Listening to Sage Francis's 2005 album, A Healthy Distrust. The opening track, 'The Buzz Kill', is, among other things, about an American denial of supposedly quintessential American values via our rhetorical offensive on the French. 'Freedom fries' are referenced, but never mentioned. These are juxtaposed with '50s-sounding clips about 'the Sage', a supercomputer protecting America from the nuclear threat of the Soviet empire.
This is (sadly) complex enough to render its meaning obtuse to many. But how will future generations of those smart enough to unravel the song interpret it? If America gets the break it so clearly desires from the general feel or effects of the Bush era (perhaps as was afforded those of my generation with the fall of the USSR and its walls), how will a girl who's ten now understand Sage's lyrics when she's twenty and getting into hip-hop?
Back, then, to the titular question. Those of us who were paying attention at the time should be able to put them into context, but what will post-9/11 political and social statements of pop culture mean to those who weren't really around for them?
This is (sadly) complex enough to render its meaning obtuse to many. But how will future generations of those smart enough to unravel the song interpret it? If America gets the break it so clearly desires from the general feel or effects of the Bush era (perhaps as was afforded those of my generation with the fall of the USSR and its walls), how will a girl who's ten now understand Sage's lyrics when she's twenty and getting into hip-hop?
Back, then, to the titular question. Those of us who were paying attention at the time should be able to put them into context, but what will post-9/11 political and social statements of pop culture mean to those who weren't really around for them?
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