Sunday 17 May 2020

Descriptive writing - Coastline.

Any semblance of the time of day has been lost, the day turns slow. The sun has been taken hostage by a gang of grey clouds and they are refusing to let it go. 
Chaotic scenes above transpire below, the waves of the water try grasping at the houses. They always fall short, landing just by their feet. 
Naturally metronomic, the wet heartbeat of the coast smashes up against the man made barrier, before slapping down a salty kiss on the street. 

But the houses gasp as a momentary respite alleviates them to breathe dry. A carriage train carries passengers across the coastline. 
The tourists are blessed as they are baptised by a lashing of foamy spray, softened by the sea wall merely a meter away. 
Travellers look on, subconsciously watching a war. The icy breath emanating from the window spars with the rasping heater, spreading warmth upwards from the floor. 

Looking on towards a destitute view, debating where the sky meets the sea. 
Colourless, monochrome. 
A view that’s going to stalk them on their train journey home.

Friday 15 May 2020

Cathartic Post.

It is currently 4am, so I am reaching peak productivity hours, as per the night owl I am. I was trying to sleep but my mind kept racing with the scribing I made on here only a few hours prior regarding how I write for relief and that I need to do it more. I also made the assumption that maybe that’s what I use twitter for, a sort-of 240 character cathartic nibble. In fact, whereas my main posts, such as the one i’m currently writing, rarely ever get published, Twitter is an exception. Don’t get me wrong, I have tons of non-contextual drafts piled up like a bad accountant, but the act of posting it and getting feedback from direct communication ie. messages or comments, to the more passive recognition of a single ‘like’ differentiates it in another way for me. In the past I’ve made numerous tweets exposing my current, unfortunate, situations and they gain the most traction in the form of interactions, and as I like to always try to add comedy into everything I do, they are mostly positive, albeit positivity stemming from my expense. So I’ve decided to draw inspiration from opening up on twitter, but I want to apply it in a more in-depth way.

To this day, I can’t think of a better time in my life than the summer of ‘18. One of the nicest summer heats complimented a unifying World Cup in which we all believed in the same cause regardless of wealth, political differences or creed. Personally, this was at a time where I was really enjoying my university work. My local team, Burnley, had just qualified for the Europa League against all the odds and I had paid for me and my-then girlfriend to spend 5 days at Disneyland to bid adieu to the holidays. I think my nostalgia towards this time in my life had been moulded and purified by the fact that the next summer could not have been much more different.

The more perceptive among you may have read the last paragraph and noticed I said ‘my-then girlfriend’, and that’s because, shocker, we aren’t together. This is something I haven’t spoken much about other than a single self-deprecating tweet in which I mentioned the events surrounding the break-up so I’m going to go into more depth about that for no other reason than I want to get it all out. So I’ve always had mental health issues since I was 16 and it comes in waves for me. I’m mostly happy- thankfully, and when I feel low I shut myself off and isolate myself. Back when I was in high school when I first began feeling down, I tried to be as social as possible to help lift my mood, but I always ended up making those around me miserable too, and this surmounted in extra pressure and sadness on myself that would have all been avoided if I had just stuck to myself. And this is something I have carried with me to this day. 

However, being in a relationship when you like to isolate requires a deeper level of understanding and selflessness, with trust that your partner will be okay and that it's nothing personal. This isn’t me being picky on this particular person in question, more a general statement. But when the person takes it personally, it reverts back to my previous point about adding more pressure and sadness on an individual, and then spirals into a vicious circle or isolation and a requirement for communication.

So to summarise the journey from the beginning of the troubles highlighted above to the last few weeks, it became increasingly difficult to juggle my own mental health with someone who wanted me to act in a different way. Regardless of whether they themselves have had way harsher problems in the past and required much more of me in return. I don’t think I can quite describe how crushing the weight of suppressing your own problems to keep someone you care about happy and I hope nobody reading this can relate. But I tried, all the way up until the last 2 weeks we were together. We were long distance (300 miles) and she came up to see me so we could ‘talk’, and I put in so much effort. I got her flowers, all her favourite snacks and a card and I remember her seeing it and beginning to cry. At the time I oversaw it but in hindsight she already knew what was coming. I didn’t. I was still invited to her brother's wedding the next week. 

I spent 1 week down at her house in Kent, and what we discussed when she visited me was that we need to be more open in our communication to one another. A point I brought up, just like I did in this post, because I know it to have been the root of our problems. It was soon after I arrived that I also saw her messaging somebody else a lot, especially when we were spending time together. Without risking sounding overly possessive, we were together for almost 3 years, and we were quite reserved, so it was out of the ordinary. She told me she met him over Pokemon Go, and then they added each other on Twitter. Then Instagram. Then Facebook. It was after they had added each other on more social media than I had added her on that I began to ask questions and got little answers. Referring back to my original suggestion, I mentioned that it made me feel uncomfortable but always got told ‘they were just friends’. I internalised my worries even though it made me feel terrible. I was going against my own advice for communicating, but was wanting to trust the person I’d spent almost 3 years with too. 

