Not Of America

Values of our generation:
-money
-excess
-status
-beauty/appearance
-sex
-pop/low culture
-bulk
-technological advances

Topics that Of Montreal covers:
-love
-depression
-Self realization
-nonconformity
-drugs
-death
-beauty


Although the band Of Montreal is classified as Pop, it doesnt seem to fit in with actual Pop culture. I feel like were still in a generation where everyone just wants to get rich and live in a mansion. in fact like 2 seconds a go i overheard the disney channel in the other room and a girl was complaining dramatically and said "im so tired that no amount of money could get me off this couch." ...as if money is the greatest thing in the world. so with wanting to become rich people want to buy things they really dont need like heated bathroom floors or a 5 headed shower. in the song Lysergic Bliss the singer Kevin Barnes sings "Wonder how I'm managing to smile oh when I can't even pay my rent." yes it is possible to be happy without money.

the values of American people are very much based the media's messages that are forced into peoples unconscious minds. People in this country stongly value tv shows, film, music, internet, etc that are the sources of these values and thus become conformists without even meaning to. in The Past Is a Grotesque Animal he sings about how he feels like he has trouble fitting in to society "but it's like we weren't made for this world, though i wouldn't really wanna meet someone who was." he doenst conform to society or fit in but he doesnt care because he'd rather have his individuality than his social comfort.

his view of beauty his also much differnt than this generation's take on beauty. We look to magaizines like cosmopolitan, tv shows like America's next top model and various other sources and connect all the dots to try and idealize a perfect beauty. most of what america finds beautiful these days is artificial and, in a sense, logical. kevin barnes is more interested in aesthetic beauty as we can see when he sings "Come disconnect the dots with me poppet come disconnect the dots, Come disconnect the dots with me poppet, come disconnect the dots. It's so beautiful, Our lunacy, It's so beautiful." what it means is that in order to appreciate beauty we must look past rules and logical "connections" and standards and see everything for what it actually is. what this means that that EVERYTHING is beautiful if you look at it for long enough. i think thats much different than how america classifies with beauty. for example i cant imagine a tv show trying to portray an abandoned shoe factory as beautiful when kevin barnes would argue its a work of art.

Music and Psychology?

no matter what the generation is, it seems that the parents are never really ok with what their kids are listening to. how annoying it is. but they do have a reason to worry. like any work of art, music has underlying connotations that the artist put there consciously and intentionally. for example off the top of my head the line"come on baby light my fire" from The Doors song can be seen as subtly but intentionally sexual. thats where the parents worry, they think its teaching their kids a lifestyle other than the one they wanted for them. every lyric that you have ever heard in your life has at one point entered your conscious mind but most of the words are considered not worthy of interpretation so they are repressed into your unconscious. theyre not ever forgotten, theyre just stored so deep that you could never recall all of them for conscious interpretation. without knowing it, a different part of your mind is putting all the meanings together and coming to conclusions that you are unaware of. we often times dont understand why we think what we think, or do what we do, or come up with seemingly random concepts and ideas. the answer is that the unconscious is constantly trying to find its way into the conscious mind and when it succeeds, we act upon its message without even knowing it. so these underlying messages in music are always being processed and used throughout our daily lives and decisions without our even knowing. its scary thought for parents who feel responsible for forming their childs character.
another factor that adds into the mix is the fact that there is more meaning in music than the lyrics. theres the tempo, style, mood etc that project the artists emotions and thoughts without even the artist knowing. basically the artist unconsciously puts their Self into a song, the song is listened to by the fan, who unconsciously picks up on parts of the Self that the artist put into it, and is unintentionally influenced by the artist and their standards, moralities, and beleifs.

so going back to pop culture and how rock & roll changed america, thats how^. african americans put their Self's and their cultural beleifs into their music and when it became popular among white americans (through the means of elvis) they started picking up on new beleifs and ideas that they never wouldve considered because they isolated and themselves from such a large race. these beleifs were stored into the minds of a whole generation (our grandparents/parents), who raised us with some those beleifs unknowingly. since they have been stored in our collective minds for our whole life, we find it humorous that it was once considered scanalous to see gyrating hips on tv.