Twirligig. It could almost be the name of a character in Pokémon,
couldn’t it? It’s cute-sounding: silly; sub-‘tween,’ if you like;
‘kiddie.’ It’s not often you can say that about an album title, least of
all one that’s meant to be respectable.
This is no surprise, of course. One of rock’s most consistent
gestures over the years (and I mean rock here in the broadest and most
irresponsible sense — from Elvis to electro) has been a ‘rebel misogyny’ of one form or another.
It’s about fleeing the nest, usurping the mother, the discovery of the
body and desire. Rock, in other words, takes place after puberty. It’s
frequently juvenile, but almost never pre-teen. Where teeny-bop is
‘light,’ rock is ‘heavy’: it’s of consequence. Even when it’s dumb, it’s serious...
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