The day of her brother's wedding was a weird one, as you can imagine. If you’d like to imagine it more vividly for amusement, imagine everyone in their couples all loved up and then there’s me feeling anything but. I’ll fast forward to the after-party because I didn’t want to selfishly focus on my own problems on someone’s big day so I just spend the entire ceremony as some smiley autopilot. But the after-party was the pinnacle, the crescendo, and this time it was for me. Referring back to the beginning of this paragraph, not much changed. I remember sitting on my own table, I ordered a Papa John’s vegan banquet and had to scran it all on my own, which was really quite depressing. I also had a complimentary bottle of wine that I had been supping straight from the neck, which is always a good look too. It's important to mention that I can’t remember a time before that night where I drank alcohol, when one of the waiters came over and tried to take the bottle off me. We had a little tug of war before he conceded, “I’ll let you keep it if you drink it all now.” I looked at the half full bottle and accepted his challenge. My mum didn’t raise a quitter. The only thing I can really remember, after my blood levels got its first taste of alcohol, was sitting outside eating marmite bites on my own. When I said it was a crescendo, it's because those marmite bites were absolutely pukka.

I remember the next morning clear as day. I woke up, had some ice cream and applied for some teacher training courses (which were successful, I might gloatingly add) before my ex came into the room. I won't bore you with the conversational details, but I remember she came into the room at 3pm and I was on the National Express bus back up to Manchester at 3.45pm. Talk about efficiency, that’s Formula 1 pit crew speed. But the next few weeks are really why I wrote this. I don’t care that we broke up, it’s life. But 11 days later, her and her ‘friend’ were flirting all over Instagram. I got told, as her defence, that she had already broken up with me weeks ago in her head, so that’s why she was able to move on so quickly. Which was news to me as it only took 11 days prior to realise. Strange. The thing that I think really has annoyed me is that she was so happy and at peace so soon afterwards. Without sounding too self-centred and selfish, almost 3 years of a relationship and she’s moved on 11 days after you were officially broken up. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t do something like that if the roles were switched, and as much as I want to believe in karma, where the fuck was it. I was told ‘I didn’t plan for us to get with each other’ as a defence too. As she tried to hide the fact she was messaging the same guy she’s currently dating whilst she was sitting in front of me and I kept raising the point that it was all a bit suspicious. 

The week after that was my birthday, which was great. I haven’t had the best personal experiences on my birthday, not that I'm ungrateful to those around me, just a personal thing. So this year was extra… special? The opposite of special? Just bad. Because I like to isolate when I’m feeling down, I’m also very secretive. I remember having to go to the doctors because I was having really strong suicidal urges, to the point where I would have to hold onto the railing with both hands when crossing the road because I couldn’t trust myself to not throw myself in front of an appealingly speedy car. I got placed on anti-depressants for the first time in my entire life, and shaking like a shitting dog as a side effect. I mentioned before about how me and my ex were really reserved in ourselves, and I used to reside a lot in her when I was feeling down and I hadn’t actually planned for a time when I wouldn’t be able to. It just wasn’t a priority thought in my head, until I realised that I couldn’t actually talk to anyone about it. Then came the anxiety.

I’ve never known what anxiety was other than a synonym for ‘nervous’, a term which has been so severely diluted and misconstrued by today's woke social media users. Anxiety is literally your body producing too much adrenaline, or so it was described to me at the time. I was placed on medication for these too, and they stopped the shakes from my anti-depressants, so it was a match made in heaven. I felt like DiCaprio’s character, Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street describing all his drugs that he takes and which ones cancel each other out. I'm far less successful and unfortunately aren’t married to Margot Robbie, to name but a few differences after that though. 

But unlike The Wolf of Wall Street, I don’t like to consider this a tragedy. I took the fact I was isolated in my own misery and applied it into other constructive avenues. I began working in a school, studying English, and I’m about to start a teacher training course in September too. I was told by my ex that she ‘couldn’t be friends with me if I visited Amsterdam’, so I blocked her and went, and I also took 2 months out travelling, after she stopped me from doing it on my own in the past. I don’t want to sound like a parent when I say I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed. I spend so much of my time going out of my way for other people and it never seems to pay off. Beneath this nihilistic demeanour, I would like to think I’m an optimist. I devise situations in my head and pray that I can muster enough luck to grant it come true, but I can barely get enough luck to find 2 sachets of sauce in my pot noodle. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t eventually get that second sachet if I keep persisting. Metaphorically speaking.

Thursday 30 April 2020

The cultural significance of Rammstein's Herzeleid. (University Re-Upload)



“Rammstein opens their art to many interpretations by traversing the gap between modernism and postmodernism. By doing so, they can address multiple audiences with completely different … viewpoints simultaneously, whilst never having to commit to any one ... agenda at all.”(John T. Littlejohn et al., 2013, p.4) Discuss.

