Sean Bw Parker in interview in Abundant Art magazine
Writer, artist and lecturer talks to Jules Nelson about States of Independence and much more
States of Independence: From Pop Art to Art Rock and Beyond is an attempt to look inside some of the best tracks in independent-spirited music, and to locate the root of what they really mean. In a time of artists and creatives being ‘cancelled’ or edited in any way because of not being on-identity-message, it behoves any cultural critic to try to look inside that to see what’s going on. Do you really want your culture spoon-fed to you, having passed trigger-warning checks to make sure it might not offend? Why can’t some governors at open prisons allow the bands of rehabilitating prisoners to even practice Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall, in case there are any objections to the line ‘Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone’?
But it’s also a celebration of the best music written over the last half-century and beyond. Independence in the music industry can no longer be defined as independence from corporate patronage, as every artist needs to be heard on a media platform of some (generally corporately owned) kind; but those corporations rarely interfere with their artist’s material any more, being more interested in those artists hopefully saying something even slightly controversial — as it’s controversy and conflict that sells. But, the only way to say something controversial is to rail against the dominant ‘woke’ orthodoxy in Western culture, to which these corporations now universally subscribe. There is the cultural Catch-22 which lies between the lines (and photos) in States of Independence.
