GDR Retro-Nationalist Punk: Parallels and Influences Based on LNW9 by Gail Hart

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GDR Retro-Nationalist Punk Parallels and
InfluencesBased on LNW9 by Gail Hart
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• Let's review a few of the musical excerpts from
  the last lecture and listen to their precursors.
  In previous quarters, you learned to analyze
  music. Which aspects of this music sound
  rebellious? As you listen, take notes describing
  the beat, the tempo, the tone, the mood, the
  melody and, most of all, the voices you hear. We
  will listen to the music once straight through
  and a second time pausing for comments about the
  musical style. Don't worry if you have forgotten
  the technical terms. See if you can hear
  something revolutionary in the music. Let's try
  to describe punk rocks rebellion against
  injustice.

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Feeling B I Seek the GDR (Special thanks to
Erin Obodiac.)

• In the UN there's an empty seat
• on which used to sit a man from Suhl
• in Kenya there's one embassy less in number
• this time it struck a man from Jena
• I seek the GDR and no one knows where it is
• It's such a pity that it's forgetting me that
  quickly
• I seek the GDR and if it comes back to me
• I'll pardon it!
• In the new atlas one state is missing
• of a very particular kind
• Between West Germany and Poland
• one country has been stolen

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Listening Closely

• Listen for chromatic harmonies, music that sounds
  haunting, a repetitive beat, and a late-punk
  addition of symphonic instruments.
• When thinking about the lyrics, consider the
  sense in which the singer is looking for the GDR
  but no one knows where it is. What does that
  mean, literally and figuratively?

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The Skeptics

• Recall what Professor Hart and Patricia Simpson
  said about The Skeptics. What is the difference
  between this clip and the previous one? In what
  sense is this music more accessible, initially?
  Recall the distinction between compliance and
  defiance. Explain that distinction in your own
  words.

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SANDOW "BORN IN THE GDR"

• What is the effect of using the Bruce Springsteen
  footage? What was the GDR? Discuss the satire
  in this video. What is the difference between
  Feeling B and Sandow, in terms of their nostalgia
  for an unrealized dream of socialism? What is
  retro-nationalism? In what sense were the "idylls
  of socialism" "bogus"? Refer to LNW9 and to the
  Simpson article.

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1970s British and American Punk

• The defiance in some 1980's and 1990s German
  punk music opposes the totalitarianism of
  police-state tactics, even in a socialist
  society. This music inherits from 1970's and
  1980's British and American punk music a
  rebellion against imperialism, capitalism and
  hypocrisy. In the 1970s there was a recession
  (high unemployment and inflation) and an oil
  crisis. In the U.S. these problems stemmed in
  part from the expenditures of the Vietnam War.
  Punk music grew out of the opposition to social,
  political and economic injustices.

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Public and Counter-Public

• Before we read the following lyrics and watch the
  videos, let's think about ways in which GDR
  retro-nationalist punk music makes, uses and
  reworks notions of public and counter-public.
• Think about shifting notions of public as
  oppressive majority or public as youthful
  audience and counter-public as pre-reunification
  opposition to the police-state tactics of
  socialism or counter-public as post-reunification
  opposition to capitalism, etc. What are other
  ways of defining public against counter-public?

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Listening for sources and parallels

• Here are a few famous British and American punk
  songs. The examples range from clear satire of
  monarchy to advocacy of anarchy as a last resort.
  After we listen to these we will go back to
  Feeling B and the Skeptics for comparison and
  contrast. Listen for musical parallels
  (similarities in sound patterns, the beat, the
  melody, etc) as well as direct connections to the
  GDR retro-nationalist punk lyrics and concerns.
  Agree or disagree the shouts, driving beat and
  chromaticism reflect not merely an angry refusal
  to accept capitalist inequalities, but also a
  dissatisfaction with the rejection of socialism.

