Let's talk about the history of the appearance of these tracks and how they represent the future.
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Radiohead
Anti-utopian visions appeared in the work of Radiohead back in the mid-90s. “ Fake Plastic Trees ” from The Bends 1995 album touches on the theme of uncontrolled consumption culture, which leads to “plastic trees” and, ultimately, “plastic love”. The next album of the collective - OK Computer - which, according to many, is the “magnum opus” of the group, advanced this idea further and spoke about the impact of the digital revolution on our understanding of the meaning of life.
Right in the middle of OK Computer are two songs that best cover the topic. “ Karma Police ” is about the impotence of people in front of a totalitarian state that has unprecedented control. The verses are reminiscent of paranoid delirium, and in the chorus they repeat: "That's what you get if you interfere with us." It is ironic that in 2008, 11 years after the release of the album, GCHQ (British equivalent of NSA) launched the eponymous program to monitor citizens.
Karma Police is followed by “ Fitter Happier ” - an abstract track with a piano, strings and vocal synthesizer that paints a picture of utopian life through “motivating” slogans from the 90s. The track begins with the words “Healthier, happier, more productive” and ends with the phrase “Pig in a cage on antibiotics.” This is a criticism of the modern cult of productivity.
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The hero of the work refuses to himself emotions, love, his own views, and goes numb in the name of the machine he serves. A similar vision of the world of the future - terrifying not because of tyranny, but because of a voluntary renunciation of the fullness of life - can be found in the novels Zamyatin and Huxley.
The album ends on a lighter note. In the song " The Tourist " the group offers a way out of the situation described above. "Idiot slowed down" - this is the advice of Tom York. After OK Computer, the theme of a totalitarian technocratic society was also addressed in the 2003 work, Hail To The Thief . The first track from there is named “2 + 2 = 5” in honor of the equation from George Orwell's 1984 book.
Muse
If Radiohead looks at the technogenic post-apocalypse from a personal, slightly philosophical point of view, then Muse use it as a decoration for their work. The albums that the group has released over the past 10 years are conceptually linked to various conspiracy theories and technologies that are evil to humanity. The beginnings of this were visible in the 2001 album Origins Of Symmetry, where heavy riffs coexisted in harmony with borrowings from Rachmaninov .
“ New Born ”, with which the disc begins, is a song about digital tyranny and the joy with which people allow technology to control themselves. The track from the middle of the album - “ Plug-In Baby ” - develops the theme. It sings about the vainness of "emotional investment in soulless things."
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The next two editions gradually increase the degree - starting from the 2009 album “ The Resistance ”, the group makes conspiracy theological mythology the center of its identity.
Take, for example, the song “ MK Ultra ”. It is named after the CIA project of the same name , which lasted from 1953 to 1973. Within its framework, experiments were conducted to determine whether consciousness can be manipulated. Adherents of conspiracy theories argue that so the state wanted to develop a method of brainwashing. The song sings not only about the project itself, but in general about how the media imperceptibly for us affect the way we think and make decisions.
The 2013 album Drones is already about the resistance of an unnamed hero to the world of the future, which is controlled by technology - mainly robots and drones. This man enters the army, where he is influenced, but over time he manages to regain control of his own mind. Unfortunately, this does not help him stop the government forces that order the drones to kill his family .
Soviet performers
It is impossible not to mention the work of domestic artists. So the song " Homeland hears ", written by Dmitry Shostakovich and popularized by Yuri Gagarin, was considered the unofficial anthem of the KGB. Despite the fact that it refers to Soviet pilots, the first line of the work (“The motherland hears, the motherland knows”) allowed a free interpretation.
Closer to the collapse of the country, the voices of the dissatisfied became louder - and with them became more creative work that reflected life behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. At Aquarium, the atmosphere of paranoia in the world controlled by Big Brother is best conveyed by the song Tonight from the Tabu album. She tells of an endless escape from something, "from city to city, <...> to the apartments of other people's friends." The Civil Defense group, known for politically charged texts, in the late 80s rewrote the aforementioned “Homeland Hears” for the project “Communism”. Letov even wrote on the subject of "Big Brother" - which is not surprising, given the history of his relationship with the Soviet special services and the experience of forced psychiatric hospitalization . The most famous of the group’s songs on the topic remains “We are ice”.
This is not an exhaustive list of such music. In the second part of the collection, we will talk about sci-fi operas, conceptual metal albums, and Chinese propaganda.
Additional reading:
What can happen in an inconspicuous minivan right under your window
Earth Rumble: conspiracy theories and possible explanations
Listening to informational noise: music and videos that no one should have found
Glitter and poverty: how the digital revolution made musicians poorer
From critics to algorithms: how democracy and technocracy came to the music industry
Pay what you want: how this model showed itself in music, and who tried to make money like that