On the subject of T Rex and Milo Yiannopoulos

I've just started reading Shock and Awe:Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-first Century by Simon Reynolds. Or I should say listening to, as it's one of my audio books for the daily exercise and commute routine.

In the forward, Reynolds posits that Glam Rock and its resurgence in the 80's, is a product of a so-called right wing moment in time as far as governments are concerned, with Edward Heath and Nixon in the early 70's and Reagan and Thatcher in the 80's. I can't speak to other countries in this case. For instance did Brian Mulroney or Stephen Harper's Canadian tenures as Prime Minister influence the musical culture? I'm not even quite sure if those are valid examples; perhaps there are other countries that ladder up to this.

I'm not quite sure that I completely buy this theory. Glam Rock is nothing but an offshoot of popular music, anyway. Every generation has its version of popular regardless of who is in office. Culture is always made as a reaction to something. Perhaps that reaction comes in the form of tacit approval, or as a violent reaction. Often, the way we appraise or reappraise culture changes as our distance to them become greater. Elvis may have shocked 1950's post World War Two America, but today he seems tame. Madonna, whose career may have blossomed (deflowered?) during the Reagan era was no less controversial during the Clinton years. Context is everything, but only up to a point.

Still, this point did get me thinking about politicians (or political pundits) and pop stars sharing the same yin and yang of being the object of adulation as much as derision. Sometimes as in the case of Ronald Reagan (or Justin Bieber) they are euqally loved and loathed. The same is definitely true of Milo Yiannopoulos.

Yiannopoulos fancies himself a sort of Oscar Wilde meets Christophen Hitchens for Generation Meme, who barely remember a time without the internet if they ever experienced it at all.

Yiannopoulos, like a lot of popular musicians, comes at you with a distinct point of view, one that is carefully crafted and co-opting something that came before. Note Milo's site Dangerous and Glamour's typefaces aren't that vastly different either in weight, kerning or color.

Like a Marc Bolan or Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie, Yiannopoulos seemingly spring up overnight. And yet all such cases are anything but.

Bolan started in John's Children and the cross-legged guitar-strumming Tyrannosaurus Rex before be slapped on some make up and became Marc Bolan™ and added the dinosaur rock sound of T. Rex. Bowie released failed single after failed single and risked becoming a novelty act with Space Oddity (at its time of release) before finally gaining traction with the rooster hair and persona. Unlike Bolan who seemingly embraced the adulation, the deity-worship seemed to have on one level repulsed Bowie enough to not only reject Ziggy but quickly cycle through myriad looks and more importantly styles of music in an effort to grow as an artist.

At the risk of being too critical as I love T Rex, Bolan in one sense accepted fame at the expense of growing as an artist, whereas Bowie strangely ping=ponged between two worlds, courting fame sometimes, and rejecting it other times, even at the expense of losing his audience in the process. (Tin Machine, any one?)

While it can be argued that Milo Yiannopoulos™ is performance art, I don't see him as an artist, unless you count his slogans such as "Feminism is Cancer," as being art.

The reason I'm even making a comparison between a pop star or glam rock star and this for lack of a better word strange phenomenon who is simultaneously vilified and adored by people on college campuses is because both fan base and detractors act with the same amount of fervency. Regardless of whether you believe a word he says or agree with anything he says, it can't be argued that the man is unable to use social media and reactionary statements to his advantage. It's not unusual for college students to reject the so-called traditional social mores. What does seem unusual is for college students to reject the reactionary stance. Then again someone like Bernie Sanders is like 100 years old, so you know, it's not exactly fresh thinking.

And while history is littered with cult of personality politicians, it's hard to find someone who seemingly is making a cultural impact without anything of substance. Yes, he goes on college tours. So did Hitchens. But unlike Hitchens who I had the pleasure of seeing speak a few times, I can't recall anything Milo has said when I forced myself to watch some of his speeches.

Even stranger is the fact that in a time where everyone can be famous for fifteen seconds (sorry Warhol, it's a shorter time now) they are only famous within certain circles. For every person who knows who Milo is, there are three who do not.

This is how pop stars have evolved in the era of YouTube and Dank Memes. Their following is smaller despite their potential to reach more people than a musician in the 60's and 70's ever could.

The chances for collective moments like watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan get smaller and smaller with each new media channel. It's like now we have ten thousand Ed Sullivan shows a night. And the pop stars appear to audiences that are admittedly smaller and more tribal in nature, though no less rabid in their fandom.

And while on one level it's a shame Bolan flamed out too quickly in his heyday and died at too young an age when he might have had a resurgence, but at least that star burned bright and made something lasting. If Bolan appeared today, the Electric Warrior would be no less a force to be reckoned with, he'd simply be commanding a much smaller army.

While I have no idea if Milo Yiannopoulos will have a longer lasting career as a, well, whatever he is, the grade is much steeper now. And while it's certainly true that whether you like him or not, he's riding high, there's always a chance he'll end up like a Damn Daniel or an Angry Orange- one of those things that will be remembered, kind of, but only after a few hazy moments of thinking back.

I would highly recommend Shock and Awe:Glam Rock and Its Legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-first Century by Simon Reynolds. I'm interested to see where it goes next.

I would also recommend my book A-Sides and B-Sides which is available on iBook as well as Amazon and also Kobo and Nook. You can preview the first story, or most of it, as it were. It'll make a nice Christmas/Holiday/Whatever gift for the music and sci-fi lover in your life who likes reading digital books.

Here's what the cover looks like.