This essay will discuss how Rammstein, a band whose main listener demographic don’t speak the same language, can become one of Germany’s most successful musical exports. This essay will also argue the case that Rammstein can appeal to a mass market, regardless of politics and nationality, and that their impartiality on subjects such as nationalism and politics can be argued through their subtextual messages.  

Accurate translations through third parties will be used to refer to Rammstein’s lyrical content.
      
Rammstein represents the product of east Germany translated both through sound and sight with ties to German industry. Visually, the band communicates messages through many different, albeit mostly subtle, means. The front cover of Herzeleid sees the band positioned shirtless next to each other; their short buzz-cut hair connotes military, the camera position has them looking down at the viewer, insinuating power, dominance and intimidation and their shirtless bodies are resemblant of the ‘master race’ imagery (Graves, W., 2017). Left-wing musician Alec Empire claims that although they appeal to the far-right, “they are not a facist band at all.” (MTV, 1998)

Rammstein opens their art to many interpretations by traversing the gap between modernism and postmodernism.” (John T. Littlejohn et al., 2013) This can be best related through a tug-of-war debate from the early days of Rammstein’s music. With the band having been created 4 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the debate centres around the band’s ideology and specifically whether it was pro or anti reunification- in the context of east and west Germany. It is clear to see, however, that the band were benefiting from pro-reunification, as they were enjoying the freedom that living in a capitalist society has brought them, but they also had retained their more conservative medium of eastern music tropes. During the latter half of the 20th century “composers in east Germanywere advised to avoid the avant-garde and to compose music in keeping with the tenets of Socialist Realism.” (Germany, Federal Republic of, 2008.) and this aspect bleeds through Rammstein’s work, with the melodic harmonies of keyboard player Christian “Flake” Lorenz anchoring the band down in their classical roots.

There is also the argument that although they inadvertently represented eastern Germany, they were very much a western German band. Rammstein formed 4 years after the German reunification, and Paul Landers (guitarist for Rammstein) doubted that Rammstein would even exist if the wall didn’t fall. “We are a product of the reunification of Germany. The only way you could become a professional musician [In Eastern Germany] was to join a high school and get a degree in music.” (Guitar World, 1998). Writer Wolfgang Herles (John T. Littlejohn et al., 2013, p,101) also stated that many east Germans longed for the socialist ideals of freedom, brotherhood and equality- identified as a sense of wider community, which wasn’t being represented under the GDR. They viewed themselves as morally superior to their western counterparts with their humanist attitude comparatively opposed to the west’s materialist, consumer-driven society. Finally, they also didn’t consider the idea of socialism to have failed under the GDR, only the execution. This led to a reunification being idealised to the east Germans as a “land of plenty” that could have provided them with a better form of socialism. Herles concluded, “here the inherent paradox lies clear: the longing for both the old and the new, whilst rejecting both of them at the same time. In Rammstein’s case, Herzeleid highlights this internal struggle of identity through their metamodernist approach.

The Ramstein air disaster of 1988 which took place at an American military base in western Germany is said to be the inspiration behind the band’s name, with the band even naming their tour the “Rammstein-Flugschau“ [Rammstein Air Show] (Die Welt, 2013) in the early days. Phonetically, however, the name ‘Rammstein’ (with the added ‘m’) roughly translates to ‘Ramming Stone’ in German. Whereas these can all be looked at individually, when paired they paint a picture of militarism, destruction, noise and fire. Whatever the true intention of the origin may be, the link that it brings work in the creation of the band’s thematics. Following the theme of industrial ties, the coupling of ‘ramming stone’ brings the reader to help visualise sounds and sights. From sounds like tools of manual labour, ‘ramming stone’ gives an envisioning sound of a repeated thud; a hard surface onto a hard surface. As previously mentioned, this helps Rammstein deliver their thematics without having to explicitly state it to their audience.

Rammstein’s logo on the front cover of Herzeleid Sat above the band in the centre of the artwork. Best explained as, “Rammstein’s industrial style begins with their logotype. The solid, all-capitalised name creates a bold, hard impression in customised typescript resembling the “Franklin Gothic Heavy” headline, coloured in contrast to their background.” (John T. Littlejohn et al., 2013, p. 21) In the case of Herzeleid, its grey font colour is resemblant of steel and the ‘bold, hard’ font is resemblant of metal-work, an interesting juxtaposition considering that founder and guitarist Richard Kruspe designed the band with the intention of creating “something that would combine machines and the sound of heavy guitars” (Rammstein World, n.d.).

