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A vapid Brits highlights the need for a countercultural response A vapid Brits highlights the need for a countercultural response
(7 months later)
Wednesday's Brit awards set a new benchmark for coma-inducing tediousness. Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick hailed the event as a "triumph of the bland", while Alexis Petridis complained in the Guardian that the Brits merely replicate the sales-based hierarchy of the Top 40. When outgoing Brits chairman David Joseph claimed that he'd given the event "gravitas", he was fighting a losing battle against a high tide of public indifference.Wednesday's Brit awards set a new benchmark for coma-inducing tediousness. Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick hailed the event as a "triumph of the bland", while Alexis Petridis complained in the Guardian that the Brits merely replicate the sales-based hierarchy of the Top 40. When outgoing Brits chairman David Joseph claimed that he'd given the event "gravitas", he was fighting a losing battle against a high tide of public indifference.
Watching the Brits, you can't help feeling that pop culture in the 2010s is suffering from a massive energy deficit. What's surprising, however, is not the torpor of these PR pageants or the awfulness of their star players. It's the fact that intelligent people have come to take them seriously.Watching the Brits, you can't help feeling that pop culture in the 2010s is suffering from a massive energy deficit. What's surprising, however, is not the torpor of these PR pageants or the awfulness of their star players. It's the fact that intelligent people have come to take them seriously.
It hasn't always been like this. Not so long ago, we ridiculed awards ceremonies as comic charades. Even at the height of Britpop, bands used to turn up to the Brits in order to drunkenly take the piss out of the whole enterprise. Now, on the other hand, we are disappointed when prize events don't live up to our bizarrely high expectations. This shift reflects a deeper malaise in the recent history of the arts. Put simply, we now spend so much time discussing prize nominations and their theatrical showcases because there is no visible alternative to speak of.It hasn't always been like this. Not so long ago, we ridiculed awards ceremonies as comic charades. Even at the height of Britpop, bands used to turn up to the Brits in order to drunkenly take the piss out of the whole enterprise. Now, on the other hand, we are disappointed when prize events don't live up to our bizarrely high expectations. This shift reflects a deeper malaise in the recent history of the arts. Put simply, we now spend so much time discussing prize nominations and their theatrical showcases because there is no visible alternative to speak of.
What was once called "counterculture" is living a clandestine existence. The alternative music press, universities, state-sponsored arts funding: all have been decimated over the past three decades, and the inevitable effect has been the disappearance of whatever opposition to the mindless chatter of the entertainment industry we once had.What was once called "counterculture" is living a clandestine existence. The alternative music press, universities, state-sponsored arts funding: all have been decimated over the past three decades, and the inevitable effect has been the disappearance of whatever opposition to the mindless chatter of the entertainment industry we once had.
These new prize ceremonies with their new-found "gravitas" are the perfect archetype of a radically market-oriented culture. Cultural variety has shrunk and coagulated around a few exaggerated media spectacles that bolster the status quo, and the lifeless aesthetic conservatism of Mumford and Sons and Adele is the unfortunate result.These new prize ceremonies with their new-found "gravitas" are the perfect archetype of a radically market-oriented culture. Cultural variety has shrunk and coagulated around a few exaggerated media spectacles that bolster the status quo, and the lifeless aesthetic conservatism of Mumford and Sons and Adele is the unfortunate result.
The upside is that very narrowness of the contemporary arts scene means that it is highly susceptible to subversion. If we are now living in a world in which the spectacle of the prize ceremony reigns supreme, might there not be some potential in using the limelight of such events to disrupt and undermine the culture industry on its own territory?The upside is that very narrowness of the contemporary arts scene means that it is highly susceptible to subversion. If we are now living in a world in which the spectacle of the prize ceremony reigns supreme, might there not be some potential in using the limelight of such events to disrupt and undermine the culture industry on its own territory?
There are plenty of examples from the past of artists treating awards ceremonies with the contempt they deserve. Jean Paul Sartre famously refused to accept the Nobel prize in 1964 on the grounds that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution". In 1972 John Berger won the Booker for his novel G, and promptly donated half the prize money to the British Black Panther movement.There are plenty of examples from the past of artists treating awards ceremonies with the contempt they deserve. Jean Paul Sartre famously refused to accept the Nobel prize in 1964 on the grounds that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution". In 1972 John Berger won the Booker for his novel G, and promptly donated half the prize money to the British Black Panther movement.
Even as recently as the 90s, situationist-style behaviour at awards ceremonies wasn't that unusual. It might be difficult to imagine now, but most musicians used to regard the Brits as an elaborate joke and an opportunity for subversive high jinks. The KLF's collaboration with the anarcho-punk band Extreme Noise Terror at the 1992 event, and Jarvis Cocker's spontaneous piece of dadaist exhibitionism in 1996 arose out of an attitude within the cultural left that if you did somehow get nominated for one of these absurd industry junkets, you had to do your utmost to deconstruct it.Even as recently as the 90s, situationist-style behaviour at awards ceremonies wasn't that unusual. It might be difficult to imagine now, but most musicians used to regard the Brits as an elaborate joke and an opportunity for subversive high jinks. The KLF's collaboration with the anarcho-punk band Extreme Noise Terror at the 1992 event, and Jarvis Cocker's spontaneous piece of dadaist exhibitionism in 1996 arose out of an attitude within the cultural left that if you did somehow get nominated for one of these absurd industry junkets, you had to do your utmost to deconstruct it.
Is it too much to hope that one day soon someone will follow these textbook examples of demonstrative protest? At the moment, the default position of far too many film-makers, musicians, artists, architects and writers is that a prize nomination is the best one can hope for in a period of competition and professional uncertainty. But the door is wide open for a principled young artist to upstage the whole show by exposing the meaninglessness of our awards-centric culture for what it really is.Is it too much to hope that one day soon someone will follow these textbook examples of demonstrative protest? At the moment, the default position of far too many film-makers, musicians, artists, architects and writers is that a prize nomination is the best one can hope for in a period of competition and professional uncertainty. But the door is wide open for a principled young artist to upstage the whole show by exposing the meaninglessness of our awards-centric culture for what it really is.
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