How I Learned to Hate Rock 'n' Roll
Writers - Tennant/Lowe
First released - 1996
Original album - Bilingual 2001 reissue Further Listening 1995-1997 bonus disc
Producer - Pet Shop Boys
Subsequent albums - Format
Other releases - bonus track with single "Se A Vida É"
This bonus track on the U.K. "Se A Vida É" CD single is the definitive statement of Neil and Chris as "anti-rock stars." In fact, can you imagine any contemporary pop band other than the Pet Shop Boys writing, recording, and releasing a song like this? A monumental act of pop-culture affrontery, not to mention self-assurance, this track outlines some of the Boys' basic antagonisms toward mainstream rock music: conformity amidst the pretense of non-conformity ("Everybody does what everybody does"), ugly sounds expressing even uglier sentiments, the tendency to trash and dismiss beautiful, important things merely for the sake of doing so. While this has all the hallmarks of a "Chris track" (though with more lyrics than most), Neil surely had no qualms about going along for the ride.
It's perhaps significant that, when "Se A Vida É" was released as a single in the U.S., "How I Learned to Hate Rock 'n' Roll" was not included as a bonus track. Apparently Atlantic Records (the Boys' U.S. distributor at the time) felt that this track would only further damage their reputation in the States.
An extremely interesting sidenote: the Boys' frequent programmer and musical assistant Pete Gleadall has noted (in a 1996 interview with Matt Bell for Sound on Sound magazine) that this song is unusual in that it was recorded directly and completely onto computer. That is, while it's not unusual for the Boys to record various portions of their music—particularly the instrumental tracks—on the computer, everything, including the vocals, was recorded on the computer in "How I Learned to Hate Rock 'n' Roll." That somehow seems apropos, doesn't it?
Annotations
- "…to recreate a status quo" – As part of the charge of hypocrisy that they level against rock 'n' roll in this song, the Boys accuse it of serving to maintain the status quo despite its longtime pretense of subverting it. The Latin phrase status quo literally means "state in which," but has been commonly used in English at least since the early nineteenth century to refer to the current situation or state of affairs. It has become so common in English, in fact, that it's generally regarded as firmly a part of the language and no longer considered a "foreign phrase" (hence its absence from my list of non-English words and phrases found in PSB lyrics). Getting back to the charge of hypocrisy, however, it's probably safe to say that, while at one time in its early history (the 1950s and '60s) rock 'n' roll did indeed contribute substantially to a subversion of social standards and conventions, that time is long past. What's usually thought of as "rock 'n' roll" is somewhat quaint and old-fashioned, and its direct descendant, "rock music," is thoroughly mainstream, no more revolutionary than, say, hair touching men's collars, fully embraced by nearly all persons in positions of power today (at least in the "western world").
One of my site visitors has suggested that the use of the term "status quo" in this song may also be a slight dig at the classic English band Status Quo, active since 1967 with more than 60 U.K. chart hits to their credit. (They've been considerably less successful in the United States, having had there only one major hit: their very first, "Pictures of Matchstick Men.") Status Quo had a major U.K. hit in 1981 with the song "Rock 'n' Roll," which maintains that it "makes a difference in the end"—an assertion that, at least based on "How I Learned to Hate Rock 'n' Roll," Neil and Chris would likely dispute.
List cross-references
- The Pet Shop Boys' greatest acts of deconstruction
- My 6 (least) favorite "PSB myths" that have been (or need to be) put to rest
- PSB lyrics that include non-English words and phrases
- What it's about: Neil's succinct statements on what a song is "about"
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