Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Musicians as critics (3 of ??): Malcolm McLaren on rock and roll, rawness, Africa, folk rhythms of the world, the spirit of the hobo (NME, Christmas 1982)

 "Musicians", loosely understood, although Malcolm had broken out as a performing artist by the time he wrote this for the NME Christmas look-back on '82 / look-forward to '83.






















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8 comments:

  1. Phil KnightOctober 14, 2025 at 1:53 PM

    My Boomercounter is registering 100.

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  2. StyloOctober 14, 2025 at 6:04 PM

    In fairness, I'd say McLaren does make one or two insightful points. When he says that a lack of imperfection diminishes quality, I was reminded of why I tend to hold RnB in disdain. Can anyone name an RnB song that's charming in its eccentricity? Freak Like Me, maybe?

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  3. Phil KnightOctober 15, 2025 at 2:26 AM

    The Japanese have a whole concept built around, that - wabi sabi:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

    But otherwise, McLaren is recapitulating the Boomer ur-myth of rootsy rebellious black people liberating uptight whites with their magical musical mana. It will amaze future generations that people actually thought like this.

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  4. StyloOctober 15, 2025 at 5:23 PM

    Oh yes, such a myth (if feels painful to say "blackwashing") denies the key influence that country had on the development of rock n roll. One curiosity that strikes me is that country music is still in rude health, yet blues is now niche (and the genre of rock n roll itself has been wholly historical for decades).

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  5. AnonymousOctober 15, 2025 at 6:45 PM

    I am a babybopmer (just - cut off date is 1964) so what he is saying makes a lot of sense to me( (Siko). Its hardly a muth - kids went crazy to rock and roll!

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  6. AnonymousOctober 15, 2025 at 6:46 PM

    Hardly a myth (simon)

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  7. StyloOctober 16, 2025 at 12:25 AM

    I could be wrong, but I thought the myth Phil was talking about was that rock n roll arose from black performers exclusively, thus erasing the significance of white country pioneers.

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  8. Phil KnightOctober 16, 2025 at 2:14 AM

    Myth /= falsehood.

    Myths are non-specific truths that "always are". That the boomers went crazy for personal liberation is a trait that was uniquely pronounced in them, and will be seen as bizarre in hindsight. You only need to see the loathing of boomers on social media from millennials/zoomers to see how antiquated their mentality already is.

    I wrote a moderately famous essay on this back in the day:

    https://andwhatwillbeleftofthem.blogspot.com/2010/11/wall-of-voodoo.html

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