By the end of the decade it had become obvious that perhaps the one constant of our variegated and strung-out peer groups was a pervasive sense of self-consciousness that sent us in grouchy packs to ugly festivals just to be together and dig ourselves and each other, as if all of this meant something greater than that we were kids who liked rock 'n' roll and came out to have a good time, as if our very styles and trappings and drugs and jargon could be in themselves political statements for any longer than about fifteen stoned seconds, even a threat to the Mother Country! So we loved and loved and doted on ourselves and our reflections in each other even as the whole thing got out of hand and turned into mud and disaster areas and downs and death.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Lester Bangs critiques the late 60s counterculture for becoming overly self-conscious and pretentious, where rock festivals and styles turned into political posturing rather than simple enjoyment. He laments how the scene lost its fun and became chaotic, self-indulgent, and ultimately disastrous.
- In plain terms
- Rock culture became too serious and self-aware, turning fun gatherings into pretentious political statements that spiraled out of control.
- What can you take from it?
- Avoid letting self-image and political posturing overshadow the simple joy of music and community.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When does self-expression become self-indulgence?
- How do we balance fun with meaning?
Another view
Bangs romanticizes earlier eras while overlooking the genuine political stakes some participants felt.
More from Lester Bangs
The top rockers have a mythic aura about them, the 'superstar,' and that's a basically unhealthy state of things, in fact it's the very virus that's fucking up…
Permalink to quote #4 The trend toward narcissistic flair has been responsible in large part for smiting rock with the superstar virus, which revolves around the substituting of att…
Permalink to quote #6 Things started to go downhill. Instead of singing about taking tea with Mary Jane and boppin' your dingus on ol' Sweet Slit Annie it was Help me God I don't kn…
Permalink to quote #3
Related quotes
The hippies, who had never really believed they were the wave of the future anyway, saw the election results as brutal confirmation of the futility of fighting…
Hunter S. ThompsonHunter S. Thompson quote #1 Things started to go downhill. Instead of singing about taking tea with Mary Jane and boppin' your dingus on ol' Sweet Slit Annie it was Help me God I don't kn…
Lester BangsLester Bangs quote #3 The trend toward narcissistic flair has been responsible in large part for smiting rock with the superstar virus, which revolves around the substituting of att…
Lester BangsLester Bangs quote #6