The Neofascism of Sparks

June 20, 2015 3:17 PM

Back in the 1980s (and well before), many "serious social critics" in the West decried the influence of popular music as "degenerate", promoting sex, violence and even Communism, right? Well, the Commies/Soviets didn't like them much either, as demonstrated by this 1985 list from Komsomol (aka the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League) of 38 Western music acts with their "types of propaganda".

for cross-referencing, the acts grouped by offense:

anticommunism: Gengis Khan, Judas Priest
anti-soviet propaganda: Van Halen
cult of strong personality: Crocus
distortion of Soviet foreign policy: Pink Floyd
eroticism: Bohannon, Donna Summer, Munich Machine, Perron
homosexuality: Canned Heat
nationalism: Gengis Khan
myth of the Soviet military threat: Talking Heads
neofascism: AC/DC, Julio Iglesias, Kiss, Sparks, Ten CC
punk: B-52s, Blondie, Boys, Depeche Mode, Clash, Kiss, Madness, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Yazoo
racism: Judas Priest, Sparks
religious mysticism: Nazareth
religious obscuritanism*: Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden
sex: Junior English, Originals, Tina Turner
vandalism: Alice Cooper, Styx
violence: AC/DC, Alice Cooper, B-52s, Black Sabbath, Blondie, Boys, Crocus, Depeche Mode, Clash, Iron Maiden, Kiss, Madness, Nazareth, Scorpions, Sex Pistols, Stooges, Stranglers, Styx, UFO, Village People, Yazoo

*for the record, all attempts to find a definition of Obscuritanism redirected to Obscurantism. Bad translation or did Komsomol make up a word? You decide.

posted by oneswellfoop (71 comments total)

I always knew the Village People were a violent gang.
posted by Existential Dread at 3:30 PM on June 20, 2015

And yeah, Depeche Mode and Yazoo seem to be weird entries in the punk section, but I'd argue they are way more punk than everyone's favorite merchandising franchise Kiss
posted by Existential Dread at 3:32 PM on June 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

This may be betraying my naïveté but what's the difference between eroticism and sex?
posted by eyeofthetiger at 3:40 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Canned Heat, the Woodstock band? Two questions:

1. Was the USSR trying to be behind the times?
2. What connection do they have with homosexuality -- or could the USSR construe as such? (I'll admit to being a little ignorant here.)
posted by dhens at 3:40 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Soviets allowed jazz because of black oppression.
posted by brujita at 3:41 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I bet Krokus wished that cult of strong personality stuff about them was true.

It wasn't? They'll be screaming in the night after hearing that! #SorryNotSorry
posted by MikeMc at 3:42 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

neofascism: ..., Julio Iglesias,

Is there some subtext to his music I'm unaware of? My mom would be crushed to find out Julio was neofascist.
posted by MikeMc at 3:46 PM on June 20, 2015

The B-52s were #2?

I guess either "Rock Lobster" was emblematic of bourgeois decadence, or they figured out the revanchist pro-Kulak subtext of "Private Idaho."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:49 PM on June 20, 2015 [6 favorites]

This may be betraying my naïveté but what's the difference between eroticism and sex?

Penetration?
posted by davros42 at 3:54 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

I don't understand the numbering myself, but I seriously doubt it was a ranked list.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:54 PM on June 20, 2015

Sex Pistols
Wait a minute. Now I don't know what to believe.
posted by thelonius at 3:54 PM on June 20, 2015 [5 favorites]

This may be betraying my naïveté but what's the difference between eroticism and sex?

Black and white versus colour.
posted by srboisvert at 3:58 PM on June 20, 2015

So Komsomol considered "sex" a type of propaganda? Damn, Orwell was right.

"cult of strong personality: Crocus"
Needs an update.
posted by topynate at 4:00 PM on June 20, 2015

I wish they all had detailed deep readings "This so-called band Blondie repeatedly states that capitalist imperialism is "rising" , natural and inevitable, aka "the tide" , and through it they'll be a "rolling stone" and "not the kind of girl to give up just like that", a clear sign to invade and subugate our comrades."

