A Rambling - The Beatles, Nazis and Justin Bieber

Lukas Clark-Memler

Lukas considers himself to be a post-modern cynic and is vaguely respected as a music critic. His musings have found themselves into a wide range of international magazines and a variety of credible websites. He also runs the successful blog Vinyl Record Face. He is music editor here at Get Frank so If you have any music you want him to check out or have any questions or comments, email him at lukas@getfrank.co.nz.

Someone once said, "What really matters is what you like; not what you are like."
While on a surface level this quote may seem rather shallow, it holds a certain amount of truth. In modern culture, our interests and likes per se, are quite important - the movies you watch, books you read, and especially, the music you listen to. They all contribute to who you are as a person - who you are as an individual. Your likes and dislikes define you and give you a sense of belonging when you find others who share your finely honed taste in all of the aforementioned areas.

So without further ado, I give you my favourite film, book and record of all time.

Film - Almost Famous
Book - High Fidelity
Record - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

There you go - judge me if you will.

But before you label me a pseudo-Beatle fan, or a Cameron Crowe-ist - think about where this judgment is coming from. Do you know me? Have you ever met me? (If you answer yes to either of those questions than obviously my persistent nagging of reading Get Frank has paid off.) Yet due to our society of low-attention spans (via Twitter and the idea that your mood can be summed up in 140 characters) we have made a habit of labeling and judging people based on often very little evidence. But "an absence of evidence, is not an evidence of absence," so while you cannot necessarily prove someone is a conservative/communist/Nazi/ or even worse, a Justin Bieber fan, that won't stop you from instantly putting a label on him or her. In short, we have this obsession of labeling things. A phenomenon I like to call the Campbell effect. And it is this exact penchant for labeling that has left us with countless cliques, stereotypes and most importantly, counter-cultures.

We have had a slew of counter-cultures over the years, but although prevalent and powerful in their heyday these movements have all slowly died out. And more often than not regrettably overstay their welcome and fade away rather than burning out. So punk eventually was pacified, grunge got significantly cleaner and hip-hop lost its original incentive for social change, and instead resorted to conveying messages of hate and lust. These previously dominant and influential streams of counter-culture all inevitably died out, and have now left room for a new counter-culture to emerge.

But what will it be? So far we have had hipsters, indie kids, scenesters etc - but all these groups have left only the minutest of marks on our society. What will come next? How will it affect us? For now we simply must wait with baited breath until the next wave of counter-culture sweeps the globe.

So next time you are walking down the street and see a fellow dressed all in black with eyeliner and circulation-inhibiting jeans - maybe think twice before calling him a pretentious emo. Maybe don't call the guy next to you a Nazi just because he is sporting a small patch of facial hair above his lip. Maybe get to know these people first. Unless of course this certain someone is playing a Justin Bieber song - this of course warrants instant judgment and, a punch to the face.

I welcome all disagreements, different points of views, and general insults. Please feel free to share your own feelings on the state of modern society .

And to all of you who share my views - bless you.