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Ask these questions while listening

• What is the function of sarcasm, satire and irony
  in the British and American examples? Did you
  hear sarcasm and satire in the German examples?
  Where? Can you imagine someone arguing that punk
  rock music failed because it re-inscribed or
  perpetuated the bigotry it was attempting to
  satirize? How or why? See examples in the Sex
  Pistols' and Green Day's lyrics. What is the
  connection, for example, between the "bogus idyll
  of socialism" and the reference to the Berlin
  Wall in the first example below? In "Anarchy in
  the UK" you have a great example of the
  difference between British and German punk. What
  might be possible parallels? Hint what does it
  mean for citizens to be mere tenants?

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The Sex Pistols Holidays in the Sun

• Compare this video to Holiday in Cambodia by
  the Dead Kennedys (coming up later in the
  presentation). What are these bands saying about
  mainstream denial of poverty? Also, think about
  the GDR punk rejection of a whitewashed future.
  What is the attitude toward the future in this
  video? Think about the attitude toward the
  Berlin Wall in the following video. What is on
  the other side of the wall? The GDR was a welfare
  state (how? See LNW9!) but used police tactics.
  Early punk music shares with later, GDR punk a
  rejection of corruption on the left as well as
  the right. Both opposed extremist versions of
  nationalism. Do you remember studying extreme
  nationalism earlier this quarter? In what
  context?

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Holidays in the Sun Lyrics

• A Cheap holiday in other peoples misery!
• I don't wanna holiday in the sun
• I wanna go to new Belsen
• I wanna see some history
• Cause now I got a reasonable economy
• Now I got a reason, now I got a reason
• Now I got a reason and I'm still waiting
• Now I got a reason
• Now I got reason to be waiting
• The Berlin Wall

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• Sensurround sound in a two inch wall
• Well I was waiting for the communist call
• I didn't ask for sunshine and I got World War
  three
• I'm looking over the wall and they're looking at
  me
• Now I got a reason, Now I got a reason
• Now I got a reason and I'm still waiting
• Now I got a reason,
• Now I got a reason to be waiting
• The Berlin Wall
• Well they're staring all night and
• They're staring all day
• I had no reason to be here at all
• But now I gotta reason it's no real reason
• And I'm waiting at the Berlin Wall

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• Gotta go over the Berlin Wall
• I don't understand it....
• I gotta go over the wall
• I don't understand this bit at all....
• Claustrophobia there's too much paranoia
• There's too many closets so when will we fall
• And now I gotta reason,
• It's no real reason to be waiting
• The Berlin Wall
• Gotta go over the Berlin Wall
• I don't understand it....
• I gotta go over the wall
• I don't understand this bit at all...
• Please don't be waiting for me

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The Sex Pistols as source for GDR
anti-imperialist nationalism God Save the Queen

• In order to get the sense of how this song was
  received, you have to imagine the The Star
  Spangled Banner satirized. The Sex Pistols had
  problems performing this song. It is highly
  incendiary in its opposition to monarchy and
  imperialism. Notice the dramatic contrast
  between the words and images in the video.
  Lyrics w/o stanzas

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• God save the queen her fascist regime
• It made you a moron a potential h bomb !
• God save the queen she aint no human being
• There is no future in Englands dreaming
• Dont be told what you want dont be told what
  you need
• Theres no future no future no future for you
• God save the queen we mean it man (God save
  window lean)
• We love our queen God saves (God save... human
  beings)
• God save the queen cos tourists are money
• And our figurehead is not what she seems
• Oh God save history God save your mad parade
• Oh lord God have mercy all crimes are paid
• When theres no future how can there be sin
• Were the flowers in the dustbin
• Were the poison in your human machine
• Were the future your future
• God save the queen we mean it man
• There is no future in Englands dreaming
• No future for you no future for me

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The Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK

• This is perhaps the Sex Pistols most famous
  song. How (or why) would you rescue it from
  charges of anti-intellectualism or irresponsible
  escapism? Look at the fourth line from the end.
  What does it mean for a citizen to be a mere
  tenant? More profoundly, ask yourselves whether
  the shocking first lines equate Christianity with
  oppression, or whether the singer is speaking in
  the voice of the oppressors. Finally, discuss
  the harmonies and descending chromatic riffs in
  the music. What is the of these sounds in terms
  of pathos?

