Today I am writing about the apocalyptic visions that propel climate change discourse forward. In my usual random association kind of way, I decided to look up the Metallica song Enter Sandman to give me some background music that would inspire apocalyptic writings. I found on youtube video footage of what looks to be a truly EPIC concert in Moscow in 1991. There is something truly amazing about this and it is making me think of the influence of this music, this band, these performances on things as profound as international relations and domestic politics. The connections are made explicitly in some of the videos, the Russian police, protests, the quest for freedom, rebellion, and the love shown by the people at the concert not only for the band, but for America. I can't help but think how interesting it would be to do a project, interviewing people in places like Moscow about the influence this music had on them during this time period. I know from my own experience living in Iran in the 1990s that Metallica among others was one of the most influential bands. Though they couldn't come there to play, walls were graffittied with their name and privately people were rocking out to them, releasing all that pent up tension and feeling for a moment the sensation of being FREE, of being master of their own destiny, of indulging in the fantasies of breaking free from the oppressive control enacted by the state.
Watching these videos I find myself filled with energy, enthusiasm, joy! There is something so alive about this music, it's not sitting back and taking anything, it's standing up, jumping up! Expressing freedom and power and life in the face of difficulty and danger and threat and death. I wonder if that kind of power and life fire can only be expressed in the face of the threat of the opposite, powerlessness, apathy, disaster and depression. Listening to those guitar riffs I feel those feelings are being confronted full on, goaded out and fully destroyed. Wahaaaay!
No comments:
Post a Comment