Another argument against rock music

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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.

Jam City f. Main Attrakionz – The Nite Life

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Feb 252012
 

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/36933265" iframe="true" /]

Main Attrakionz kickar stenat skitsnack över Englands knepigaste flumstrumentaler. Precis vad de bör göra som mellannummer medan vi väntar på nästa kapitel i Greenova-sagan.

Och vänta behöver vi faktiskt inte göra då Greenova släpper grejer lika ofta som den genomsnittliga Brytburken-läsaren tar en dusch: den utmärkta Diamonds Of God-EP:n släpptes förra veckan.

Samma dag släppte även Shady Blaze ett solo tape – The Grind, Hustle & Talent.

Brorsan blir bara bättre och bättre, och nu är det dags för honom att turnera – med ett stopp i Atlanta för att lägga ner lite låtar med DJ Burn One, en av våra favoritproducenter.

Har inte lyssnat igenom ännu, men det ligger en instrumental version och en remixad version av Chandelier ute här. Ett lovvärt initiativ, då det var ett väldigt experimentellt släpp där jag egentligen bara fuxxade med låten I Gotta Youngin Doe till 100 procent.

Avslutningsvis delar jag med mig av den här låten från Huntsville-favoriten Dizzy D – med en gästvers från Shady Blaze.

FUCK AN OSCAR AND FUCK MERRYL STREEP

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Feb 142012
 

“On the eve of the Thatcherite crusade, half of all workers were trade unionist. By 1995, the number had fallen to a third. The old industries associated with working class identity were being destroyed. There no longer seemed anything to celebrate about being working class. But Thatcherism promised an alternative. Leave the working class behind, it said, and come join the property-owning middle classes instead. Those who failed to do so would have no place in the new Britain.”

“Those working class communities who had been most shattered by Thatcherism became the most disparaged. They were seen as the left-behinds, the remnants of an old world that had been trampled on by the inevitable march of history. There was to be no sympathy for them: on the contrary, they deserved to be caricatured and reviled.

There was a time when working-class people had been patronized, rather than openly despised. (…) Today, they are more likely than not to be called chavs. From salt of the earth to scum of the earth. This is the legacy of Thatcherism – the demonization of everything associated with the working class.”

(citerat från s. 60 respektive s. 71 i Owen Jones Chavs – The Demonization of the Working Class)

Burroughs on the queen of England

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Dec 192011
 

“Were you surprised by that uprising in France?

I was surprised by it. I had been in France and I thought the French had the young people really down. I was surprised by it. I was delighted by it, in another sense, because I thought ‘By god, they’re really breaking up.’

You don’t think the latent potential is sitting in England?

I hope so. I would love – I would love – to see something like that happen in England. But it must happen after they get rid of this bloody Queen. As long as they have any subservience to that image, it’s hopeless. I think I can get 5,000 people in Trafalgar Square saying ‘Bugger the Queen.’ That bitch. Sitting there soaking up the energy of forty million people. People say, ‘The queen isn’t important. She’s just a figurehead.’ A figurehead of subservience. A figurehead of kissing her ass. Worthless wench. She should be sweeping floors.”

WSB interviewed by Jeff Shero for underground magazine RAT in 1968, while he was living in London. Applies to all countries cursed with royal families.

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