Desiring Machine

I attended the Capitol Hill Block this year and had the pleasure to experience the Gossip for the first time. What a raw force of energy Beth Ditto is! I was blown away. Live talent like this is truly rare.

What I find so appealing in her performance is the sheer sense of entitlement and f’ it all attitude. Let’s just cut to the chase. She is a big girl. And while normally this might be a cause for shame and self limiting criticism in a society that celebrates youth and all things thin in pop stardom, Beth’s audacity turns it all on its head. Obviously what makes this work is raw vocal talent. All the things are forgiven because we can overlook the superficial and appreciate talent for what it is.

But Beth’s stage presence takes it a step further. There is not a shred of apology to be detected. It is assertive and forceful. Like a steamroller ready to pound your puny ass into the ground. She’s queer, and here. So deal with it.

Oooh, Your mangled heart, your battered love that’s hanging on to memories
You’re letting go of everything that used to be
I’ve had enough, you’ll build me up to let me down, yeah

I don’t want the world, I only want what I deserve

The way she screams that last line. “I only want what I deserve”. A defiant moment of assertion. A force of nature. A flame that burns brightly in the dark world of soulless teeny bopper bullshit. In a world where talentless hacks like Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton garner way more attention than they deserve, it is nice to hear a real force of nature like the Gossip burst onto the scene. Perhaps, I am a little late the to the party but it feels good to have arrived. Watching the Gossip perform I feel like I am witnessing a world historical moment in the history of rock and roll and pop music. In the sixties people can probably distinctly remember that there was clearly a time before and after Hendrix. In the 80’s Freddy Mercury, made a bold crowd pleasing stand with anthems like We Will Rock You. In the early 90s many people can remember the point at which Kurt Cobain went mainstream and asserted his music into the youth consciousness. Whatever you think of these particular musicians you have to admit something fundamentally changed when they came onto the scene. I have often felt that music follows the political mood. For the last decade we lived under a tyrannical, bloodlusting, soulless conservative order. The world has shifted politically and now the gates are about to be blown open again. To my mind Beth Ditto is harbinger of things a come. A bold reclaiming of culture from the talentless hacks that dominate our culture, and our consciousness.

Personally I am in the mood for a Jacobin reign of terror, culturally speaking. Off to the guillotine with them all. No mercy for the old order. No airtime, no celebrity, no unwarranted attention. Your cultural life is over, and good riddance.