Why does anyone respond with 'adoration' to a commerically motivated pop concert? Why is such 'adoration' seen as an appropriate response, rather than pathological and ludicrous? People 'confess' to a religious authority and only credulous folk are 'bewitched' by ouija boards and such nonsense. Most of us thought the 'disciples/global religious fame' riffs were ironic. It appears we failed to spot cultish magical thinking. There's nothing awry in being genuinely moved emotionally and intellectually by the artistic content of a performance or recorded music product but 'adoration' is the language of cult followers and dysfunctional 'fan'atics, rather than a psychologically balanced Audience.
Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga appeal mostly to transitioning adolescents on an emotional roller-coaster, as any glance at their twitterspheres reveal. That's fine. I have two teenage children and they have their moments when they imagine that Taylor Swift or Burial have all the answers to life's mysteries and challenges. If they still felt that way about capitalist music entrepreneurs in their mid-twenties I would be deeply concerned.
When he emerged as a quarter-contributor to The Smiths Collective, Morrissey was close enough to teenage anomie to be a credible witness to its' trials and tribulations and sangs deeply insightful songs with what felt like authenticity and sincerity. However, to be previewing his concert film with a song about a crap seaside holiday in Borth in 1974 whilst living in Luxuria in Hollywood seems suddenly inauthentic and utterly bogus. There is simply too much chronology to his timeline since this was composed, and he looks like a grandparent, not a teenager. It's no longer tenable that he positions himself as the voice of adolescent misfits and loneliness. He is a multi-millionaire who expresses admiration for Nigel Farage!
If the core 'fan' zone are locked in a co-dependent downward spiral of being 'maladjusted' to middle-age and the prospect of ageing, that is both interesting and rather sad. The Rolling Stones 'rage against the dying of the light' by refusing to move on from libido even as the zimmer frames loom, and their Boomer audience enjoy a temporary escape from their corporate careers and serial divorces, which allow them to pay the inflated price of admission to events staged by The Rolling Stones Corporation. I guess there's no reason why Morrissey can't do a mirror-image endless pantomime career based on Thanatos rather than sublminated Eros, but it's as undignified and discordant as the priapic wailings of Jagger.
"Get Off Of The Stage"? No. James Brown. Cesaria Evora (r.i.p). Tony Bennett. Leonard Cohen. Sinatra. Bobby Womack. There's numerous ways to age both gracefully and disgracefully. Morrissey has choices. He can either continue with this now-parodic rehash of a trashed adolescence or reflect on his mortality and honestly document the failure of his life project. Almost famous, almost a 'star', but now seemingly doomed to ever diminishing circles of 'adoration' from uncritical fan-atics who would have orgasms if he sang the local phone book. We can overlook such behaviour in our teenage children, fondly remembering our own bizarre obsessions (in my case, Bolan, Bowie, Sabbath). But is this really Radical Art?
Bowie has challenged and questioned his Audience by simply putting his family and health first for a decade. Morrissey doesn't appear to have a family, although he did introduce his nephew at a show I saw in Brum and seemed intoxicated by love for him. There's nothing to stop him from adopting a child either directly or remotely, thereby switching from critical teenager to mentoring parent. Or he could become a celebrity vegan chef, launch an ethical clothes line or just about anything that might re-ignite his passion for life. Or he could retire.
Expecting or demanding media deference and aquiescence to some tired narrative of 'adoration' of his 'genius' when he is immersed in dross is only going to work with the core cult fan-atics. The grown-ups are going to either find another pop music consumer experience or, like me, tag along for the lulz. Like Celebrity Big Brother and those 'celebrity magazines' at the dentist, there is no end to the enjoyment to be gained from watching these human sacrifices on the alter of Fame. Warhol and McLuhan mapped all this decades ago. Watching it play out in detail is interesting and entertaining, but hardly innovative 'genius'. This is not schadenfraude or jealously, both of which Morrissey slips into at will when he disses Madonna's adopted children and a pregnant women's health issues. As I listen to the back catalogue one more (final?) time, I'm struck by how important CDs and concerts were prior to The Interwebz when we vaguely knew there were 'others like you' but could only find that communion when mediated by a commercial, corporate structure. Now we have social media and an endless plethora of talents to immerse oursleves in and are no longer trapped in the corporately curated playlist running order of a CD.
Nothing is deleted, no-one can manage total hegemonic status, not even dinosaurs like U2, the Rolling Stones and Springsteen. There is diversity, complexity and a universe of competing cultural products demanding attention and providing entertainment and nourishment. Michael Jackson was the last and final 'superstar'. Gaga has already worn her hip into dust trying to follow his meteor but it won't work as the revenue from recorded music has collapsed and with it the dream of a musical Hollywood Babylon lifestyle. Now, you tour 250 days a year like a circus act if you want to carry on with that nonsense. It's just another corporate job, just another slog up the corporate pyramid. The same is happening to Hollywood film.
And all of this is excellent. A new music, a new form of presentation which is congruent with the challenges of today is requred: not some tiresome endless re-runs of Boomer back catalogues either on stage or on film. Most 'fans' aren't listening to music anymore, they are listening to their memories, of how they felt when they first heard those songs. Except for Bieber and Gaga fans who are creating memories soundtracked by their 'pop idols'. For the utterly discredited Boomer 'punk rock rebels' endlessly flogging their past on the never-ending tour to placate the conservative entitlement agenda of their consumers, it's a vision of artistic negation. For those of us with our mojos intact or re-ignited: it's time to move on, because that's how people grow up. "Sunday Morning". More coffee, and "the most influential record fo the late twentieth century".....
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things" Corinthians 13.
regards.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd2nc6_the-velvet-underground-nico-sunday_music
"Sunday mornin', praise the dawnin'
It's just a restless feelin', by my side
Early dawnin', Sunday mornin'
It's just the wasted years so close behind
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you, who will call
It's nothin' at all
Sunday mornin' and I'm fallin'
I've got a feelin', I don't want to know
Early dawnin', Sunday mornin'
(Early dawnin')
It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you, who will call
It's nothin' at all
Watch out, the world's behind you
There's always someone around you, who will call
It's nothin' at all.
Sunday morning....."