"I would say that something happened to, us as a culture, in the early to mid-1990s. This is something very well expressed in my friend John Higgs’ book about the KLF – it’s called The KLF: Chaos, Magic & The Band Who Burned A Million Quid. It’s a brilliant insight into what was happening during that time, and I’m not just saying that because it does have a very beautiful and windswept image of me in it somewhere. Jimmy and Bill were terrific. John is pointing out in his book that when they left that dead sheep on the steps of the Brit Awards and announced the KLF had left the music industry and deleted their back catalogue – which, incidentally, cost them a great deal more than a million quid - this was around about 1990. That was signaling the end of rave and dance, yes it would still trail on for a while after that but it was pretty much over.
So, as a culture, we waited until there would be another counter-culture, another movement, following the pattern that was established after the Second World War; that there’s always a new music movement, a new culture, a new counter culture, every few years; a new way of dressing, a new sound. 1990, we waited and we waited and in 1995 we got Britpop, which was not any kind of authentic musical movement, it was something imposed from the top down and was already a sort of regurgitation of the British pop bands of the 1960s and the 1970s, and just in time for Tony Blair, and New Labour and Noel Gallagher shaking Blair’s hand in Downing St. And we haven’t had a counter-culture since then, it seems like we’re no longer allowed them and I am starting to think that counter-culture is an inseparable part of culture, that’s the way it works.
Last November we had a day of counter-culture up at the local college which was called Under The Austerity, The Beach. We had various people, Francesca Martinez, Robin Ince, Grace Petrie, Josie Long, Scroobius Pip, me and Melinda, and talking with Scroobius Pip about counter-culture, he said that counter cultures always fail, which is true. The thing is, counter cultures are assimilated by the prevailing culture, but obviously if you assimilate anything, if you eat anything, it’s going to have an effect upon you, and if you can make a counter culture that is either toxic enough or psychedelic enough, then the prevailing culture is going to be altered by ingesting it. And I think this is the way that culture works, this is the way it changes, and renews itself.
I would say that where we are now, 2016, is more or less where were in 1916. At that juncture of the 20th century, the modern world was about to happen. There was the First World War, arguably the first modern war, where you had prototypical tanks alongside bows and arrows. In Lost Girls, me and Melinda incorporated Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring which was completely changing our perception of music, at the same time Einstein was completely changing our perception of physics, you had the modernist writers starting around then, Eliot writing about a broken country during World War 1, Joyce – all of these people, they emerged around then. I would hope that there is where we are in our current culture because it seems to me, that after skipping hurriedly through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, with our automotive tail fins that looked like rocket ships, with our science fiction, we were kind of hurrying through those decades trying to get to this promised, Jetsons future and then, around 1990-95, when the internet was starting to become a reality, we suddenly realised that we had arrived, and this was now the future and we froze.
As a culture, we froze, we had no idea what would be appropriate to this new era that we found ourselves on the brink of. So culturally, we decided, it seems to me, to mark time. We marched upon the spot. We started recycling the culture of the previous era that we were most comfortable with. Obviously that’s a sweeping generalization, there’s always committed artists and musicians and writers who are trying to break into new territory, of course there are, but the dominant mainstream of culture seems to be paralysed and anxiously repeating itself because it can’t think of what else to do; it can’t think of a culture that would be adequate to this new century.
I’d say that in cultural terms, the 21st century hasn’t started yet. We are hopefully seeing its beginnings in this current period of turbulence that we’re going through, just as they were going through a considerable period of turbulence a century ago."
So, as a culture, we waited until there would be another counter-culture, another movement, following the pattern that was established after the Second World War; that there’s always a new music movement, a new culture, a new counter culture, every few years; a new way of dressing, a new sound. 1990, we waited and we waited and in 1995 we got Britpop, which was not any kind of authentic musical movement, it was something imposed from the top down and was already a sort of regurgitation of the British pop bands of the 1960s and the 1970s, and just in time for Tony Blair, and New Labour and Noel Gallagher shaking Blair’s hand in Downing St. And we haven’t had a counter-culture since then, it seems like we’re no longer allowed them and I am starting to think that counter-culture is an inseparable part of culture, that’s the way it works.
Last November we had a day of counter-culture up at the local college which was called Under The Austerity, The Beach. We had various people, Francesca Martinez, Robin Ince, Grace Petrie, Josie Long, Scroobius Pip, me and Melinda, and talking with Scroobius Pip about counter-culture, he said that counter cultures always fail, which is true. The thing is, counter cultures are assimilated by the prevailing culture, but obviously if you assimilate anything, if you eat anything, it’s going to have an effect upon you, and if you can make a counter culture that is either toxic enough or psychedelic enough, then the prevailing culture is going to be altered by ingesting it. And I think this is the way that culture works, this is the way it changes, and renews itself.
I would say that where we are now, 2016, is more or less where were in 1916. At that juncture of the 20th century, the modern world was about to happen. There was the First World War, arguably the first modern war, where you had prototypical tanks alongside bows and arrows. In Lost Girls, me and Melinda incorporated Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring which was completely changing our perception of music, at the same time Einstein was completely changing our perception of physics, you had the modernist writers starting around then, Eliot writing about a broken country during World War 1, Joyce – all of these people, they emerged around then. I would hope that there is where we are in our current culture because it seems to me, that after skipping hurriedly through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, with our automotive tail fins that looked like rocket ships, with our science fiction, we were kind of hurrying through those decades trying to get to this promised, Jetsons future and then, around 1990-95, when the internet was starting to become a reality, we suddenly realised that we had arrived, and this was now the future and we froze.
As a culture, we froze, we had no idea what would be appropriate to this new era that we found ourselves on the brink of. So culturally, we decided, it seems to me, to mark time. We marched upon the spot. We started recycling the culture of the previous era that we were most comfortable with. Obviously that’s a sweeping generalization, there’s always committed artists and musicians and writers who are trying to break into new territory, of course there are, but the dominant mainstream of culture seems to be paralysed and anxiously repeating itself because it can’t think of what else to do; it can’t think of a culture that would be adequate to this new century.
I’d say that in cultural terms, the 21st century hasn’t started yet. We are hopefully seeing its beginnings in this current period of turbulence that we’re going through, just as they were going through a considerable period of turbulence a century ago."
From Shocko (Seamas O'Reilly) - The 21st Century Hasn't Started Yet: An Interview With Alan Moore
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