We lost one of music’s true innovators yesterday. While Malcolm McLaren, may not be a name on the tips of the tongues of some post-Gen-Y’ers who might consider uploading the first Britney Spears album onto their ipods as “kickin’ it old school,” it is nonetheless an important name in music history who has even recently helped in the proliferation of 8-Bit music as an art form. McLaren, who succumbed to cancer at age 64, has made an influencial stamp that is still evident, even to those who may not have known who he was. “Mad, misunderstood genius” is a status that has been thrown around quite a bit to artists whose work was either hated or loathed. McLaren definitely fit that mold. (And understandably so.) The man who has been called “The King of Punk” came from beginnings as a London-based counter-culture clothier in the early 70’s. That path had somehow quickly taken him to briefly going stateside to manage punk pioneer act The New York Dolls, to being the creative marketing force who assembled The Sex Pistols, possibly the most definitive and seminal (albeit crudely stereotypical) vision of how “Punk Rock” would later be defined. The Sex Pistols, were, perhaps the greatest example of a proverbial middle finger to what he referred to as a “karaoke culture” that dominates pop music — especially today. In essence, the Pistols were just as much a concoction of strategic marketing as any other artificial pop or “boy” band that has ever existed. Yet, McLaren seemed to revel in the idea of agitation for agitation’s sake, and the Pistols, in their brief existence, certainly left their mark with outrageous lyrics and stunts during Punk’s late 70’s heyday. (Stunts like a public record contract signing outside Buckingham Palace pictured above.) It was a sort of nihilism that, while lacking a true ethos, reveled in the idea of life’s absurdities. While Socrates compared the truth-seeking nature of philosophy to a fly constantly stinging a horse, McLaren’s art carried the vanity of being petulant youth in perpetual dissent, always devoid of any societal responsibility. Perhaps, that idea, if anything, of “not giving a f**k” was the essence of what was dubbed “Punk Rock.” Releasing music in his own right, he was an unlikely early purveyor of the genre that would become known as Hip-Hop, with early 80’s hits like “Buffalo Gals” and “Double Dutch.” Throughout his own musical career, McLaren would embrace any form of music that stood out — even Opera ! However, in recent years, his attention had turned to what is known as “Chip” or “8-Bit” Music. He became fixated on the idea of extracting sound blips and bleeps from old, abandoned video game consoles and using them as makeshift media for music that continued to be a proverbial middle finger to the “karaoke culture.” As McLaren stated in a piece he contributed to Wired in 2003 : “Karaoke and authenticity can sit well together, but it takes artistry to make that happen. When it does, the results can be explosive. Like when punk rock reclaimed rock and roll, blowing the doors off the recording industry in the process. Or when hip hop transformed turntables and records into the instruments of a revolution. Now it’s happening again. In dance clubs across Europe and America, young people are seizing the automated stuff of their world – handheld game machines, obsolete computers, anything with a sound chip – and forging a new kind of folk music for the digital age.” The idea of making due with forgotten “low-tech” objects seemed to catch on with him as being in tune with the essence of his own brand of counter-cultural leanings. Was he a genius? I’m certainly not sure. Did any stunt he ever pulled have some deeper ideological or ethical meaning? Who knows? However, he was an undeniably important link in the evolution of Rock music from the stages of Punk to New Wave to Alternative to…whatever it is we have today. I’d say that was worth an acknowledgment and a brief music history refresher. RIP. malcolmmclaren – Sex Pistols – punkrock – Britney Spears – Buckingham Palace
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RIP Malcolm McLaren: Punk Rock Icon, 8-Bit Music Pioneer