The genre combination of “machine and heavy guitar” can be summarised as 'industrial metal’, a movement which combined the Euro-centric industrial movement of the 1980/90’s and the American heavy-metal takeover movement of the 1980/90’s which saw a rise in different genre amalgamations. For Germany, the movement of industrial metal sprouted through the industrial movement of the late 1970’s/early 80’s with bands like Abwärts and Einstürzende Neubauten. Katherine Collins probed farther into the idea of industrial music, in particular, the origins. “[The sounds of]...mechanical and electric machinery later evolved into synthesisers, sampling and electric percussion...often built around ‘non-musical’ and often distorted, repetitive percussion sounds of industrial machinery.” (John T. Littlejohn et al., 2013, p, 25) In fact, 7 out of the 11 songs featured on Herzeleid Begin by introducing a sound of synthesised machinery (Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen?, Weisses Fleisch, Asche zu Asche, Du Riechst So Gut, Heirate Mich, Laichzeit andRammstein) whereas they all feature repetitive 3≤ second-long instrumental loops on which the core of the song is formed. This too, while not necessarily always synthesised, can be interpreted as following the same repetitive sounds similar to machinery. The subtext of Rammstein’s past was then given the ability to communicate a narrative through music. Melodically, their music adapted diminished, drawn-out and augmented tones, which merged melancholy, longing and tension for the listener. This connotes Marxist Theories in the sense that the exploitation of the lower working class (Trueman, C, N. 2019) is negative, communicated through the industrial aspect of machinery.


By referencing literature which, itself, was said to be one of the original factors in ‘unifying’ a fragmented Germany, Rammstein used Romanticism as a commentary on German society at the time. In relation to the aforementioned points on sublimation and the search for cultural identity, Rammstein used a form of Romanticism as a way to communicate the less desirable aspects of German culture. This encapsulates the genre of literature best known as ‘Dark Romanticism.’ The movement of Dark Romanticism in Germany can mainly be attributed to the Brothers Grimm and E.T.A Hoffmann. The movement of Gothicism and fantasy was attributed to the writers respectively. In relation to German culture, the Brothers Grimm were said to be an “accurate depiction” of Germany (Rolleke, H. National Geographic) whereas Hoffman was quoted as being “perhaps one of the two or three greatest of all writers of fantasy” (Bleiler, E.F., The Best Tales Of Hoffman).

Links to Romanticism, Dark Romanticism and its subgenres, Gothicism and fantasy, can be found woven throughout the lyrics of Herzeleid. 

Der Meister’s[The Master] lyrics highlight an inevitable path to destruction orchestrated by a superior, Der Meister, upon his inferiors. The lyrics “no angel will come to avenge you/these days are your last/it will break you apart like little sticks” highlight the inevitability and the 2nd person pronoun repetition of ‘you’/’your’ insinuate that the listener is the aforementioned ‘inferior’.This could also be seen as playing on the Freudian theory of Eros (the ‘life drive’) and Thanatos (the ‘death drive’) wherefrom the protagonist refers to their ‘Thanatos’ as the dominant influence in their own downfall. This theory is also resemblant of Greek mythology, through hamartia(the downfall of a protagonist through their own faults, Aristotle, 335 BC) and Greek religion with Thanatos being the personification of death. The underlying theme of inevitable sorrow ties this strongly to Dark Romanticism and it is one of Rammstein’s very few songs played in a major key, giving the song an upbeat tone. This, juxtaposed with the lyrical content, helps further narrate the struggle between light and dark, Eros and Thanatos.

Weisses Fleisch[White Flesh] twists the notion of the beauty ideal described by the Dark Romantic Brothers Grimm centuries before in Little Snow White, wherefrom the protagonist, Snow-White, was deemed to be beautiful for her “[skin] as white as snow, [lips] as red as blood, and [hair] as black as the wood” (Kinder- und Hausmärchen no.53, 1857). This further insinuates a predator/prey relation to age too, with the opening lyrics reading “Du auf dem Schulhof [You, in the schoolyard]”. This won’t be the last time German literature has become the subject of Rammstein’s lyrical subtext. The focus of Rammstein’s subtle references can all be attributed to the Dark Romanticism movement of the late 18th and mid 19th century. It is important to note that up to this time, there was no sense of a single, unified ‘Germany’. Germany during this time was merely a multitude of small, separate states with nothing to tie them together. This made Romanticism an important movement in Germany because not only did it unify people under one nationalistic identity but it also was a societal commentary in teaching children ‘German’ culture such as religion and mythology- what later helped form into ‘folktales’. 

Asche zu Asche[Ashes to Ashes] depicts a twist to the religious story of Jesus’ crucifixion. Spoken through the 1st person confession of the protagonist, the lyrics “Secretly I will rise from the dead/and you will plead for mercy/then I will kneel in your face/and stick my finger in the ashes” highlight a sinister version of a vengeful Christ. These lyrics combine to highlight a postmodern argument for Rammstein, through their questioning and showing of disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity, Christianity.

Seemann[Sailor] tells the story of a sailor who gains an acquaintance in the knowledge that they will eventually lose them naturally. In fact, the subtext of the song details tropes found in Romanticism itself, with many references to nature. “Now you are standing by the lantern/with tears in your face/the daylight falls on the side/the autumn wind sweeps the streets clear”. The description of warmth coming from a small source (the lamp) and the cold being vastly larger and more powerful (the autumn wind) can also allude to being metaphorical for happiness being overwhelmed with sadness, which is fitting for the context of the song. This places the lyrics on the ‘darker’ side of Romanticism.

