they maintain standards of hygiene and contribute to wider health outcomes – they generated over £10 in social value for every £1 they were paid.

Waste recycling workers are another example. They fulfill all sorts of functions, like preventing waste and promoting recycling, as well as re-using goods and keeping down carbon emissions. The NEF model estimated that, for every £1 spent on their wages, another £12 was generated. But when the think-tank applied the same model to City bankers – taking into account the damaging effects of the City’s financial activities – they estimated that for every £1 they were paid, £7 of social value was destroyed.”

(p. 159, Owen Jones: Chavs – The Demonization of the Working Class)