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Posted on 23rd August 2009
Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies) - Interscope, 2009 Back in 1991, a group of rowdy young fellers from Seattle set out to preach against the evil’s of selling out. Twenty years before that, the punks were evangelizing the same message by beating the crap out of each other instead of selling merch. Twenty years before that, the Beatles fought against the same accusations by doing even more drugs and losing their freaking minds (nice work, boys). Now its 2009. We haven’t had many (if any) strong anti-corp messages from artists, because the truth is…everyone likes being rich. We’ve collectively decided that and now we don’t care what it takes to acquire as much money as we possible can. Neither do the Black Eyed Peas. In fact, I believe BEP have reinvented the art of selling out and have moved far beyond reasonable means. These people wrote a song for Target…that place your girlfriend goes to get cute “tops” on the cheap. They didn’t sell Target one of their already recorded, nonsense songs; they wrote a brand new one. Granted, The Blacky Pees would never have been considered the Shakespeares of their time; at least not based on anything they’ve written yet. And a lot of talented and respected people write music for commercials every day. But commercial musicians don’t generally get songs on the Billboard top 10. Being that popular can bring with it an enormous amount of influence on mainstream culture and, more importantly, our kids. The 80’s for me were the pinnacle of evil in this regard. Every corporation was spending more and more of their “hard earned” pesos on turning us all into walking adverts. But then a sea change happened in the 90’s and we all got wise (well, some of us did). And although our little rebels brought messages of anti-corporation to the main stage, they still were very much part of what they were fighting against. Maybe that’s why certain shotguns were placed in certain mouths. So now that we’re coming up on that next 20-year marker, what will the climate be? Honestly, I think the cultural pendulum is running out of steam. Energy DOES die, you idiots. Were you not listening in your high school science class? Unless some catastrophic thing knocks that pendulum HARD (a real depression, WW3 or 2012 Global Chaos), I believe we may be (finally) settling into some sort of cultural balance. Where a gorup like the Blacks Eyes Peeps can co-exist with Radiohead, or Grizzly Bear. And Noah Lennox can make his music AND make a living. Its really quite incredible. Yes, the internet plays a huge role in this great equalizing. But I can guarantee you this: once the suits figure out that the playing field has actually been leveled, they’re going to shit their pants. Just don’t freak out when you see the Shins in a Taco Bell commercial or Beyonce starts showing up at mall openings. When advertiser’s shouting can’t be heard, they grab a megaphone.

Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies) - Interscope, 2009

Back in 1991, a group of rowdy young fellers from Seattle set out to preach against the evil’s of selling out. Twenty years before that, the punks were evangelizing the same message by beating the crap out of each other instead of selling merch. Twenty years before that, the Beatles fought against the same accusations by doing even more drugs and losing their freaking minds (nice work, boys). Now its 2009. We haven’t had many (if any) strong anti-corp messages from artists, because the truth is…everyone likes being rich. We’ve collectively decided that and now we don’t care what it takes to acquire as much money as we possible can. Neither do the Black Eyed Peas. In fact, I believe BEP have reinvented the art of selling out and have moved far beyond reasonable means. These people wrote a song for Target…that place your girlfriend goes to get cute “tops” on the cheap. They didn’t sell Target one of their already recorded, nonsense songs; they wrote a brand new one. Granted, The Blacky Pees would never have been considered the Shakespeares of their time; at least not based on anything they’ve written yet. And a lot of talented and respected people write music for commercials every day. But commercial musicians don’t generally get songs on the Billboard top 10. Being that popular can bring with it an enormous amount of influence on mainstream culture and, more importantly, our kids. The 80’s for me were the pinnacle of evil in this regard. Every corporation was spending more and more of their “hard earned” pesos on turning us all into walking adverts. But then a sea change happened in the 90’s and we all got wise (well, some of us did). And although our little rebels brought messages of anti-corporation to the main stage, they still were very much part of what they were fighting against. Maybe that’s why certain shotguns were placed in certain mouths. So now that we’re coming up on that next 20-year marker, what will the climate be? Honestly, I think the cultural pendulum is running out of steam. Energy DOES die, you idiots. Were you not listening in your high school science class? Unless some catastrophic thing knocks that pendulum HARD (a real depression, WW3 or 2012 Global Chaos), I believe we may be (finally) settling into some sort of cultural balance. Where a gorup like the Blacks Eyes Peeps can co-exist with Radiohead, or Grizzly Bear. And Noah Lennox can make his music AND make a living. Its really quite incredible. Yes, the internet plays a huge role in this great equalizing. But I can guarantee you this: once the suits figure out that the playing field has actually been leveled, they’re going to shit their pants. Just don’t freak out when you see the Shins in a Taco Bell commercial or Beyonce starts showing up at mall openings. When advertiser’s shouting can’t be heard, they grab a megaphone.