God gave rock and roll to ya… but “American Idol” took it away.
Though I didn’t live through punk’s golden age, I can’t help feeling that a little bit of rock and roll died last night. Iggy Pop‘s performance on American Idol last night was a sort of mile-marker for rock and roll—like when Buddy Holly died, when Bob Dylan went electric, or when Van Halen decided they’d be fine without David Lee Roth.
But unlike those other changes, Iggy Pop’s “American Idol” performance represents something more fundamentally anathema to the spirit of rock and roll: it embraced the establishment.
From its inception, with Elvis Presley’s inaugural hip swivel, rock and roll was about bucking the establishment mainstream mores. In fact, this might be the entire point of rock and roll—its sole defining trait. Unlike jazz, rock and roll is sonically incredibly diverse—Elvis Presley sounds nothing like The Doors. The only way to tell that they’re both rock and roll is by their attitude. If it was modern, anti-establishment, and represented a new generation of youth defining its own principles on its own terms, it was rock and roll.
No genre embodied this spirit so thoroughly as punk, and none more effectively than Iggy Pop. His signature leather pants and shirtless torso used to challenge a young generation to embrace danger, to challenge the boundaries of what was acceptable. Seeing Iggy subject his signature moves on “I’m A Wild One” to the sterile stage and bright lights of “American Idol,” to be “judged” by a panel of staid old has-beens, was the opposite of what rock and roll professed to be. After all, “American Idol” is the establishment personified.
You’ve gotta hand it to the guy, though—he does look freakishly fit for 63.
April 08, 2011 at 4:17 pm, Pete said:
I don’t care for American Idol or any of those other lowbrow reality TV shows. And I absolutely love Iggy. But I don’t see a problem with him performing on the show. First, he introduced primal r’n'r to a lot of people who were previously unaware of his type of rock (and put bejeweled, superficial “J-Lo” in her place). Second, rock musicians have been selling their wares to “the establishment” since Elvis himself appeared on Ed Sullivan (and later posed with Tricky Dick in the White House). Iggy did what he does best: shock, gyrate, and spit his brand of rock in your face. He just did it in front of a different audience.
April 08, 2011 at 7:31 pm, Gus said:
Spare us the moral outrage. He’s Iggy Pop. If he wants to appear on “The Rachel Ray Show” and sing “I’m a Little Tea Pot,” while smothering peanut butter all over his chest, he’s entitled to. Because he’s Iggy Pop. And you’re not. Deal with it.
April 08, 2011 at 9:11 pm, Tlo99 said:
Um, I’d really like to see that…
Iggy, peanut butter…
I’ll be thinking about this all day.
April 08, 2011 at 9:13 pm, Tlo99 said:
At first I was mortified. But what is more punk than doing whatever the hell you want? More power to Iggy. And does anyone else think he looks like he could be Anthony Kiedis’ father?
April 08, 2011 at 9:43 pm, Molden Oldie said:
Time to change your tampon, Alex. Iggy is God, and appearing on American Idol was throwing REAL rock and roll into the numbed minds of people who love mainstreat, saccharine, over-produced musical pablum. And how do you figure he was there to be judged? Some people are never too old to rock and roll, but you obviously are. Shut up, you whining old fart!
April 09, 2011 at 12:46 am, Jeff said:
Bullshit. He can do whatever the fuck he wants. He doesn’t have to live up to your expectations. Grow up.
April 09, 2011 at 9:43 pm, Gipson Shoemaker IV said:
I’m gonna go ahead and agree with the majority here. I don’t see how Iggy performing on American Idol is any better or worse than him giving the green light for his music to be used for the Guitar Hero games. He’s Iggy Friggin’ Pop and whatever he chooses to do is within his best interest. You also left out the part explaining that his performance on Idol took place during Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame week in the competition.
April 10, 2011 at 3:42 am, Adrian said:
i enjoy people like Gus, who believe dudes like Iggy Pop are living the life and are better than us. Grow the f-u-c-k up.
April 11, 2011 at 3:16 pm, Josh said:
Im intrigued weather anyone who speaks out against this article has actually done anything to counter this “culture” or do you live pretty normal lives?
“He’s Iggy Pop he can do whatever he likes”
Yes but this doesn’t mean it isn’t crass crap, at least if you havent realised hes pretty irrelevant now, however many insurance adverts he manages to appear in.
There are new progressive movements and no rich old timer rockstars are involved. Sorry. Its important to criticise those who have come before us, thats exactly what the guy you’re praising did.