Du Riechst So Gut[You Smell So Good] explores the extremities of a mother/child relationship between humans and animalistic tendencies. In this song the child protagonist- blind and deprived with hunger- longs for its mother, using its natural instincts (in this case, smell) to reach her. Although scholars point to the reunification of Germany as being for economic gain as opposed to being for political means or for national unity (Claus Offe,1997), Rammstein highlights how the proletariat viewed reunification. In a postmodernist nature, the lyrics provide an ironic commentary on the East German people’s longing for the socialist ideals aforementioned; freedom, brotherhood and equality. The reunification of Germany has left them (the blind child) in search of their maternal guardian (socialist ideals of community) to care for them. Freud once commented on this desire, stating: “there can be no final union between the mother, only a surrogate relationship with other adults that are mere substitutes for the original connection.” This, in turn, highlights the differences in German society at the time. Whereas reunification brought together Germany on a national level, the desires from the bourgeoisie (economic growth) and the proletariat (community) had left the state equally fragmented. It underlines east Germany’s desire for national identity, highlighted through the melodical subtext of Rammstein’s song. 


Heirate Mich [Marry Me] insinuates heavily the act of necrophilia, whereas the title would lead you to believe it was a love-themed song. Although members of Rammstein openly disapprove of religion, the religious subtext of the song may be used as humorous irony, and the lyrical exposition of an abandoned graveyard is an example of Dark Romanticism’s “taste for ruins” (Charles Rosen, 1995). The years succeeding WW2 saw the GDR attempt to squeeze a deeply ingrained religious following out of the east German people. Historian Sophie Goddyn explains, “In the 21st century, eastern German states, including the capital east Berlin,are less religious than western German states” (Goddyn, S. L., 2014). This was confirmed by the 2011 People by Religion for Germanycensus, they found that: every single region in east Germany was at least 40-70% atheist, with the vast majority falling under the 70-100% atheist bracket (n.a, 2011).

Rammstein’s self-titled song Rammstein acts as a self-aware conclusion to the band’s first album. During the song, Lindemann sings the band’s name between each line of lyrics, 12 times in total. Even though the spelling of Rammstein is with the extra ‘m’, the song is very much still about the Ramstein air disaster. Sandwiched between the repetition of ‘Rammstein’ are short and gruesomely macabre descriptions about the events of 1988. “A man is burning.../...The smell of flesh lies in the air” reads the opening lines before closing on “A mass grave.../...No escape.../...No birds are singing anymore.../...The sun is shining.” The inevitability regarding “No Escape” yet again ties itself to the thematics of Dark Romanticism whilst the underlying theme of fire ties itself to the opening song of the album Wollt Ihr Das Bett In Flammen Sehen. Rammstein closed the album as they opened it, accosting their audience with images of fire and destruction.

Conclusion

In accordance to Kramer’s ‘16 Characteristics of Postmodern Music’ (The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism, 2002), Rammstein have, at some point during Herzeleid, outlined the following; 
  • is not simply a repudiation of modernism but has aspects of an extension,


  • is on some level ironic,


  • questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values, 


  • considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts, 


  • considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music,


  • embraces contradictions and presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities. 

Herzeleid Was significant because not only did they represent a demographic of people that were a product of the times (east Germany) but also took their communist upbringing and expanded across international capitalist societies, something that makes them wholly unique. They have stayed niche while brought in mass appeal, used east German musical tropes but used Western music to expand, been anti and pro-unification through their search for cultural identity and have been political while overtly straying from politics. Herzeleid was a product of six metamodernist Germans living and working in cultures from polar opposites of the political spectrum. Their music reads as theatrically as their live shows look and they subliminally communicate humour where there does not appear to be any at face value. Each song from Herzeleid, on its own, can be appreciated for the story it is trying to tell, whereas together, communicate a grand narrative covering topics such as; Romanticism, Dark Romanticism, religion, war, cultural identity and Freudian theories. However, this can be boiled down the poetic simplistics; light, dark, love, despair, life, death and nature.

Tory Government.

Comedy is subjective
and the way you say in your pitches
that your work has been effective
leaves me creased, pained, in stitches

Because if you don't laugh you cry
and those tears wouldn't be fake
Thousands could've been saved with precautions you didn’t apply
From the action you didn’t take


I hope you understand that the NHS you had demanded disbanded
Can’t help when it comes to washing the blood that leaves your hands branded

Late night coronavirus thoughts in the context of the UK

I used to be one to hide behind a mask, if you analysed my social media over the past couple of years then you might have thought the same, and I do not blame you. For once, I would have agreed that I harboured viewpoints that may have kept me in a fared light than if I had exposed many viewpoints that I had. Never once had I ever kept a selfish viewpoint on society, I purged myself of any self-indulgence and selfish narrative on how I thought society should be run. I resonated on the mantra that you should always think of the most vulnerable members of society when you act politically. 

