For No Rasin!

It was said that comedy was the new rock and roll. This judgement was primarily based the lasting Bill Hicks effect. Hicks took the typical subject matter of the rock song (love, sexuality, drugs, radical politics) and put it into stand-up comedy, formerly dominated by odd socks and mother-in-law jokes.

But, if we look at it from a McLuhanite point of view (the medium is the message), we should look at what rock and roll or comedy consists of, what it does, as opposed to simply says. Both rock music and comedy are essentially hot forms. They are performing arts that develop one sense to a very high degree. But most art forms are encountered as hybrids. Despite being performing arts, rock music and comedy, because they have to be made into commodities, are usually appreciated as recorded arts.

What actually defines popular music and comedy is coolness. Rock stardom, which is the real business of the music industry, amounts to idolatry. The generally regarded great musicians are icons (aristocracy, canon, gods, it amounts to the same thing).

A rock star is a cool object, a distant, ill-defined being. An audience at a rock concert is expected to look at the band, the band look back at each member of the audience - the thousand yard stare. The rock star, the performance, the music, the look, amounts to the basis of fantasy formation, often but not always sexual fantasy. It is no surprise that pop/rock stars unleashed tremendous psychic tidal waves, especially in the early years, that confused and frightened the powers that be. It's also not surprise that they often inspire strange devotion and enthusiasm by people who claim to 'know' them.

It's the declining firmament of rock stardom that leads people to question the vitality of pop music. But we can hardly say that comedy has taken the place of rock music. Few comedians, even the most famous, are genuinely iconic. One key factor perhaps is most comedy is observational. Modern comedians aren't self-referential, self-mythologising.

Another aspect may well be a decline in iconography in general. A prime currency in mass media is revealation. Much more is known about famous people today, compared with, say, the early 20th century, the stars of stage and screen. The ultimate end would be the 'reality' star, the person who wins fame by submitting their entire being for scrutiny.