Unfortunately in the points that I’m about to make there are probably hundreds of examples against my point of view; just as many as I could make for it. But the one thing that I’ve noticed over my brief 29 years of life is that if you want to have some sort of meter for the popularity of an administration you don’t have to read anything with Zogby or CBS Newspoll attached to it. Go to your local record store and look at their top 10 rack. Let me explain, if I’m able to.
This started a year or so ago when I was looking for some new music and noted to my wife that Punk was seeming to make a comeback. Then I thought back to the last time that Punk was popular…the early 80’s. My memories are a little foggy back in that time, mostly oweing to the fact that i was only three, but from the music there was a very ‘anti-establishment’ vibe all around.
This simple thought really led me to start the meandering train of thought that led to this diary. Upon searching for a timeline for ‘the Reagan Era’ I found some similarities between the Dubya admin. and Reagans. Most of these you could simply replace Communist with Terrorist and hear the same things being said by and about Dubya. January 1983 Reagan’s approval ratings were at 35%. If you visit Here you can see where I was drawing my parallels from.
But this got me thinking about the presidents in between these two and You could draw similar parallels between the popular music of the time and the popularity of the president. During the Clinton Administration you really had a more laid back music crowd. Bands like Sublime with a very laid back sound were popular. The marijuana theme was popular in other genres such as Rap with Cypress Hill and others. So the popular music genre that i feel really defined the Clinton era was Alternative.
I’m hoping anyone reading this is crying foul on that last statement. Because I thought about it and realised that Grunge was on the forefront of part of that era, but not really. Grunge’s time in the sun was really from about 1988-1993 or 94. Funny enough right in the wheelhouse of Daddy Bush’s administration. The youth was screaming but not to the social extent that Punk had and is today. As much as I’ll probably be crucified for this statement, Grunge was a lot more whiney and was on more of a personal level, not the widespread ‘F the System’ that Punk was.
Now certainly there are grey areas in my statements and please forgive me for this is my first diary outside of my views in my tiny personal blog that mostly consist of blasting video games and whining about my state of current unemployment. So to sum up this rambling here are the short short versions of the point that I’m trying to make.
- Unpopular Presidency – strong social commentary in the music ie Punk.
Mixed Perceptions of the Presidency – Punk lite ie Grunge.
Popular Presidency – Musically Laid back. Alternative. a lot of themse of casual drug use and such.
I don’t know if these views can be considered viable but these have certainly been my perceptions as i’ve dug a little and listened a lot.
