Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 84

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Pogula^uUureReviw

postmodern response to the 'defeat' of punk and the parallel rise of
Thatcherism and Reaganism, which is thus seen to 'explain' what
has sometimes half-jokingly been described as the music's
'm iserablism .'"^^ Goodwin's judgment that the post-modern
tendencies-which, 1 feel, would include the pop culture referencingare related to the punk movement is correct, although the connection
needs to receive a stronger emphasis. As was the case for Warhol, the
pop culture referencing functions for the group as a force through
which reality is mediated.
The punk movement's inherent
destabilizing of the natural is invoked by The Smiths through this
filtering of reality through plastic, dated media icons.
By
experiencing reality only through their star system. The Smiths
illustrate the impossibility of real feeling or real emotion for their
universe; as they recount in "Nowhere Fast": "If the day came when 1
felt a natural emotion. I'd get such a shock I'd probably jump in the
ocean-----"
Through resurrecting these pop icons and then presenting personal
obsession for these icons as the only form of interaction available in a
dysfunctional society. The Smiths are able to transform their
ideological agenda into a more general concern for the marginalized.
Frequently the system of referencing serves to blunt the overt political
message of the songs. With the songs recast in more intensely personal
terms, the ideological message becomes covert. Instead of explicitly
addressing the failure of Britain due to Thatcherism, to use
Goodwin's terms, the songs offer an account of being marginalized
within that society. The Smiths are able to recount living on the
periphery of society through illustrating the innumerable positions
negotiated by outsiders. These outsiders can take many forms, such as
the alcoholic dreamers ("1 was happy in the haze of a drunken
hour/but heaven knows I'm miserable now" from "Heaven Knows I'm
Miserable Now"), the shy ("Shyness is nice/but shyness can stop
you/from doing all the tldngs in life/that you'd like to" from "Ask"),
the romantically obsessed ("Call me morbid/call me pale/I've spent
six years on your trail" from "Half a Person") and the unemployed
("Frankly Mr. Shankly, this position I've held/it pays my way, but
it corrodes my soul" from "Frankly, Mr. Shankly"). On occasion, these
positions are presented in a hyperbolic fashion for comic effect: for
instance, offering the case of a vicar in a tutu ("He's not strange/he