Shill.He.Is
Posted on May 15th, 2009
by Dennis Dale |
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The single most distressing result of Barack Obama’s election is not the looting of your grandchildren’s economic prospects to pay for the new administration’s Great Lurch Forward into insolvency. It isn’t the accompanying loss of liberty. Nor is it the mass decampment of “anti-war” leftists now silent or openly supporting the escalation of the war in Afghanistan (so that’s what they mean by “MoveOn”). No; it’s the ascendance of shameless kitschmeister Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas, whose “Yes We Can” video on behalf of the Obama campaign took the cliched political cant that is rap’s tertiary stock-in-trade (after gangsterism and narcissism) to surreal and sinister levels, putting it directly in the service of power. The natural process of his passing down through the Dante-esque circles of celebreality television into ultimate obscurity is now delayed by at least four years.
Witnessing Bob Dylan’s participation in Pepsi’s cloying, Super Bowl-launched ad campaign (”every generation refreshes the world”) alongside Will was like finding a beloved elderly family member working as a carnival geek. To a remixed “Forever Young” a sixties-era Dylan passes the baton (in the form of a pair of wayfarer sunglasses) off to Will. If this was a true representation of the state of popular music, the g-forces induced by such a sudden drop in iconic quality would cause the culture to pass out. Don’t panic–it isn’t. The raw material of humanity hasn’t been left out overnight to spoil, and there are as many talented young people as ever, in and out of hip hop. Just don’t tell Mr. Dylan. Like his early eighties “conversion” to evangelical Christianity, the less said of this embarrassing interlude the better. Let’s give the president a pass too. Let him think that Puff Daddy and The Black Eyed Peas are relevant, that Wanda Sykes is funny. There are too many meaningful delusions of which he will have to be disabused, by argument and circumstance, over the next four years, to worry about the trivial.
Now I learn from the blog Where Hip Hop and Libertarianism Meet (only to find they have nothing in common, I’m sure–no worries, Big Man Fascism, your muse still only has eyes for you) that Will.I.Am will be caddying the carpet bag for Terry McAuliffe (who Will identifies as his “closest political mentor”) as he stumps for the governorship of Virginia. It’s going to be a long four years.
Unrelated: Recently here I said some harsh things about the American film industry. Then, I found this: Film Studio Mulls “Coyote Ugly” sequel. Coincidence? I think not.
Filed under: Culture, Politics, libertarianism
I’ve yet to hear any reason for why Bob Dylan’s Christian years are “embarrassing” that stands up to even the slightest scrutiny.
The music he made during that period was some of his strongest ever, especially 1981’s Shot of Love. He’s been quoted as saying that’s his favorite album, but what good is his own opinion up against the omnipotence of anti-Christian animus?
I don’t see why his years of making overtly Christian music should be any more embarrassing than his years of making protest music. Being a great artist means never having to apologize to Dennis Dale.
That said, I’ll agree that the Will.i.am collabo was disappointing. Maybe he needed the money?
It isn’t the Christian part that’s embarrassing, but Dylan’s shallow and temporary embrace of it. Glibly picking up and then discarding a religious affiliation as if an article of fashion is an offense to that affiliation. However, I’ll admit to being presumptuous here, and not knowing the circumstances of his religious progress.
But do please understand, I harbor no animus toward Christianity or religion. Quite the opposite.
Looting of our grandchildren? Loss of liberty? I think the Bush Administration already sent that train a-rollin’.
The Urban/Hip Hop movement is today’s pop scene, embraced by white kids and brown kids alike. Simply dismissing Will.I.am as a shamelss kitchmeister (try searching Wikipedia and see all he’s accomplished by age 34) is a disservice to our country’s youth and could be part of the reason the Republicans are losing election after election.
As usual, I am powerless before the “I am rubber, you are glue…” argument. Bush did it so Barack is blameless in doing it. One negates the other and it’s a wash! Let’s set that rhetorical ratchet effect in motion, as we spend and war our way to hell. With the level of our political discourse, it’s no wonder it seems no one is in charge.
Barack was elected not to keep that train rolling, but to put the brakes on. An unfortunate result of his election is that the antiwar movement has lost nearly all momentum, as the establishment Left refuses to criticize their own lest they jeapordize their pipe dreams of building a social democracy out of the wreckage (before the wreckage is complete).