"these Village people present as honest workmen but sing the praises of joining a Christian milita movement called the YMCA, twisting ideals of communal living into something decadent and violent in the service of capitalist masters. this theme is repeated in the purely propagandistic In The Navy."
posted by The Whelk at 4:07 PM on June 20, 2015 [15 favorites]

This so-called band Blondie repeatedly states that capitalist imperialism is "rising" , natural and inevitable, aka "the tide" , and through it they'll be a "rolling stone" and "not the kind of girl to give up just like that", a clear sign to invade and subugate our comrades.



No, I think they were just offended by her rapping on "Rapture."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:08 PM on June 20, 2015 [7 favorites]

I'd be really curious to know what music they did approve of.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:11 PM on June 20, 2015

GROUP CHANTING ABOUT THE GLORY OF THE VOLGA BOATMEN IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE MUSIC
posted by The Whelk at 4:11 PM on June 20, 2015 [8 favorites]

...the list is not at all unlike the materials printed around the same time by certain youth organizations I came into contact with. The mechanisms of state repression in the Soviet Union on the eve of perestroika overmatched comparatively mild attempts at music censorship made by the U.S. government, but the propaganda mechanisms were similar...

Really?
posted by Segundus at 4:14 PM on June 20, 2015

This may be betraying my naïveté but what's the difference between eroticism and sex?

*ahem*: Twenty dollars, same as in town.
posted by traveler_ at 4:15 PM on June 20, 2015 [15 favorites]

Now that I think about it, my Communist (actually Communist, as in she was a member of the Communist Party) relative was a member of a Communist folk music ensemble, so maybe the youth of the West were supposed to listen to folk music. I happen to like folk music, but I wouldn't want a world where we carefully guarded against musical eroticism, because a lot of the best music is rampantly erotic.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:20 PM on June 20, 2015

they were just offended by her rapping on "Rapture."
with the Man from Mars who eats your head, Mars being the Red Planet.
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:23 PM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

This may be betraying my naïveté but what's the difference between eroticism and sex?

Apparently the difference between Donna Summer and Tina Turner.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:23 PM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

I feel rather badly for the Ramones that they could only get "punk." They were so much more!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:26 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's sort of funny that you can release a song that is comprised pretty much entirely of the words "beat on the brat with a baseball bat" and not be cited for violence.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:27 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

In Soviet Russia, brat beat oh never mind
posted by thelonius at 4:29 PM on June 20, 2015 [6 favorites]

Wait, I thought Cult Of Strong Personality was the band, and "Crocus" was their one big single.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:31 PM on June 20, 2015

Also, citing Genghis Khan for nationalism is pretty good.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:34 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

homosexuality: Canned Heat

Wait, what?

I guess in Soviet Russia, country go up you.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:37 PM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

Depeche Mode is on there for punk and violence but not homosexuality. Got it.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:42 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't know what sort of music would meet with approval other than positive Soviet propaganda, but the music would be about as good as Tibor's Tractor or What Fits in Russia.
posted by juiceCake at 4:48 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

I had to check, but this was too early to include Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Love Missile F1-11 as a subject of complaint.
posted by immlass at 4:52 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

What, no Deathtöngue? Though I guess since Bill the Cat is a Communist defector who snuggled with Jeane Kirkpatrick he gets a pass.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:02 PM on June 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

GROUP CHANTING ABOUT THE GLORY OF THE VOLGA BOATMEN IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE MUSIC


FOLLOWING 19TH PARTY CONGRESS, PATRIOTIC ODE TO TRACTOR/STREETCAR/T-34 ALSO ACCEPTABLE
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:06 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Don't know what part of 1985 this was, but the two biggest USofA hitmakers in '85 were Wham! and Madonna. In fact, none of the Top 10 songs were by listed Bad Musikers. 1984 had Tina Turner and Van Halen on the list, but also Culture Club, Michael Jackson and at #1, Prince. You had to go back to 1980 to see a listed act at #1 for the year - it was Blondie, with Pink Floyd #2.

