"Or like in the early 70's when we had the reaction against acid rock and all the fuzz tone, and feedback, and the noise. And you had James Taylor and everyone went acoustic and that"
About this Quote
Bangs is catching pop history mid-flinch: a culture that gorges on excess, then suddenly pretends it wants a cleanse. The sentence stumbles forward on purpose, piled with “and”s the way late-60s rock piled on fuzz tone and feedback - not just listing sounds, but reenacting saturation. Then comes the snapback: “reaction against,” the tacit moralizing that always trails a noisy party. Acoustic doesn’t arrive as a neutral aesthetic choice; it shows up as penance.
Invoking the early 70s is a sly reminder that “back to basics” movements are rarely about purity and usually about power. Acid rock’s volume and distortion carried a whiff of chaos - youth, drugs, collectivism, a kind of unruly publicness. The James Taylor turn signals a domestication: softer textures, individuated feelings, the solo voice in clean focus. It’s not that Bangs hates Taylor; he’s suspicious of the way the industry and audience use figures like him to launder an era’s anxieties. When the noise starts to feel politically and chemically expensive, the marketplace offers “authenticity” in a more saleable package: introspection, craft, a guitar you can play in a living room.
The throwaway “and that” is the dagger. It punctures the mythology that these shifts are organic, noble evolutions. Bangs frames them as cycles of fashion and backlash, where yesterday’s dangerous sound becomes today’s embarrassing indulgence - and the culture congratulates itself for growing up, right on schedule.
Invoking the early 70s is a sly reminder that “back to basics” movements are rarely about purity and usually about power. Acid rock’s volume and distortion carried a whiff of chaos - youth, drugs, collectivism, a kind of unruly publicness. The James Taylor turn signals a domestication: softer textures, individuated feelings, the solo voice in clean focus. It’s not that Bangs hates Taylor; he’s suspicious of the way the industry and audience use figures like him to launder an era’s anxieties. When the noise starts to feel politically and chemically expensive, the marketplace offers “authenticity” in a more saleable package: introspection, craft, a guitar you can play in a living room.
The throwaway “and that” is the dagger. It punctures the mythology that these shifts are organic, noble evolutions. Bangs frames them as cycles of fashion and backlash, where yesterday’s dangerous sound becomes today’s embarrassing indulgence - and the culture congratulates itself for growing up, right on schedule.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|
More Quotes by Lester
Add to List
