Subversives In Rock

A 1974 Genesis fan keeping a file on Thom Yorke? Why would he feel the need :) ?

No, seriously, I think "subversiveness" is an overrated quality which ultimately means and equates to very little. Nevertheless, I think it's possible for certain music to implicitly become subversive not because of what it is in itself, but because of the nature of the environment surrounding it, which cleans up and sentimentalises what the music is criticising and celebrating an escape from. By those criteria, Luke Haines's take on the 70s *becomes* subversive in the context of the current obsession of British TV with 70s nostalgia shows, but alongside a serious academic dissection of the labour unrest during the Callaghan era, "The Rubettes" and "Some Changes" seem as simplified as "I Love The Seventies". Obviously the nostalgia reaches far more people than the analysis, though, so in terms of the difference between his take on the 70s (which is bitter, resigned, dancing on the grave of that whole world) and that of the mainstream British media, then yes Haines seems very subversive indeed. Nevertheless, the subversiveness is secondary to the sheer brilliance of his music, and unlike actual quality in music, it's not intrinsic, just lent by accidents of time and context. And it's far less important.

Think of subversiveness as an optional byproduct, and the actual quality of the music as the key factor. If Saturday-night TV was dominated by documentaries on the National Front and the three-day week, Haines's music would seem much less subversive, but it would be every bit as good, and would lose nothing whatsoever in the process.

Louie Louie is the root of all this, and then the whole backwards music/suicide murder scare, and in every case this is a result of misunderstanding. Marilyn Manson probably has a file, doesn't make him subversive though. P.K. Dick's "Radio Free Albmuth" captures pop subversiveness best, I think, as a novel. Artistic subversiveness does not usually equal political subversiveness in message. In fact, as Thomas Frank and the Baffler crew seem to prove over and over (and over and over and over...) again, mass culture is a self-healing and all encompassing institution which can incorporate, and does incorporate, all forms of artistic innovation.

Has anyone been subversive? You said "anymore", so I assume that they were once. I think subversiveness is something made up by the government, today's "subversive" types are Hollywood people who are "targeting" children into becoming evil wood nymphs (or something to that effect). Thom Yorke, incidentally, is about as subversive as pudding. Not even an exotic pudding, like flan, but just regular ol' from the box pudding. Why would Tony Blair care about anything he does? The Spice Girls are more subversive, for heaven's sake.

Honestly speaking, I don't think any artist has set out with an attempt to be subversive. Political, maybe, but this rubbish about backwards songs and satanic messages if you play a recording at a slow speed - that's too clever for your average rocker, IMO.

Perhaps Marilyn Manson is subversive, but not in the ways scaredy cats think he is. It's more of a subversion that he's tricking metal types into thinking of him as this ultimate bad ass, when in reality he goes on Politically Incorrect and writes novels. He probably knits, too.