But I like to refer to the Top 106.7 of K-Roq "the roq of the '80s" for what the cool kids were listening to, and in 1985, #1 was Depeche Mode, but once again you see some others who SHOULD have made the list for various depravity : Felony, Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, Tears for Fears...
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:10 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Pet Shop Boys- sex
Frankie Goes To Hollywood- myth of the Soviet military threat, oh you better believe sex
Felony- felony
Tears for Fears- crypto-fascism, incitement of public disorder
The Cure- too much eye makeup
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:19 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm scratching my head thinking of a anti-Communist Van Halen song ... "Atomic Punk" maybe, if you squint really hard? Although I can understand if they were just trying to save the populace from the horror of Hagar.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:20 PM on June 20, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'm scratching my head thinking of a anti-Communist Van Halen song ...

"1984," maybe?
posted by ogooglebar at 5:44 PM on June 20, 2015

This may be betraying my naïveté but what's the difference between eroticism and sex?

The lighting.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:48 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Huey Lewis and the News- incited citizens to believe the superiority of unauthorized energy sources outside the purview of the Ministry of Gas Industry, such as the power of love
posted by chimpsonfilm at 5:49 PM on June 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

Name one violent B-52s song, Russia.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:15 PM on June 20, 2015

Name one violent B-52s song, Russia.

Perhaps it was simply that the band's name glorified militarism.
posted by ogooglebar at 6:24 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

No, I think they were just offended by her rapping on "Rapture."

Yes, because Blondie's rapping was the single most offensive thing about pop music in 1981.
posted by blucevalo at 6:26 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Name one violent B-52s song, Russia.



Planet Claire is a known hotbed of counterrevolutionary sentiment.


I mean, she could be from a good red planet, like Mars.

WELL SHE ISN'T!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:29 PM on June 20, 2015 [5 favorites]

He's pointing his pitchfork at me.
He's in the front seat of my car!
He's taking over!
Oo, he ripped my upholstery.

UNTRAMMELED VIOLENCE
posted by Wolfdog at 6:29 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Name one violent B-52s song, Russia.
Rock Lobster?
Motion in the ocean (Ooh ah)
His air hose broke (Hoo ah)
Lots of trouble (Ooh ah)
Lots of bubble (Hoo ah)
He was in a jam (Ooh ah)
He's in a giant clam! (Hoo ah)
Very bad for morale of Soviet Navy.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:33 PM on June 20, 2015 [6 favorites]

I love that Canned Heat is the only band cited for "homosexuality," and yet the actual Village People are also on the list.
posted by No-sword at 7:22 PM on June 20, 2015 [15 favorites]

So that's why Ron Mael switched to the pencil mustache!
posted by SansPoint at 7:34 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Ten CC?

The things we do for capitalism?
posted by Beholder at 7:45 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm scratching my head thinking of a anti-Communist Van Halen song ...

Maybe Hagar's solo work, such as V.O.A.?

Hagar's quick lip and unrepentant outspokenness frequently land him in hot water. A patriotic conservative who admires Ronald Reagan, he wrote the song "VOA" as an outraged reply to the Russians after they pulled out of the 1984 Olympics -- " 'Fuck you, Russia' is all I said" -- and was later knocked in the rock press as a heavy-metal Rambo.

posted by Kylio at 7:55 PM on June 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

This list was compiled either before or just after Hager replaced David Lee Roth as lead singer for Van Halen, and considering some of the other 'current-at-the-times' acts that didn't make the list, it might not be so. It was noted that Pink Floyd's listing was reportedly solely because of a 1983 lyric referring to “Soviet agression in Afghanistan”, so who knows... we don't want to be overthinking a plate of Red Hot Chili Peppers (who aren't on the list; they'd just put out their first album).
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:06 PM on June 20, 2015

Hey, Styx gets dinged for "vandalism."

No doubt just because they called an album "Kilroy Was Here."
posted by Kylio at 8:15 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Andropov loved 'Supernaut'
posted by clavdivs at 8:27 PM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Let's not forget what was done to the poor dog Quiche Lorraine....;-P
posted by brujita at 8:59 PM on June 20, 2015

So is this about Ronald Mael's toothbrush moustache, or is "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" secretly about the Sudetenland, or what
posted by Merzbau at 9:24 PM on June 20, 2015

In fairness, even with the distancing of irony, which wasn't a defining characteristic of the Soviet regime, some of Sparks' ouvre provokes a squirm of discomfort.
posted by steganographia at 2:30 AM on June 21, 2015

I'm scratching my head thinking of a anti-Communist Van Halen song ...

