Goorjian): “This shirt happens to be illegal in several states” in the 1980s to Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, and Killer Mike today.īob (Michael A. In part II, we trace rap’s trajectory from Public Enemy and N.W.A.
In part one ToM looks at Reagan from a “rockist” vantage point, highlighting the shift from ’80s punk, hardcore, and heartland rock to neo-southern acts like Drive By Truckers. Much has been written about this transformation but less so on how artists-punks of the 1980s, southern rockers like the Drive By Truckers, and recent hip hop artists like Killer Mike, Kendrick Lamar, and Jay-Z have viewed “The Reagan Revolution,” or how the perspectives of newer artists, whether they be hip hop, postpunk, or straightforward southern rock have evolved from their predecessors. Even with a Democratic president for much of the decade, policies hewed much closer to Reagan’s America than FDR’s or even LBJ’s. As a result, the Democrats retreated to the wilderness to salve their wounds, not emerging until a charismatic but troubled Bill and Hillary Clinton moved the party to the middle, making nice with the business sector via the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and reforming welfare in the middle of the 1990s. Thirty years ago this November Reagan won reelection with a crushing defeat of Walter Mondale. Undoubtedly, Reagan’s persona helped stitch together an alliance of evangelical moral majority Christians, neoliberal supply siders, and to a lesser extent libertarians. Whatever one’s opinion of the man, he remains a towering political figure often credited with and/or blamed for the dominance of the New Right.
In many ways, Reagan as a political figure serves as a bizarro late 20th century FDR, slashing government (sort of, not really) and peeling away layers of unneeded bureaucracy. Reagan trimmed the tax code, fired striking air traffic controllers, and stared down the Soviet Union, ultimately, claim more exuberant observers, righting America’s course and causing the USSR’s downfall. Political figures from Newt Gingrich to Barack Obama have lauded the nation’s former chief executive for his ability to reach across the aisle in the spirit of bipartisanship and make hard decisions regarding government. Be sure to check back on Tuesday and Thursday for SEMAP’s continuing series East of East and its reflections on punk and hardcore during the same period in EM/SEM.įew presidents in recent memory receive as much deference as one Ronald Reagan.
First, however, we begin with the briefest of primers focusing on the “rockist” response – punk, hardcore, postpunk, southern/heartland rock – over the last 30 years to the Reagan Revolution. Editor’s note: This week we kick off a series of posts on punk in the 1980s and 1990s with special focus on the SoCal communities of El Monte and South El Monte (EM/SEM).
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