when listening to music of various decades, i can't help to feel that there is somewhat of a gap somewhere around 1980. there is a lack of vision, or maybe not that, as there was quite some experimentation - but the creativity, to most part, doesn't feel as bright anymore, and more importantly, there is a lack of freedom. both directly - think of the improvised, jammed electronic krautrock of the 70s, without time signatures, without set rules, and the overly sequenced, pinned to a straight formula, electronics of the 80s. but also in expression, in feeling, in emotion. but this is not also in society. could've been the resistance of the 60s and 70s still be possible in the 80s? utopian ideas hit the youth in the 60s, and they were convinced by it, and ventured out, wanted to go beyond the straight path, the given society, the given circumstances. and their minds were free enough to know the truth of this. who could still dream of a utopian society in the 80s? who still worked for revolution - and deemed it possible? of course there were some - probably more as in the 2000 decade. but nothing compared to the 60s.
in the 80s, society as it is, with capitalists and yuppies and consumer goods, and government and cops and restrictions and boredom, exceeding boredom, was more or less accepted by the majority. they think they "knew" life, the world, went like this, and no change was possibilty. people hadn't the creativity, the imagination, the free intellect anymore, to envision, conceive a different society, a different life, a different world.
the possibilites of life, of society, of the world, had been closed. but not by laws or a police force or the military. but in imagination, in the heads of people, in their minds. for utopia is always a possibility, at least for your own life - but their ideas, of "how the world was and is always gonna be" had been fixed in their heads, unchangable.
of course this didn't just go for social change and utopia. everything became more strict, frozen, solid. as shows, to me, in the music too, where the freedom of expression and breaking down of all rules was replaced with very fixed, rigid musical structures again.
even in the realm of pop, the music of the 70s felt more free than the computerized, sequenced, numb pop of the 80s.
which does of course not mean that wonderous music works or ideas could not be found in the 80s too; but they became rare and their quality changed.
this is not a straight progression either; in the 90s, in the ambient experiments, parts of industrial metal and rock music, in all the techno genres, this freedom came back; experimentation was possible anymore, and the breaking of rules. yet the rules were never as abandonded as in 2 and 3 decades before the 90s. yet there was a feel of freedom again, and of utopia, and the rave, techno, trance subculture clang to a lot of utopian ideals in their beginning, if not as outright political as it would have been preferable, maybe.
during the end of the 90s, with the first decade of the 2000s, the closedness of possibilites became more total than ever. the utopia of rave was gone. music became more pre-designed, formula-based, pre-cut, factorylike created as ever before. with 1000s of mindless mainstream pop tunes being churned out that felt more soulless and similiar than ever before. oh, that doesn't mean that pop in the 70s or 60s was necessarily a honest business. but it was not as imprisoning for the mind as the music became after 2000s.
and, again, as these things are connected, the same happened on a social and cultural scale too. it was the time i ventured into the real world anarchist scenes. even these anarchists didn't believe in revolution or change anymore. maybe, maybe, in a century ahead. but not anytime soon, not a possibility in one's experienced life.
and it was the time the "standard life" was prescribed for the masses, beat down deeply into their minds; having a "good job", a house, a wive, two-three kids. basing ones life on consumer goods; the best car, the best TV set, the best electronic toys. not being a rebel, not rising up, not venturing for utopia. and almost anyone fell for this. imagination had been limited once again.
and, capitalist society, even though it's crisises were more visible before, was now accepted as a total fact, unfightable, unchangable. 'society was like this, and ever will be like this'. 'you have to accept the world as it is'. the freedom of the minds of people, to conceive of a different world, a different life, a different society, was gone. they only accepted the world as it was presented a million times over and over again by the mindnumbing mass media. no exploration of different ways possible anymore.
now it's 2014, and just like in the 90s, things seem to change once again. the minds of people seem to be more active, more free again. there is a new interest in anarchy, in anarchism and utopia, as i mentioned elsewhere. new social models and lifepaths are debated again.
also the music seems to be more free again. seems to have more vision again. yet, the test if this holds true for me is, and should always be, how "rules" in music are treated. if rules in music are fixed and followed and "have to be" followed, a freedom of the mind is not possible. same goes for society. so let's see how the attitutde towards rules goes along.
i could very well imagine we are heading for utopia again. let's hope it's true.
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