Ten anti-capitalist songs of the Pet Shop Boys
You can hardly call
a band that has sold 50 million records anti-capitalist, yet underneath all the
glitz, glamour, and partying, there are many subtleties behind some of their
lyrical content, which direct apply to many of the problems of living in a
capitalist system. What follows is an analysis of some of their more outspoken
lyrics in relation to the contradictions of capitalism. There aren’t many
artists that make a living based on contradictions, yet the Pet Shop Boys
remain one of them, combining elements of sad lyrics with happy melodies, and
vice versa.
West End Girls
(1984)
The bass line of
this song is sampled from “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash, which is a
protest song in itself, commenting on the harsh realities of living in a ghetto
and the lack of opportunities available. In contrast to New York, the Pet Shop
Boys cough up their own thought on London life. The chorus kicks in with “In a
western town, a dead end world”, where “no-one knows your name”. It seems like a great existence in two
of the supposed richest cities in the first world. It’s a critique of the
concept of the individualism, “If, when, why, what, how much have you got?” and
Fukuyama’s ‘End of History’, with “We’ve got no future, we’ve got no past”,
which are both key influences of the ideological infliction of capitalisms most
extreme model: neoliberalism.
In an interview,
Chris said that it was about the mixing of the classes during their time off
work, for example a group of likely lads stumbling into a wine bar, it's about
the rough getting some posh. In the past it was rare for different classes to
mix - there were clear distinctions between residential areas. When the class
system became more blurred and the middle class grew, alongside intensive
gentrification, more and more people found themselves in an unfamiliar
environment, mixing it up with other classes. This caused many people to
develop new psychological states, such as "existential anxiety" and "urban
neurosis". It's a song that is deeply entrenched in class politics, which
would naturally fit in with an anti-capitalist narrative.
Furthermore, the
video to the song has clips from an anti-apartheid vigil, which was still a
controversial issue at the time. In the endless pursuit of profit at the
expense of human exploitation, South Africa during the apartheid era was one of
the worst case modern examples of openly racist state policies. Even now, with
supposed equal human rights, there is still a huge class divide between white
and black in South Africa.
Left to my own
devices (1988)
This is clearly an
autobiographical account of Neil's experiences whilst growing up. The inner
rebel is revealed when he sings about his ambition to be "Che Guevara and
Debussi to a disco beat". Ironically enough, Neil worked for the teenage
pop music magazine 'Smash Hits' before giving it all up to focus on the Pet
Shop Boys full time. Perhaps that retrospective wisdom is confounded in the
line "if you pass the test, you can beat the rest, I didn't want to
compete or talk street street street". With most organisations now,
following a scientific capitalist mode of production with a market based on
competition, perhaps the best environment where one can still be openly creative,
conscientious and critical, is the arts.
Go West (1993)
This was released a
few years after the collapse of Soviet communism, and the imagery used in the
video makes plenty of artistic references to this period. On the flip side,
images of the West provide a stark contrast. The musical arrangements of the
song even have thematic elements from the national anthem of the Soviet Union.
Perhaps that was the reason why the song was so popular in Russia, invoking
popular nationalism to go west. Unfortunately many Russians were duped during
the hope of the post-Soviet era, which promised that change would be gradual
and it would lead to people being better off. What ended up happening was the poor getting poorer and the
arrival of a filthy rich oligarch class. Think about all those billions of
roubles belonging to the Russian taxpayers, embezzled and spent on stupid
projects such as lining the pockets of footballers at Chelsea - surely this was
the greatest working class rip-off?
With it being a
Village People cover, it’s likely to be more about a promised land, a gay
utopia that isn’t achievable in a system that so heavily favors heterosexual
relationships and families. In the past, being gay was demonised. They were an
exploited class that didn't fit it with the ideal capitalist family unit. Of
course things are very different now, those vultures working in media and
consumer industries have found a way to make profit from gay identities and
lifestyles.
Love etc. (2009)
It’s about greed
and wanting more “you need more, you need more, you need more”, it’s a simple
message, wealth does not put you in any better position to find true love. This
relates to the issue of surplus value absorption: if capital can not be
invested to make a further surplus, then the capital moves on to another place
where it can. If we relate it back to the song, then if love cannot be
reinvested to deepen it, then it becomes surplus to requirement and will find
elsewhere to invest. Perhaps true love can never exist living under capitalist
relations of production, because our souls are nurtured to always want
more.
Kings Cross (1987)
There is a spine
chilling lyric at the start of the song: “the man at the back of the queue was
sent, to feel the smack of firm government” and the chorus ends with “Wake up
in the morning and there’s still no guarantee”. I guess this relates to
unemployment and it being an inevitable aspect of capitalism, as without it
employers aren’t able to drive down wages in order to keep competition for
jobs. Kings Cross is symbolic of escaping to Londoners. Neil Lowe in an
interview stated that, "King's Cross is an actual train station in London
that, at least at the time, was crime-ridden and dingy...prostitution, drug
addicts, and a lot of tramps come up to you there. I just thought that was a
metaphor for Britain - people arriving at this place, waiting for an
opportunity that doesn't happen...it's about hopes being dashed...It's an angry
song about Thatcherism."
Suburbia (1986)
“Stood by the bus
stop, with a felt pen, in this suburban hell”. Town planning was a condition of
the industrial revolution. It created new urban sprawls full of people hanging
around with nothing to do but get in trouble, whereby workers had no fruits of
their labour to revel in. The capitalist soon realized that and started to
create new forms of leisure and consumption to absorb the little of amount of
surplus we create from our own labour, all in an attempt to escape the
alienation our labour produces. In this day and age, it is those people that
create alternative forms of recreation, devoid of a price and rebellious in
nature, which are the ones that find true happiness and freedom.
It doesn’t often
snow at Christmas (1997)
This is a rare
outing of a song from a fan club single. It’s about the commercialisation of
Christmas and how the original meaning of love and family has been lost. This
relates to commodity fetishism and creating false desires. “Now it’s all about
shopping, and how much things cost”, leads the bridge to the chorus. Anyone
with a large family Christmas list will understand.
Rent (1987)
The video is about
an older rich woman supporting a younger poor man, which relates to dependency
theory, the 99% being dependent on the 1% for money, and the 1% being dependent
on the 99% for an escape. Rent itself as a tool for exploitation and capital
accumulation. Perhaps in the later periods of the capitalist epoch, A new form
of love based on economic dependency has emerged, and this permeates through
the themes of the song.
Opportunites (Let’s
Make Lots of Money) (1985)
It’s about the
neo-liberal opening of the London Stock Exchange. “Ask yourself this question:
Do you want to be rich?” and “If you’ve got the inclination, I have got the
crime” – and that’s what the event was, a legalization of previously criminal
activity. In a way it’s a satire of Thatcherism and its embodiment of Yuppie
culture. According to Neil Lowe, “It’s actually a joke that the two people in
the song won’t actually make any money – it represents the façade of capitalism
that anyone can make it big”. Classic PBS Irony.
Shopping (1987)
“We check it with
the city then change the law”, “It's easy when you got all the information,
Inside help, no investigation, no questions in the house, no give and take,
there's a big bang in the city, we're all on the make”, “I heard it in the
house of commons, everything’s for sale”. In the 1980s, shopping moved from
being a necessity to a leisure activity to absorb capital surplus back into the
capitalist class. Christ Tennant actually said that the song is about the
government selling off national industries, which they were personally against.
In the great neoliberal public sector grab, everything was for sale.
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Great post.
ReplyDelete"Christ Tennant"? What a bunch of political crap and propaganda from the author.
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