The paradox of ironic irony
Published by AstralGlamBoy May 31st, 2006 in Gen X, activism, postirony
In response to my post on hatred and activism, Greta wrote a terrific rant about Gen X and cynicism (a portion is quoted below). I feel her pain, especially when it comes to The Clash selling “London Calling” to Jaguar. The question becomes, how does a generation whose aesthetic is irony cope with the ironic use of irony as a sales tool? (Which thus becomes “post-irony“– yeah, I know, that’s a mouthful.) I don’t have all the answers here except to say that if we look at how Mexicans cope with it, perhaps we can learn something.
There is a term “rasquachismo”– a kind of “lowbrow” appropriation of pop culture. It is a bottom-up “psykitsch” defense against the juggernaut of multinational corporate media. Think Bart Simpson with a poncho, or a Starbucks logo inserted with Poncho Villa instead of the trademark mermaid (see photo I shot in Mexico). Rasquachismo is not self-conscious, it’s a natural flow between pop culture and survival, a kind of assimilative mechanism that social critic Mike Davis calls “magical urbanism.”
Like Mexicans, I think we need to go back to a punk rock sense of humor and play, and reinsert politics into the soul of irony. Irony is a great tool because it allows a buffer against bullshit by creating some emotional distance from a very disturbing environment. Why else would kings allow jesters to run amok in their courts while everyone else got their heads chopped off for speaking truthiness to power? Still, it must be the end days when I can’t tell the difference between an ad and a culture jam. We’ll just have to keep up the good fight, and hopefully find a way to burrow through this mind tunnel with fresh thoughts of paradox and silly confusion (thank you Stephen Colbert!). Keep posted and posting!
Greta’s rant:
Sphere: Related ContentGeezus. This is awful. Every slap hurts, making me feel so small and mundane in my existence… but I just can’t stop watching. Now, we’ve all had it in the ear before…hell, even Judy the Punk from Ramones lore is hawking telecommunications products. I dial her up and … ouch, marketing strikes again. Not all punk rock songs adapted for advertising formats are so honest about their third world economic development policies as Nike’s use of the Stooges’ “Search and Destroy.” Some of them get their sting from irony. Here is a short list of selected pop culture mutations selected from: http://www.soundsfamiliar.info/us/tvads19.php
Phone and Diet Soda ad: Ramones, Blitzkrieg Bop
Investment company: Bowie: “Young Americans” and “Changes”
Car ad: Alice Cooper, “I’m 18″
Beer (though not domestic beer) and UK car ad: Iggy Pop, “Passenger”
SUV ad: Sonics, “Have Love, Will Travel”
Beer: Devo, “Freedom of Choice”
SUV and UK jeans ad: T Rex: “20th Century Boy”
Frozen french fries: Stranglers, “Golden Brown”
Car and UK jeans ad: Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
Fast food campaign on childhood obesity: Brian Eno, “Ending (Ascent)”
UK bank: The Specials, “Monkey Man”
UK car ad: New York Dolls, “Personality Crisis”
UK noodles, furniture, children’s shoes, and potato chips: Motorhead, “Ace of Spades”
UK beer: Iggy Pop, “I’m Bored”
UK beer: Patti Smith “Land”
UK car: Velvet Underground, “I’m Sticking with You”
Corn chips and cereal: Blondie, “One way or Another”
What a hole we have dug for ourselves. Its not just that the counter culture has been co opted, but that we’ve gleefully done this to ourselves. We’re like the ant who unwittingly picks up ant bait (poison ) on its feet by searching out the extra good smelling stuff. He then proceeds to track it home with him poisoning his nest and life source (the queen ). The art that we’ve embraced as being free and fresh has stuck to our shoes when we go out to live our lives. And in its new context - the soundtrack of our lives - it can easily lose its social and spiritual reason for being. And yet it continues to exist and thrive. The guy/gal who sealed the deal for the JagClash mash up was a Clash fan you can bet. But a ‘77 Clash fan? It would seem hard to imagine.
I agree that the answer to this problem should be, “Alright then, you want to play? Lets PLAY!”
The most interesting paradoxes of post-irony is that as it becomes the central form of communication for the prime demographic of 20-30 year-olds is that for one the ad industry is waiving the white flag by acknowledging that it can’t take itself seriously, but more gravely, when a chap in London recites the lyrics of “London Calling” in the back of a cab and gets hauled in for a terrorism investigation, it makes me wonder if paranoia is compatible with drab humor. I’ve long felt that Britton is our prototype: it’s a has-been empire, and as a result, black humor is its prominent aesthetic (thank you Monty Python!).
Could punk (in its original, native form) survive a post-9/11 world without being hauled into a concentration camp? People don’t remember this, but when I watch Filth and the Fury (the doc on the Sex Pistols), what strikes me is the level at which the Pistols struck at the heart of English hypocrisy (a monarchy-democracy), and the extent to which they scandalized the country. I can’t imagine any band doing that now.
These days what passes for news in music is this dude Brandon Dougherty, who is famous for being a junky. (Did I even get his name right?) I don’t even know what band he’s in, but I know that he screws models and shoots-up groupies while they are passed out in the dressing room. Thankfully at least Neil Young can still garner a headline or two for his views, not his drug habits. But the tell of our society is that we can’t even joke about ourselves anymore without it being construed as a threat to national security or a sales pitch. I guess the ultimate irony is that nihilism is the ultimate self-destruct mechanism that punk inadvertently implanted into the system. So as punks hit middle age and sobriety, I guess we can enjoy the view from the porch as the society at large copes with its addictions and loss of grip on reality. Let’s just hope that social suicide is not the ultimate conclusion of this Shakespearean drama.
(And yes, people should buy the DVD because it is great and I’m trying to make a living from this blog. How is that for a sales ptich!)
“The Filth and the Fury - A Sex Pistols Film” (Julien Temple)