Excerpt:
Fiona Dodwell
Politics
Morrissey: The Great Unfiltered Artist?
1,098 words (4 mins)
WHEN Morrissey released
Low in High School in November 2017 - his eleventh solo studio album - fans were eager to uncover the artist's latest musical venture. Lyrically, Morrissey has always packed a punch; his unapologetic unveiling of strong personal and political convictions often leaving him stranded between the lands of genius and the other extreme - public outcast. His diehard fans are always by his side, the majority of them fiercely protective of their idol.
What is it about this artist that, from his early days with The Smiths in the 80s, and through the winding path of his solo career in 2018, leaves people so staunchly arrested and drawn to his music, lyrics, public assertions?
The music, essentially, is what has kept Morrissey at the top of the music food chain. A (rare) remaining giant in an industry that, according to him, churns out modern day pop-stars with nothing of much significance to offer. “I think the pop chart today is entirely market-driven,” he said, in an
interview with The Telegraph in 2011) “And it has nothing to do with taste...nothing to do with moving music forward. People who’ve managed to grapple into the top five have done so because of an aggressive campaign, and nothing else.”
Morrissey has managed what is almost an unthinkable feat in modern day music: to remain opinionated, unfiltered, true to the art (and the self, as a result) and remained uncompromising. In his 2004 album,
You Are the Quarry , Morrissey sings,
“It's just more lock-jawed pop-stars/Thicker than pig-shit/Nothing to convey/So scared to show intelligence/It might smear their lovely career.”
Is it this, which makes Morrissey so significant in the industry? The construction of a career littered with iconic and much loved songs, tethered to a man who is unafraid to speak his mind, let alone apologise for it? Do his opinions irk us, if so, why?
EntertainmentPoliticsMusicMorrisseyControversy
Fiona Dodwell / Published author of four novels and several short stories Also write freelance for several magazines & websites
Fiona is a Moz fan and covers such issues he has touched upon such as political correctness, Middle East conflict and so on.
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https://www.tremr.com/Fiona-Dodwell/morrissey-the-great-unfiltered-artist