AXE 3: Art et Pouvoir REBEL, REBEL

FEED 2: Punk, pop and counterculture How new was the new wave of 76-77?

Mission 1: Paul McCartney Watch the video on the blog and read the script.

What is Paul saying? How do “regular people” feel about “weirdos” (= les gens bizarres) according to McCartney. Why is that?

Paul McCartney would like people who do not understand “weird”, eccentric people not to judge them, but to perhaps see in them what they are not brave enough to do themselves. Paul McCartney explains that no one should despise (or look down on) “weird people” or look at them with “anger” just because they don’t understand what they are about and because “weirdos” date to do what they feel too insecure to do. He believes being who you really are, doing what you really want to do is a basic freedom everyone desires.

Mission 2: David Bowie

Watch the video on the blog and read the script.

a. Why did David Bowie come across as “different” to the public? Pick out adjectives and expressions.

He pushed the boundaries, he looked strange, he looked like a creature from outer space fallen to earth. He was “an alien in a dress.”

b. What made David Bowie’s Ziggy so successful? Why did he leave such a big impact on young people?

The attitude, gender-bending (= l’androgynie) as performance, his androgynous persona (= un personage) made young people dream of another world, where one could wear and be anything they wanted. In the video, he claims to be satisfied if he has helped (in any way, shape or form) people think “outside the box” in which they had been conditioned to think.

CONCLUDE: Would you say Bowie and McCartney had the same goal? Did their actions or words change things?

Bowie created new characters, and he “was” whoever he wanted to be. McCartney refused to judge a book by its cover (=il ne faut pas se fier aux apparences), and people by the way they looked, proving that the resentment (rancoeur, rancune) towards someone else is often a sign of frustration that one was not brave enough to dare changing.

Both did change a lot, not only musically. The Beatles made rock music grow into a true form of art, and Bowie is one of the most important artists of the twentieth century – countless bands regularly cite these two, whose music is tantamount (=qui équivaut à) to genius, as major influences.

Although Bowie and McCartney are now well accepted as respected musicians, they both had to assert their difference (revendiquer) and express their uniqueness (= unicité).

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