Oh, what's that?
So now you say life sucks
Well, ninety-nine percent of it's
What you make of it...
So if your life sucks, you suck.
Would a band release a song with similar lyrics these days? If yes, would industry gatekeepers bring it to the masses?
In other words, would similar sentiments reach a mainstream audience today?
The marketplace for art and media has become so fractured that consumers can watch, read, or listen to whatever genre or point of view they choose. There’s a lot to like about the new landscape—we can dive deeply into our favorite music. But the new world also encourages confirmation bias and dead dogma.
I’m a Gen Xer who grew up on indie music and metal with some pop mixed in. These days I’m mainly into indie and jazz, but I still have a soft spot for the hard stuff—metal is my go-to choice for weight training, for instance. It may be cliche, but nothing gets me out of a squat hole like TOOL or High on Fire.
The lyrics above come from a track called “Gotta Kill Captain Stupid” by Suicidal Tendencies, one of my favorite bands from my youth. I’m not sure if the LA punk-metal band was ever mainstream, but a couple of their offerings became staples on MTV’s “Headbangers’ Ball.”
(Today, it’s likely that a similar collection of rogues would choose a different band name. When I searched “suicidal tendencies,” Google referred me to anti suicide resources.)
But back to those lyrics.
“If your life sucks, you suck.”
Yikes!
Modern ears may find the lyrics problematic, but if your life is (mostly) what you make of it, that’s good news.
One important predictor of happiness is the degree to which we agree with Suicidal Tendencies frontman Cyco Miko.
Have an internal locus of control? You’re more likely to be happy. But if you believe “systemic” forces are the primary shapers of your life, you have an external locus of control, and you’re more likely to be depressed.
NYU psychologist Jonathan Haidt notes that “sixty years of research show that people with an internal locus of control are happier and achieve more.” Internal locus of control may help us understand the Gen Z mental health crisis, but don’t expect many high schools or colleges to make it a high-priority topic.
After not hearing the song for years, even I felt a pang of scandal when I listened to Cyco’s lyrics again—Is he allowed to say that!
And “Captain Stupid” gets even more dangerous:
Brothers killing brothers, what up with that?
Can't you see they're laughing, that ain't funny
Babies making babies, that ain't love
You just got screwed over, get some respect
No Brown University RA would approve of such talk!
And for more problematic Gen X tunes, check out Oingo Boingo’s “Capitalism”:
There's nothing wrong with capitalism
There's nothing wrong with free enterprise
Don't try to make me feel guilty
I'm so tired of hearing you cry
There's nothing wrong with making some profit
If you ask, I'll say it's just fine
There's nothing wrong with wanting to live nice
So tired of hearing you whine
About the revolution, bringing down the rich
When was the last time you dug a ditch, baby?
How often would anything like any of the above lyrics reach a mainstream audience today?
I don’t keep up with pop music enough to know the answer, but, based on the not-at-all-comprehensive research I’ve conducted, my guess is “hardly ever.”
Let me broaden my question a bit: How often do mainstream audiences hear lyrics that dissent from the monoculture position on any important issue?
If you know of some good examples, let me know in the comments below.
Let’s exclude genres like country because country fans expect to hear lyrics that break from the monoculture worldview from time to time. I’m rooting for surprise—like the lyrical version of Chris Rock’s latest Netflix special.
Most pop songs steer clear of politics, but that probably makes the occasional political statement more influential. It’s a fascinating and somewhat counterintuitive point Glenn Reynolds of
has explored over the years.Crack open a celebrity news mag like Us Weekly and nine out of ten articles may have nothing to do with politics. But the tenth might explore Michelle Obama’s most stylish moments since leaving the White House. The piece avoids any policy discussion, but that actually adds to the cumulative persuasive power of such articles.
While readers are immersed in other topics like fashion, they receive signals about who the “good” people are. When a political issue does arise, readers don’t get arguments or statistics, but gentle reminders about what the “right” and “wrong” opinions are.
We often form our opinions based on emotional factors and then hunt for after-the-fact justifications to make ourselves feel good about our choices. Pop culture is persuasive precisely because it focuses on emotions.
Although Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman didn’t turn me into a proponent of free markets, I liked knowing we were on the same side of that issue.
But alas, that memory has soured. Elfman now says “Capitalism” was little more than satire.
Maybe that was just his after-the-fact response to being embraced by the “icky” National Review, which tagged his song as a free market anthem. But instead of psychoanalyzing Elfman, I will take him at his word.
Fans often misinterpret lyrics, so when it comes to intellectual diversity, maybe the artist’s intent is less important than the lyrics themselves.
Who knows how many of my fellow Gen Xers grew up thinking Danny Elfman wasn’t like the other musicians—rebelling in the same direction as everyone else.
Yes, the lyrics live on to be misconstrued by future generations, but it’s still sad to see Elfman side with the crowd.
Oh well, at least I still have Cyco Miko.
Ted Balaker is a filmmaker, and former network newser and think tanker. His recent work includes Little Pink House starring Catherine Keener and Jeanne Tripplehorn, Can We Take a Joke? featuring Gilbert Gottfried and Penn Jillette, and a soon-to-be-released feature documentary based on the bestselling book, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.
No non-country Americans leap to mind, but there were some Europeans who courageously stood up during Covid. Van Morrison was probably the most prominent of those, recording several anti-lockdown songs, and I wrote an essay touching upon Eric Clapton's courageous advocacy: https://ivyexile.substack.com/p/this-ads-for-you . Among musicians not in their 70s, Ian Brown of the Stone Roses has a bunch of pretty dissident solo material and Richard Ashcroft of The Verve recorded a pointed cover of John Lennon's "Bring on the Lucie (FREDA PEEPLE)."
I am often grateful to DJs who make a counter culture effort. Lately on KRVM in Eugene, Oregon, I am delighted by non-mainstream messages in multiple play list items as I drive to my farm job. I milk cows in the countryside to try to recover the damage done by raising teens, being a musician, being a professor and believing in women's rights while living in deep blue Oregon. It seems someone else at KRVM is with me.