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symptom of the decay of Western
morality.
The writer went on, "In fact, the
punk movement is a
protest
[
em–
phasis mine] about the decline of
Western values rather than another
symptom."
He had my attention.
H is Jet ter went on to challenge
me and the magazine for not
understanding what the punk rock
movement is all about. And that
made me think, for after all, this
is
a magazine of understanding.
So
J
listened to punk and watched
video rock (late at night , when my
tcenage daughters were in bed, and
braving my wife's incredulous looks).
Nothing
J
saw con–
vinced me that
1
had
misjudged these music
styles. The outlandish
music arrangements, the
extraordinary hair and
clothing styles, the ob–
scenity, the preoccupa–
tion with the macabre
and the bizarre, the
anger and rebellion that
seemed to consume the
musicians, along with
the degenerate life–
styles- sorry, there was
no way in which I could
agree that punk rock
was merely a
protest
about rather than a
symptom
of the
decline of Western values.
" Band-Aid "
But then last December sorne of
the leading British pop stars got
together and made a record. The
entire profits of this record were
donated to Ethiopian famine relief.
They donated their time free, and
under the general heading Band–
Aid recorded a song, "Do They
K now
It
's Cbristmas?" Th is
record, as you probably know,
topped the charts in severa! coun–
tries and raised millions of pounds
for starving Africans. In J anuary
this year, leading American stars
made a similar gesture, with a
recording "We Are the World."
lt
also has become a spectacular suc–
cess in raising funds for Africa.
These have been kind and gener–
ous gestures, and all of us who ache
to help case the agony of Africa
should appreciate what these young
mu sicians have done. And even
20
though you may not like their
music, it makes you like
them
a
whole lot more. Now I think l
understand more of what the reader
was telling me, when he explained
that punk rock is a
protest.
When young people dye their
hair green, pink and orange, stick
safety pins through their ears and
dress in rags, they realize that they
are making themselves offensive to
more conventional folk. They do it
on purpose. There's nothing partic–
ularly new about that. Every gener–
ation has its nonconforming youth.
There were the flappers of the '20s,
the beatniks of the '60s, and the
hippies of the '70s. They went out
\
f
Britisb pop star Midge Ure, top,
belps load food for Afr ica. Band-Aid
organizer Bob Geldof visits a relief
center in Etbiopia.
of their way to be different while
their parents worried and their
grandparents rolled their eyes to
heaven and asked ·what the world
was coming to. But many of them
grow out of it. And inevitably,
sorne of what was "unacceptable"
finds its way into our permanent
culture.
For example, when
1
was a college
student , more than 20 years ago,
1
wrote a research paper for a course
of music apprec1at10n.
1
made the
point that in 20 years time (that is,
now), the music of the then-beyond–
the-pale Beatles would be considered
an important inftuence in serious
rnusic, to be taken quite seriously by
"proper" musicians. "Nonsense,"
said the instructor, and gave me a
terrible grade.
But
1
was right.
As time goes on sorne of the out–
rageous becomes accepted even as the
protesters mellow. The hippies of
yesterday have, generally speaking,
settled down into responsible jobs.
The students who closed the caro–
puses in the '60s still somehow
Jearned enough to earn their living
today. Most of the bob–
by-soxers and teeny–
boppers who screamed
after the rock and roll
stars 25 years ago have
become mothers, and
now have their own
teenage children to wor–
ry about. There comes a
time wben the idealism
of youth gives way to
reality. And so, today's
rebels eventually will
cut their hair (or Jet it
grow out again, as the
case may be), put on
more ordinary clothes,
and get on with the job
of making a living.
And that, in certain ways, will
be a shame.
Why One Should Protest
A teenager today is right to be
indignan
t.
As Pope John Paul
11
said, "They didn't ask to be born
into a dangerous world." They
didn't cause it, but they
wi/1
in–
heril it.
Why shouldn't a teenager in
today's world feel like offending
conventional values? Where, he
might ask, have conventional values
got us? Why shouldn't he or she be
frustrated at a world that can send
rnen to the moon and make other
stunning technological advance–
ments, and yet cannot solve the
problem of keeping African chil–
dren from dying of starvation?
Why shouldn't a young person in .
America's Midwest, or Europe's
Common Market, be baffied and
indignant on realizing that sorne
farmers are being paid
not
to grow
The
PLAIN TRUTH