Odd, isn’t it, how there is an outpouring of affection for Malcolm McLaren by the twitter generation whilst, I’m sure many would not have known who he was.
For those of us who have grown up in the age of identity politics, Malcolm McLaren was one of our cultural pioneers, whether we liked what he did or not. I had no time for punk as a child. (I was a good, holy boy, after all). However, looking back its not hard to see how utterly necessary it all was. Now one can look back and see that after the summer of love and the student protests of the 1960s, rebellion was coming to pop music and pop culture with an inevitability that makes it hard not to ask why it took so long. Those who managed to find irony, even amongst the wasteland of The Great Rock and Roll Swindle are those who have made so much of our culture today.
The brains behind apparently mindless grunge, Malcolm McLaren’s legacy is a world where anyone can say anything about anyone, however rude. People can even be kind in public about anyone, even someone as difficult as McLaren himself.
Let the twitter obituaries roll.
Speak Your Mind