I’ve moaned about this here before, but it disheartens me to see people blithely pick from the carcass of The Plasmatics when they were so roundly disrespected in their day.
Sure, you might think they looked cool —and they damn well did —but unless you were genuinely invested in them, you shouldn’t go around appropriating their aesthetic unless you’re prepared to back it up with comparable aplomb.
I’m talking, of course, about Miley Cyrus, whose new album and promotional initiative pay a lot of lip service to her alleged “punk” roots and fandom for the Plasmatics. Witness the cover art on the right...
Speaking as someone who was unduly fond of the Plasmatics while they were still a going concern —for better or worse —I still harbor a lot of fond associations with the band. That they’ve been reduced to a punchline —especially considering the 1998 suicide of Wendy O. Williams —or a fetching t-shirt to be worn either ironically or by revisionist millennial twits is a fucking travesty.
Waggling your tongue about, wearing skimpy clothes and talking a load of crap does not equate you with the Plasmatics. For their myriad faults, the Plasmatics traded in provocation flecked with the dangerous and the verboten (granted, maybe not as much as, say, GG Allin or Missing Foundation, but those are different stories). The Plasmatics were loud, gloriously obnoxious, indelicate and endearingly ludicrous. They did a lot of stupid shit to be sure, but what they DIDN’T do was write and play slick, schmaltzy radio-friendly, r&b-flecked pop tunes.
As such, let’s leave their fucking iconography alone, shall we?
Thank you for this I’m disgusted she did this. She’s ridiculous and keeps stealing things. Untalented. Makes me angry. Disrespectful!!!
Posted by: Alondra | October 23, 2020 at 09:11 PM
Why you do theese to me Demi?
WHY?!!
Posted by: Karas' Mom | October 24, 2020 at 01:49 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6rrfrrYYv4
Posted by: S. Norman | October 26, 2020 at 04:20 PM
Odd... There was this quote from an article:
"If we look at my career as an entirety, there's always that kind of punk rock provocateur". Dubious even after correcting for grammar. It has since been changed to: “If we seek for at my occupation as an entirety, there’s repeatedly that more or less punk rock provocateur." Why bother?
The whole article reads like a Google translate job.
https://newshimalaya.com/2020/08/18/miley-cyrus-says-her-upcoming-album-will-be-utterly-assorted-from-heart-of-the-night-sky/
Posted by: S. Norman | October 27, 2020 at 10:23 AM