Roth explicitly warns us that his love is "rotten to the core"; that is no basis for building Socialism.
posted by thelonius at 6:33 AM on June 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Roth explicitly warns us that his love is "rotten to the core"; that is no basis for building Socialism.

Maybe, but, I mean, "Everybody wants some / I want some too / Everybody wants some / How about you?" is about as succinct a pop exegesis as you can get of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
posted by Kylio at 6:47 AM on June 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

"I'm your ice cream man, stop me when I'm passing by. You know all my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy, because ice cream production is controlled by the state and incentive wages will allow workers who meet their quotas to purchase more ice cream."
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:07 AM on June 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

"I live my life like there's no tomorrow
And all I've got I had to steal
Least I don't need to beg or borrow
Because with shock labor we will ensure prompt delivery of the Five Year Plan
Aaaahhh...yeah!
Woo!"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:17 AM on June 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Depeche Mode is on there for punk and violence but not homosexuality. Got it.

"That guy is totally straight. I saw a thing about him on the VH1."
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:10 AM on June 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Disappointed by lack of "hooliganism" as a descriptor.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:35 AM on June 21, 2015

They're right on the money with Madness.

Suggs: HEY YOU! DON'T WATCH THAT, WATCH THIS!

Young Communist (shouting at the victrola): Don't tell me what to do, fascist bully-boy!
posted by dr_dank at 12:52 PM on June 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'd be really curious to know what music they did approve of.

Земляне is a great example of 80s Soviet rock music. Maybe not the greatest stage presence, but they wrote some killer music.

☭ \m/
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 2:23 PM on June 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

ВИА
posted by Sys Rq at 4:35 PM on June 21, 2015

GenjiandProust: I feel rather badly for the Ramones that they could only get "punk." They were so much more!

ArbitraryAndCapricious: It's sort of funny that you can release a song that is comprised pretty much entirely of the words "beat on the brat with a baseball bat" and not be cited for violence.


And that you could release a song titled 'Blitzkrieg Bop' and another with the lyrics "I'm a Nazi baby, I'm a Nazi, yes I am" and not be called neofascists.

From which we can only conclude that mid-80s Soviet censors were sadly ignorant of the Ramones' first album. [Which hey, while we're discussing it, also had homosexual elements in it].
posted by Pink Frost at 6:05 PM on June 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

oneswellfoop: "myth of the Soviet military threat: Talking Heads"

This is driving me nuts trying to figure out what song they were referring to.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:17 AM on June 22, 2015

"myth of the Soviet military threat: Talking Heads"

This is driving me nuts trying to figure out what song they were referring to.

Yeah, me too.
posted by klausness at 9:28 AM on June 22, 2015

I figure "Life During Wartime" -- it wasn't that specific in the lyrics, but who else would Americans expect to be at war with in the present day? (Asked a Party censor, rhetorically, in Russian.)
posted by No-sword at 5:19 PM on June 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

"Life During Wartime" seems to clearly be about some sort of internal domestic war: "Heard about Houston. Heard about Detroit. Heard about Pittsburgh PA." But maybe the Soviet censors just couldn't imagine Americans thinking about any kind of war aside from the one they were determined to start with the USSR.
posted by klausness at 10:51 AM on June 24, 2015

I always understood those as cities that had fallen to the enemy, which is consistent I guess with Soviet invasion. I do agree though that insofar as the song has any lyrical coherence it's more "Imagine if our party- and discocentric nation were shattered by war and we were forced to deal with desperate issues we assumed only ever arose elsewhere" than "The Russians are coming! WOLVERINES!"
posted by No-sword at 5:53 PM on June 24, 2015

(To be clear, I specifically do not think David Byrne was imagining an invasion from anywhere; like you, I think he probably had internal strife in mind, because thst's more ironic. But I think he intentionally left it ambiguous enough to be compatible with all kinds of paranoia.)
posted by No-sword at 5:58 PM on June 24, 2015