Having indulged on the poetics of Wilfred Owen and the semantics of propaganda from allies and axis alike through the 1910’s-1950’s, I am more than able to distinguish the variance between propaganda and mere nationalistic rousing, and the difference is more than blurred even to this day. With the level of bias embedded within the English curriculum, is it not toxic that the public are not more aware of the negative influence they have had on society? 

In the shadow of V from V for Vendetta, I channel the same influence. Last November we were offered a different alternative. While the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? 

There is a reason that dystopian literature is among the most prevalently suggested readings among present day novels, and it's because it reflects a section of society which we do not want to address. We want to feel secure in a world where internationalism equals prosperity but isolationism means safety. We indulge in patriotism, but it does not indulge us. So why even bother? 

Every 4 years, the western political system offers a beacon of hope for the hopeful to grab onto. A momentary escape from the discourse we have been force-fed for the past couple of years. And the media reject it outright. 70 years ago, Geobbels cried from the stands, “Success is the important thing. Propaganda is not a matter for average minds, but rather a matter for practitioners. It is not supposed to be lovely or theoretically correct. I do not care if I give wonderful, aesthetically elegant speeches, or speak so that women cry. The point of a political speech is to persuade people of what we think right.” 

I am completely perplexed that someone aware of the British education system can understand the overtly (and understandably) anti-Nazi messages intertwined within the curriculum, and still leave the majority of the population falling for the same techniques that their government enforced decades ago. The right-wing messages over the past 15 years- especially since the recession- has been focused around the same scapegoats in which Nazi Germany based their reign on back in the early 1920’s. And yet these ‘followers’ of the message find themselves identifying themselves on the side of a nationalistic narrative that they are above any other culture. It is simply not the case. 


Chomsky stated in 1989 that “Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self-defence to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for meaningful democracy.” Yet this warning from one of literature's most valued linguistics over 30 years ago has gone unheeded. 

We, as a British society sat there as a nation and saw 72 people burn to death in Grenfell and voted for the party that said that if they were cleverer then they would have survived. We elected Sally-Ann Hart, a woman who seven days before the election said that people with learning difficulties should not earn full pay because they “do not understand money.” We had Blackpool, the third most deprived region in the UK, vote for the party that put them there, and now we are currently dependent on the NHS. An organisation in which it currently has had to have £13 billion of T*ry underfunding wiped to stay afloat among this virus, an organisation which Tory MPs (including our Prime Minister) cheered among blocking their pay rise had the government voted in that they were on their knees begging not to be. Only for the public to repay them by voting a party that is systematically against them in, in return for a 1 minute applause every thursday at 8pm during the lockdown. Your applause is only to boost your ego in the knowledge that you have helped them into the depravity in which they currently find themselves in. You know it does not help them, and we know that if the public *really* valued them to the extent in which we do now, that we would have been more tactical without vote in December. 

The harsh reality is that this virus is extremely political, and although the narrative is that "the country is on hold" it is actually that we are in the preliminaries of even more austerity. Austerity that was a political choice that was originally ‘justified’ by the financial crash of 2008 and will more than certainly be ‘justified’ by this pandemic. And we as a country will accept it. It will maim us and will hinder the working class, but will we allow it to pursue different political avenues? No. We will find comfort in the ambience, from the passing propaganda of The S*n, to the pro-T*ry messages on the BBC, and will therefore more than likely vote C*nservative. Echoes of Cameron ‘balancing the budget’ will reverberate almost a decade on and susceptible people who are too devoid of seeing a better alternative will vote with what they see the most. That they are not deserved of socialist policies and that they would ‘leave the country bankrupt’. The same people that clap for the NHS and want the police to help enforce the lockdown. The two most socialist organizations in this country. 

Synonymously, I’d relate this lockdown more with ‘frustration.’ And not because I cannot see my friends, go to the pub or socialise in any other way. It is because I know that we are going to pay the price of trying to survive through the virus through deeper cuts to our public services. More people are going to suffer under the T*ry rein amidst the recuperation after lockdown is lifted, and our bootlicking population will justify it. “It’s necessary”, they will say, and they’ll paint B*ris J*hnson as a modern day Churchill, having guided us through our darkest hour, completely disregarding the fact he allowed a large portion of the public to contract the virus. It was not because he wanted ‘herd immunity’ to properly work, it was eugenics on the sly. He was not being mindful of his millionaire friends when he said ‘a lot of us will have loved ones die before their time’, he was thinking of the working class. He knowingly did nothing to stop the disease from passing through the population. Now it's approaching 1,000 deaths a day and the grand narrative from the media is sympathy for the PM, who allowed this to happen. Fuck Boris Johnson and fuck anybody who sympathises with him, sympathise with the NHS workers who he has attacked with his policies in the past and sympathise with the working class who he has attacked with his policies in the past and who is going to cause further detriment to in the future with his higher austerity measures. All of which will be a choice of unnecessary cruelty.

Monday 27 April 2020

Late April Update.

