Where is the rock & roll rebellion against speech censorship?

Siouxsie Sioux is making a comeback. The singer, now 65 years old, will be playing a concert next March, her first in 10 years.

This is exciting news for those of us who are fans not just of rock ‘n’ roll but of rock ‘n’ roll rebellion. Yes, rock ‘n’ roll has always had a reputation as a rough art form that subverted middle-class propriety, but in my heyday in the 1980s, when Siouxsie was at her peak with her group Siouxsie and the Banshees, it meant a lot more. Rock ‘n’ roll meant the freedom to criticize anybody and anything — even political correctness, the government, and communism.

These days, pop musicians just don’t have the guts to go near certain topics.

In his new book about the rock icon Lou Reed, Transformer: A Story of Glitter, Glam Rock, and Loving Lou Reed, Simon Doonan laments that today, even our would-be groundbreaking rock stars are neutered before they can do anything groundbreaking. He writes, “Great artists are now consigned to the trash heap based on past transgressions great and small. Being a hell-raiser has gone out of fashion. This is a shame. As Flaubert said, ‘You don’t make art out of good intentions’.”

[The Who presciently warned us of what would happen in “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” especially in its last line: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Rock & roll went establishment and then went woke. And now it’s nearly worthless as an art form, with rap and country largely filling the gap. — Ed]