Current Audio
H2O
What Happened
"When it began, for those who don't know
It didn't matter how you looked or what you wore to a show
Dress codes, FUCK NO! we didn't care
About the brand of your jeans and all that shit in your hair
"But now the biggest part is all about the image and not the art
Fashion before passion!"
I've often had the same objection when I go to punk shows: what's with all the bullshit? Why am I expected to fug myself up - which I refuse to do under any circumstance, except for laziness - in order to be legit? Besides, there's something about the image that's just unimaginative.
At the same time, I'm thinking now that the H2O take on this matter is simply factually untrue. There was NEVER a time when punk wasn't about the image. A nice little footnote to history: the only reason the Sex Pistols existed was because specialty boutique owner Malcolm McLaren wanted an extreme promotional gig for his FASHION vision. Isn't that a pretty irony? No one takes fashion seriously! It's the most frivolous activity - perhaps the very definition of superficial - that we think of as chaining us up to society's soul-killing conformity. And yet fashion is forever bound in this symbiotic, inextricable marriage to youth rebellion. I guess that just goes to prove that youth is, above all, stupid.
I love it! Fashion is so dear to my heart. I know it's completely vain, in both sense of the word, but it's nice to find some vindication for it.
Isn't vain an interesting word? I'm guessing that the "conceited" definition came first, but because our society discourages self-interested pursuits, perhaps it also came to means "useless." This is pulled out of my ass, of course. It's easily verifiable on the OED, I would guess, but those fucks at UM have officially cut me off, so I don't have the access to the library's OED subscription anymore. It's so pathetic going back to the American Heritage dictionary after the OED.
What Happened
"When it began, for those who don't know
It didn't matter how you looked or what you wore to a show
Dress codes, FUCK NO! we didn't care
About the brand of your jeans and all that shit in your hair
"But now the biggest part is all about the image and not the art
Fashion before passion!"
I've often had the same objection when I go to punk shows: what's with all the bullshit? Why am I expected to fug myself up - which I refuse to do under any circumstance, except for laziness - in order to be legit? Besides, there's something about the image that's just unimaginative.
At the same time, I'm thinking now that the H2O take on this matter is simply factually untrue. There was NEVER a time when punk wasn't about the image. A nice little footnote to history: the only reason the Sex Pistols existed was because specialty boutique owner Malcolm McLaren wanted an extreme promotional gig for his FASHION vision. Isn't that a pretty irony? No one takes fashion seriously! It's the most frivolous activity - perhaps the very definition of superficial - that we think of as chaining us up to society's soul-killing conformity. And yet fashion is forever bound in this symbiotic, inextricable marriage to youth rebellion. I guess that just goes to prove that youth is, above all, stupid.
I love it! Fashion is so dear to my heart. I know it's completely vain, in both sense of the word, but it's nice to find some vindication for it.
Isn't vain an interesting word? I'm guessing that the "conceited" definition came first, but because our society discourages self-interested pursuits, perhaps it also came to means "useless." This is pulled out of my ass, of course. It's easily verifiable on the OED, I would guess, but those fucks at UM have officially cut me off, so I don't have the access to the library's OED subscription anymore. It's so pathetic going back to the American Heritage dictionary after the OED.
posted by Rex at 12:35 AM
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