Hip hop fans with the barest level of discernment all dismiss Will’s work as abysmal–a consensus I agree with. I won’t hold it against you if you must check an artist’s record sales before passing judgment on his work, but I’m a bit of a snob about this stuff. I happen to like hip hop. But that’s no reason to ignore the element of the idiotic (and bigoted, and misogynist, and crass) therein, like I’m some insecure frat boy fearful of appearing out of it. Rap/hip hop is a paradox–the technical brilliance (as embodied by the better producers and DJs) coinciding with the thematic and (ironically) lyrical poverty of most of its songwriters. I do not fear recognizing it. Age has its liberating advantages that way.
Nor is it the mass decampment of “anti-war” leftists now silent or openly supporting the escalation of the war in Afghanistan (so that’s what they mean by “MoveOn”).
This is a gross oversimplification. Many of what you apparently refer to as “anti-war leftists” were actually opposed only to the Iraq war, and many liberals have always supported the invasion of Afghanistan. There is certainly a core of liberals opposed to both wars, but MoveOn is hardly where they choose to convey that opposition.
“This is a gross oversimplification. Many of what you apparently refer to as “anti-war leftists” were actually opposed only to the Iraq war, and many liberals have always supported the invasion of Afghanistan. There is certainly a core of liberals opposed to both wars, but MoveOn is hardly where they choose to convey that opposition.”
Of course, they are just as silent on the Iraq War now. Perhaps, as we’ve seen on the torture issue with Pelosi’s tortuous explanations, the Left has (as its history shows) never been opposed to war so long as they get to run them to further their purposes and the opposition was for no more reason than a bludgeon for political power.
Oh dear, my hopes are dashed by the “hope-pusher.”
Dennis,
Sorry to mis-characterize you, then. Being a Matt Swartz on the internet means often having to say I’m sorry, as it turns out.
I’ll grant that it was a little odd. I’d like to think that he’s a Christian still, but who knows. My vision is blurred by my admiration for his work, no question.
Oh gosh, I almost had a heart attack when I saw that Pepsi commercial. I’m getting tired of everyone trying to be “the next Dylan.” There ain’t never gonna be another Bob Dylan!
And a Coyote Ugly sequel? Maybe the end of the world really is upon us.
Look on the bright side. Were McCain in office he would have spent more money and he’d be readying the strike on Iran. I’m not saying we can prevent it but there’s still a chance. And pop culture would be turned to beat the drums of war.
Just for the record, it wasn’t a “sixties-era” Dylan recording of “Forever Young” used in the commercial, it was the alternate and less often heard “fast” take of the song included on the 1974 album, “Planet Waves.” And Dylan’s born-again period began not in the early 1980s, but with the 1979 album, “Slow Train Coming.”
Just for the record, I described a “sixties era Dylan” not a “sixties era Dylan recording.”
But these are crucial points indeed. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule debating even more vital issues such as the all important Kirk v. Picard question to bring them to our attention. I kid! I kid!
Kevin,
That may be the (Dylan) vocal from the fast version of Forever Young on Planet Waves, but the instrumentation is new (and inferior).
Specifically, the organ is gone (is this a metaphor for the neutering of the song?), the guitar line sounds artificial, the percussion is straight out of garbage-can hip-hop (and I say that even as a rap aficionado).
This is my fourth favorite version of this song, not coming anywhere close to the Biograph version, either album version, and certainly it doesn’t hold a candle to the one on Budokan.
Bob Dylan was a phony and a minor talent when he was new. He is merely tiresome now. On hearing him in the sixties I can remember asking, who’s the punk with the nasal voice doing Woody Guthrie impersonations? To this day, I never got a satisfactory answer.
Good stuff, Dennis. Thanks. A couple of other thoughts:
Mr Meehan is right. Who really gives a damn about the “artist” Bob Dylan. Also, I remember watching “Don’t Look Back” and thinking, “wow, this guy’s a real jerk.”
Maybe political speech is a way for some rappers to find some meaning in hip hop culture, which is– with few exceptions– a shallow and materialistic nightmare. It’s a boon to record companies: a product that is easy to consistently produce, because it is all producer driven. (Anybody remember the Brady episode where he “fit the suit”?) It’s a culture emulated by white kids wanting to be as cool as MTV says they should be, but today it’s also a culture that they can– with few exceptions– only participate in with their wallet.
Will.I.Am is to good hip-hop as Dan Brown is to Evelyn Waugh, or, to put it another way, as Will.I.Am is to Bob Dylan.
As with any other mass entertainment produced today, the hip-hop market isn’t set up to reward the best, most challenging stuff. Click on my name to hear Nas memorialize his recently departed mother. It’s stark, it’s beautiful, it’s erudite, it’s evocative.