Friday, March 10, 2017

A (fake) Dialog between Depeche Mode and their Best Friend: Pushed 'Round

All celebrity responses are fictitious and impersonated for parody, maybe even satire.

ME:  It's great to pick your brain and see what you think of your listeners.

DM:  This is good.  I'm taking a ride with my Best Friend!

ME:  That's right!  But this new song doesn't seem very friendly.  I hope you're not letting me down again.

DM:  We just want to get young people to think for themselves before they are swallowed up in your culture.

ME:  Right, so that's what you mean by "kept down, pushed 'round, lied to, and fed truths--"

DM:  Well, yeah--

ME:  "--rights abused, views refused."  This all seems strange to me because popular culture overwhelmingly acts to fight traditional values.  This includes movies, television, web media, gaming, music, news, celebrities, grade schools, universities, etc.  Who's doing the pushing 'round?

DM:  But traditional culture has all their institutions.

ME:  What do you mean?  Rotary Club?  Elks?  BSA?

DM:  OK fine, churches.  Organized religion.

ME:  Ahh, I get it.  It sounds to me like what you're describing is more of a tug-of-war, a contest of ideas.  When you say "the train is coming, the engine is humming, so get on board," it sounds like your revolution is just another political movement.

DM:  Look, it's just a metaphor, mate.  Tongue-in-cheek.  It's what we do.

ME:  It's what you did.  Then you made this new album.  I'm sorry to quote something out of the intellectually-bankrupt YouTube comments area, but many fans were saying the same thing:  they could always enjoy Depeche Mode because it never got political, but sadly no more.

DM:  Rubbish!  As musicians, we have to be able to use our bullhorn to speak up against abuse and power.  Like all great art, our music must challenge our listeners and move opinion.  That's what cutting-edge music is.

ME:  This can be done without insulting your best friend...

DM:  I told you we love our fan-- er, our best friends.

ME:  But you wanted to influence young people?  The downtrodden and abused?  Maybe you shouldn't wear sunglasses on stage, because you're losing track of your audience.  There's not a lot of adolescents queuing up Should Be Higher between their Taylor Swift and Maroon 5.  Most of your teenage fans were introduced to Depeche Mode by their own parents.  I interact with a lot of teens and their reaction to your music is pretty mixed.

DM:  New generations will hear us.  It's just a Question of Time.

ME:  Guys, your audience is mostly middle-class adults in their 30's and 40's who send kids off to school each morning, provide for them by going to work, figure out how to pay bills and taxes, and yes, many of them go to church.  Hurling mistaken insults at them just doesn't make sense.    C'mon people, you're letting me down!

DM:  Wait, I'm a parent too!  Let me tell you about my daughter.


(to be continued...)

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