I appreciate John J. Miller’s “
Rockin’ the Right” and his accompanying list of the “50 greatest conservative rock songs of all time.” It is so hard to find conservative sentiments expressed in popular entertainment—and especially in rock music—that we are bound to be interested when it happens. And, in addition to the natural fascination of the man-bites-dog story, conservatives may also feel a sense of relief when their principles show up in rock music. Perhaps, we think, our culture is not as corrupted as we thought.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ADVERTISEMENT
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Nevertheless, for me Miller’s article raises two questions. First, is the search for conservative rock a conservative enterprise? Second, can rock as rock be a conservative force? As Miller suggests, diversity is a conservative hallmark—at least, intellectual diversity. Conservatism is so interesting in part because it consists of a variety of philosophical approaches, similar enough to engage in dialogue but different enough to provoke fruitful exchanges. I would like, then, to offer the stodgy-traditionalist response to Miller’s hip, rockin’ conservatism.
The very quest for conservative rock, it seems to me, is one that a conservative should eschew. Miller speaks of the songs he has compiled as being great conservative songs. Speaking of the list as a whole, however, we can say that it is “great” only if the conservative convictions themselves are to be found in true examples of artistic greatness. While there is some first-rate music on the list—by, for example, Rush and the Beatles—there is also some that is, well, inferior. Despite its cautionary lyrics, does anyone think “I Fought the Law”
is a great song? The inclusion of famous but mediocre songs makes one wonder whether the quest for conservative rock is animated by the desire to reassure ourselves of the truth of conservatism by finding evidence of its popularity. This is only one step removed from—if it can be distinguished from—celebrity worship, the notion that famous people’s affirmation of conservative ideas somehow makes those ideas more persuasive. But both celebrity worship and the equation of popularity with persuasiveness are forms of irrationality that tend to diminish the quality of our public discourse. They are pernicious tendencies that erode a free people’s capacity for decent self-government, and those are good reasons for conservatives to avoid contributing to them.
Miller himself admits that rock songs with conservative lyrics are rare. This, I think, is no accident. Rather, there is something in the spirit of rock music that is deeply inimical to conservatism. One thinks first of the general lyrical content of rock music. On this score, we may note that more than one famous rocker has said that rock is fundamentally a music of rebellion against authority. If this is true, then occasional rock diatribes against high taxation and the nanny state are just accidental manifestations of a deeper disposition fundamentally at odds with conservatism: the rejection of authority, even of natural authorities (like parents) and supernatural ones (like God) without which no decently conservative society can be maintained.
In addition, there would seem to be something in rock’s musical character—apart from its typical lyrical content—that is decidedly non-conservative. Miller mentions that Metallica’s “Don’t Tread on Me” is a “head-banging tribute to the doctrine of peace through strength.” I am not sure conservatives should approve of a “head-banging tribute” to anything. To be sure, not all rock music goes to Metallica’s frenzied extreme. Still, it is fair to say that rock generally is a music that fosters the liberation of emotion. All music is a combination of reason and passion, but in rock above all the latter prevails over the former. As a result, we may well suspect that rock fosters a kind of emotivism and even irrationalism that is at its base hostile to conservatism. It offers a fundamental miseducation of the soul and therefore tends to produce citizens who are ill-equipped to conserve anything worthy of our humanity.
Despite its charms, the quest for conservative rock may be worse than a wild-goose chase.
—Carson Holloway is a visiting fellow in Religion and Public Life in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. He is the author of All Shook Up: Music, Passion, and Politics and The Right Darwin? Evolution, Religion, and the Future of Democracy, both from Spence.