I have this weird affinity with my writing where the enjoyable process of writing ends as soon as I finish my final sentence. Writing, for me, hasn't become a process in which the 'publish' button represents completion, but instead a cathartic process which is used to help myself become more expressive. I write to me and nobody else and I view that as infinitely better than anything else. In truth, I would say at least 95 percent of all my writings go unseen by anybody else. Moreover, I want to work at improving that, because I also see writing as an extension of myself, as I try to write as close to heart as possible. So I plan to upload some different styles of writing in the coming weeks (as I have more free time than usual) and I am currently writing this to give context to the otherwise context-less posts that will soon be appearing. 

Friday 10 January 2020

My Experience Travelling.

I wanted to get away as far as I could for as long as I could. I didn’t mind where, so I searched until I found the best sounding alternative. I know this has started off like the excerpt of a thrilling novel, but for me, life had become the opposite. You see, I had seen life as a mundane entity, and I started internally seeing myself as the Narrator from Fight Club (minus the insomnia, underground fighting, sociopathic cult and terrorism etc.) and whereas the Narrator found escape through starting the Fight Club, I wanted to find my escape through… travelling (which, as I type this out sounds ironically mundane in comparison). I have a degree in Music Journalism, and quite an important aspect of that- or any journalism I suppose- is communication. You have to be somewhat good at communication to succeed in that field of work and I’m not calling myself successful, but communication is one of my strengths. I value the transaction of communication between one person to another as such an integral part of personal development and I try to get better at it by building rapports with as many people as I can in as little time as possible. Like a little internal challenge I set for myself to make my life a bit more interesting.

So, I decided to stop working after the Christmas break (I worked in a school) and to start working in hostels in Central Europe: Vienna and Ljubljana (thus far). Not that I *really* like hostels, or anything- don’t get me wrong, I think they are great, but I really wanted to stretch out my communication skills on people other than the children I’ve been having to teach. There’s only so many conversations about Minecraft and Fortnite that a grown man can handle before the words ‘creeper’ and ‘floss’ begin to ‘spawn’ a migraine. One thing I didn’t anticipate to come from working in a hostel, however, is both extremely obvious (and left me feeling quite stupid) and extremely bittersweet: it’s that people who you talk to and genuinely have a connection to end up leaving after a couple of days. How I didn’t foresee this being a thing I would have to deal with, I have no idea. Looking back, it seems so naive and I like to humour myself by thinking that I was like an Annie Wilkes figure off of Misery, not having any plans to let the guests leave. Like previously mentioned, it is an extremely bittersweet feeling. After a while, it becomes a mental exercise to not try and view each conversation with guests as nothing more than a meaningless exchange of vocal vibrations and air, but to think of it as an experience instead. Without social media, it would be even harder too. I have been here for over a week and must have spoken close to 100 people and, without the exchanging of social media usernames, it would be so difficult to keep track of most of their names (even though for them they can remember your name with ease because you’re only one of a few people they talk to). It’s like going to the barbers and asking for the usual, expecting the barber to remember what the fuck they did to your hair before, after seeing hundreds of people in between then and now.

It has also put into perspective how disconnected the UK is from the rest of Europe. I’m thinking of writing a separate piece for this whole topic because it covers so much ground, but I noticed a whole different level of inclusivity from those in mainland Europe. A huge factor in me choosing Austria as a place to visit is that I wanted to improve on my German as a language, and I’ve not had to exercise it as much as I would have liked to because everybody speaks English. Not that this is a bad thing by any means, it’s helped me out of many situations in which I need to communicate with somebody- but it has highlighted a deeper sense of isolationism from myself and the country that I am from. I have spoken to people who don't have English as a first language who bounce from one language to another effortlessly, because they were taught from an early age how to, whereas I can’t even speak a language other than English because it’s not compulsory or even prioritised in British education. And even then I come from Burnley so it could be convincingly argued that I can’t even speak English fluently. I believe (and will go into more in another post) that this subconsciously perpetuates an underlying sense of colonialism and self importance among British people, which is something I actively try to distance myself from. If anything, working abroad and hearing other people’s life experiences has helped me realise that the UK is by no means the worst country to live, and I do recognise and appreciate all the opportunities and privileges that coming from the UK has given me. But that contrast only emphasises what I knew to be wrong with the UK to begin with and what made me want to leave in the first place.

Wednesday 1 January 2020

The cultural significance of Black Sabbath's song 'Black Sabbath' (University Re-upload)

Many refer to Black Sabbath as the ‘godfathers’ of heavy metal; they have influenced generations of musicians. With the release of their self-titled song, Black Sabbath, they introduced the world to a whole new perspective on music. Culturally and socially, I will assess the topics of media, class, world events and religion.

