In 1986, a band adorned themselves
With the name; “Pop will eat itself”
Counter culture to their core
They the political satire du jour
Clearly concerned, of course
With the self-cannibalisation of a genre
How violently perverse the metaphor is
A fascinating phrase nonetheless
To imagine something consuming it’s own flesh
But how to interpret self-consumption?
Is it about introspective re-adjustment?
Perhaps highlighting a systemic dysfunction
A prophecy of inevitable destruction?
Or ancient wisdom of cyclical construction?
But pop, has a systemic dysfunction, I’d argue
20 year trend cycles cause it to gargle
And then re-swallow all the same bits
Slovenly consuming it’s own played out shit
Lovingly digesting it hit by hit
Leaving only vapid pointless piss
Then again, it’s all just a cycle innit?
Ouroboros: The Ancient symbol infinite
A serpent eternal gorging on it’s tail
Some say the tail represents the male
It’s open wet mouth a symbol of….well
Just a snake forever fucking itself
Equally, there is the sense that instead
“eat itself” suggests something ripped to shreds
Exclusively by the people that know it best
Carving up and butchering the ideas
Of their philosophy once so clear
Choking and gagging on ideas once dear
To consume is to imbibe, to let it get inside
Into our blood stream and into our minds
To take sustenance and inspiration
Making us a manifestation of assimilation
We become what we regularly consume
And we’re all self-consumers, are we not?
Staring at our socials and courting brain rot
Desperate to convince of our authentic greatness
Simultaneously trying to minimise any fakeness
As I consider which fake filter best represents me
Not for a single second registering the irony
So I tear my flesh off and consume each bit
Blissfully ignorant that I’m becoming my own shit
I am pop music degenerating into vapidity
A glutton of my narcissistic philosophy
An ouroboros endlessly fucking myself
Self-cannibalising into nothing
12/04/[[2023]]
#consumerism #capitalism #modernculture