Thursday, November 7, 2013

Neo-Liberalism & Spike


            Touching onto the subject of neo-liberalism is an incredibly fascinating phenomenon in our society. Not only does neo-liberalism ultimately usher in a completely new way of political ideologies for superpowers in the West – (i.e. political bedfellows Reagan and Thatcher) but neoliberalism appears in our popular culture as well as a byproduct of the society and those who disseminate such ideologies to us.
            Consider the 1989 album Spike by Elvis Costello. Spike is often noted as Costello’s most political album, though he had certainly made political gestures on every album preceding it. Spike, however, sets itself apart from previous albums and endeavors by providing a Thatcher-era narrative towards the end of her tenure as prime minister. In doing so, the scope of the Falklands War and the brutal near-destruction of labor unions is amplified, and her actions are made that much more revolutionary.
            Certainly, Costello has a cynical and critical go at Thatcher, his parents both belonging to labor unions – his father was also a member of the Royal Orchestra – as well as a strongly devoted English resident at heart. Spike was among one of the first, if not the first, politically agenda-based records to do extremely well in the market, yielding a few singles and music videos on MTV, which was relavatory at the time for a whole body of work and popular music in the late 1980’s to fare so well.
            Success can certainly be deferred to Costello’s exemplary songwriting, but one has to think that the working-class fans of the punk-rock rooted musician had some modicum of an idea what Costello was talking about – namely Thatcher’s neo-liberalist regime and the destructive practices she implemented into British society and economy.
            Costello’s next album was much more tame, perhaps due to Thatcher’s leave of office, or his collaborations with Paul McCartney, but it seems to me that a popular music record has not paralleled so effortlessly what Costello did – that is, interweaving political and cultural unrest for a generation into a superbly made record that is often looked upon as one of his best.
            Even the cover of the album (below) depicts a duality in nature. The blackface/vaudevillian Costello, happy to perform and provide escapism and the white-face, ghoulish looking Elvis who is appalled at the current state of nature in his country. Overall, Spike is one of the best albums by Costello, but also one of the greatest musical treatises on neo-liberalism to date.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/93/Elvis_Costello_Spike.jpg)


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