The origin of ‘heavy metal’ is an amalgamation of different musical aspects. In 2006, Ozzy is quoted saying the band “never used to write a structured song. There’d be a long intro that goes into a jazz piece, then goes all folky” (Stolz, 2017). The term “heavy metal” is still a term they refute today. The origin can be traced to a review in Creem in May 1971’s of Sir Lord Baltimore’s debut, Kingdom Come (Mercury) (Saunders, 1971, and Weinstein, 2014), over a year after the album release. The first time Ozzy heard the words ‘heavy’ and ‘metal’ used together was in the song ‘Born to be Wild’. “The press just latched on to it after that. We certainly didn’t come up with it ourselves. As far as we were concerned, we were just a blues band that had decided to write some scary music.” (Osbourne, 2010). With lyrics like “Satan's sitting there, he's smiling, watches those flames get higher and higher”, it’s clear to see what separated them from conventional blues bands, although they kept many of the same themes.

The “Heavy Metal” inclusion in George-Warren et al. (1983) read: it “was introduced into the pop vocabulary by Steppenwolf in their 1969 hit ‘Born to be Wild’ (with the lyrics ‘heavy metal thunder’) and subsequently redefined by critic Lester Bangs in the ‘rock-n-roll’ magazine Creem”. Although it’s disputed whether the origin lies with him, Bangs is also noted for critiquing Black Sabbath’s first album, where he relates well-known blues and psych rock artists: Cream and Vanilla Fudge (Bangs, 1970).



Black Sabbath’s musical inspiration could be the late 1960’s counterculture of the time. In Ozzy’s autobiography (2010) he recalls “The hippy-dippy shit that was all over the radio was also winding me up, big time. All these polo-necked wankers from grammar schools were going out and buying songs like ‘San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)’. On the bus back home the next day I remember humming the tune to ‘San Francisco’ and thinking, I should write my own fucking anti-hippy song. I even came up with a title: ‘Aston (Be Sure to Wear Some Glass in Your Face)’.” This distancing from popular culture may be attributed to one of the deciding factors in the band’s future direction, aesthetically and lyrically.



Black Sabbath can also be considered as ‘working-class idols’, with their unique sound being partly attributed to Tony Iommi’s hand injury coming from factory work like many working-class people at the time. The unique changing of his guitar strings to accommodate his injury detuned the guitar, loosening them so they were easier to play, which also invested a unique depth to the sound (Raul, 2009). The sound distorted, making it deeper and darker in resonance- the result of which became the melodical foundations for Black Sabbath’s unique style. For the song ‘Black Sabbath’ there were also anti-Christian messages woven into the melody. “I’ve since been told that Tony’s riff is based on what’s known as the ‘Devil’s interval’, or the ‘tritone’” (Osbourne, 2010). The tritone, which was played scarcely outside of classical music before 1970 (with examples like Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze being exempt) (Wiederhorn, n.d.), is a collection of notes that, when played together, create an unnerving atmospheric tune.

The melody was based on the ‘Devil’s interval’, however the lyrics of Black Sabbath are very pro-God/anti-Devil. The line “Oh no, no, please God help me” (Black Sabbath, 1970) shows the negative feelings the unnamed character felt when being taken by the Devil. However, the sleeve for their album vinyl boasted an inverted cross, representing satanic rituals (Ogechukwu, 2009), so although they stray from anti-Christian messages lyrically, visually this artwork implies otherwise.
In Sound of the Beast (Christe, 2003), Black Sabbath is linked to the then-current counterculture. In an extract taken in the first chapter, he states:
“Heavy Metal came into being just as rock and roll was in the midst of a disintegration. In April 1970, while Black Sabbath were marking the pop charts, Paul McCartney announced the breakup of The Beatles. Instead of comforting their audience in the uncertain world, rock giants Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison were all dead within the year from drug overdoses.”

He uses this to signify the end of the era of ‘hippy’ culture, and alludes to introducing a culture of violence and anger.
“As the nonviolent flower children gave way to the Black Panther party, Kent State campus massacres and increasingly violent street revolts by students in Paris ... it was out with the old hopes and in with new pragmatism.”

This counterculture meant that Black Sabbath gave an escape to the people at the time, with their anti-religious messages and dark, gothic themes. Although, it may be argued this ‘escapism’ wasn’t intended, as the band had openly avoided going to America at the time as to not appear as though they were in support of the Manson Family, who were notorious at the time.
In Not Abba: The Real Story of the 1970s, which was an autopsy of the decade’s societal values, Haslam (2005) notes the blandness and repetitiveness of media popularity at the time. This could push the idea that Black Sabbath were part of a counterculture, being it wasn’t a secret mainstream media didn’t ‘get them’, which may support the notion that they provided that sense of escapism from the world.

In conclusion, Black Sabbath were a band in the right place at the right time. Tony Iommi’s hand injury uniquely shaped the band’s sound and shaped an entirely new genre of music. Political, cultural and social movements at the time made the band’s appeal all that more appetising, with people finding refuge in the macabre lyrics and gothic aesthetics. The fall of hippy culture and the death of rock-and-roll pushed new alternatives in musical style and the infamy that came with anti-Christian messages and imagery made Black Sabbath one of the most talked about artists at the time- and made their song, Black Sabbath, one of the most important milestones in music.