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• The Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK Lyrics
• Right ! now ! ha ha ha ha ha
• I am an antichrist
• I am an anarchist
• Dont know what I want but
• I know how to get it
• I wanna destroy the passer by cause I
• I wanna be anarchy !
• No dogs body
• Anarchy for the UK its coming sometime and maybe
• I give a wrong time stop a traffic line
• Your future dream is a shopping scheme cause I
• I wanna be anarchy !

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Anarchy in the UK lyrics continued

• In the city
• How many ways to get what you want
• I use the best I use the rest
• I use the enemy I use anarchy cause I
• I wanna be anarchy !
• The only way to be !
• Is this the MPLA
• Or is this the UDA
• Or is this the IRA
• I thought it was the UK or just
• Another country
• Another council tenancy
• I wanna be an anarchist
• Oh what a name
• Get pissed destroy !

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Critique of Hypocrisy

• The egalitarian political and economic message of
  1970s British punk coalesces with the
  anti-elitist cultural message of 1980s American
  punk. In the following two examples, listen for
  a criticism of the hypocrisy, superficiality and
  elitism the singer finds in American culture.
  (Where have you read about philosophies of ways
  of living?) The GDR punk opposition to hypocrisy
  and elitism has its roots, in part, here.
  Remember, punk opposes left-wing as well as
  right-wing elitism. What does this mean? Review
  Simpson.

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• The Dead Kennedys Holiday in Cambodia lyrics
• So you been to school
• For a year or two
• And you know you've seen it all
• In daddy's car
• Thinkin' you'll go far
• Back east your type don't crawl
• Play ethnicky jazz
• To parade your snazz
• On your five grand stereo
• Braggin' that you know
• How the feel cold
• And the slums got so much soul
• It's time to taste what you most fear
• Right Guard will not help you here
• Brace yourself, my dear
• It's a holiday in Cambodia
• It's tough, kid, but it's life
• It's a holiday in Cambodia

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• Holiday in Cambodia continued
• You're a star-belly sneech
• You suck like a leach
• You want everyone to act like you
• Kiss ass while you bitch
• So you can get rich
• But your boss gets richer off you
• Well you'll work harder
• With a gun in your back
• For a bowl of rice a day
• Slave for soldiers
• Till you starve
• Then your head is skewered on a stake
• Now you can go where people are one
• Now you can go where they get things done
• What you need, my son.
• Is a holiday in Cambodia
• Where people dress in black
• A holiday in Cambodia

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Green Day!

• In this final example, think about epistemology.
  What, precisely, is the target of rebellion?
• Hint the hypocrisy in the media itself. In what
  sense? Another question in what ways does this
  video share the concerns of the anti-totalitarian
  GDR retro-nationalist punk music? Notice that
  the lyrics associate the singer with culturally
  marginalized groups, whereas 1970s and 1980s
  punk music lyrics align themselves with
  politically and economically marginalized groups.
  Finally, think about the effect of the visual
  aspect of the video, especially toward the end.
  Is this nuclear waste, a bleeding flag or both?

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• Green Day American Idiot lyrics
• Don't want to be an American idiot.
• Don't want a nation under the new mania
• And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
• The subliminal mind fuck America.
• Welcome to a new kind of tension.
• All across the alien nation.
• Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
• Television dreams of tomorrow.
• We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
• For that's enough to argue.
• Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
• I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
• Now everybody do the propaganda.
• And sing along to the age of paranoia.

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• American Idiot lyrics, continued
• Welcome to a new kind of tension.
• All across the alien nation.
• Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
• Television dreams of tomorrow.
• We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
• For that's enough to argue.
• Don't want to be an American idiot.
• One nation controlled by the media.
• Information age of hysteria.
• It's calling out to idiot America.
• Welcome to a new kind of tension.
• All across the alien nation.
• Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
• Television dreams of tomorrow.
• We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
• For that's enough to argue.

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Review

• Play the videos again after rereading Patricia
  Simpsons article. In the music and in the
  article, you should be able to identify
  opposition to oppression (disenfranchisement),
  corruption within capitalist as well as socialist
  economies, hypocrisy and economic as well as
  intellectual elitism.
• A final point of discussion would be to explain
  what is new and unusual in GDR retro-nationalist
  punk. What does it bring to the picture? Lets
  discuss this with the article in hand, next class.