Volume 54 Issue 1 Article 5 October 2002 When Rockers Go Asshole Tim Paluch Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ethos Recommended Citation Paluch, Tim (2002) "When Rockers Go Asshole," Ethos: Vol. 2003 , Article 5. Available at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ethos/vol2003/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Publications at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Ethos by an authorized editor of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact digirep@iastate.edu. entertainment I ethos When Rockers Go Asshole ONCE WORTHY ICONS, THE BOSS AND MOBY FIND THEMSELVES ON A PRETIY SHORT- AND UNFLATIERING - LIST column by I TIM PALUCH here may have been a time when yet again, becoming the first asshole musician to Bruce Springsteen gave a shit. He release an album dealing with Sept. 11 - The used to be that regular guy from Rising. Springsteen used to tackle relevant issues, T Jersey, the populist rocker- Born in like Reaganomics and class equity. Now he's the U.S.A. -who conveyed the struggles of the charging 85 bucks to see him live, hardly an migrant workers and the farmers and the inviting price for anyone with shades of blue on homeless and the unemployed. If your life his or her collar. sucked in the eighties, odds are Bruce Springsteen isn't alone. There are several other Springsteen romanticized it in song. assholes in the major music business, once­ Now that once venerable icon of a disenfran­ respectable rock stars who got rich and aban­ chised society has descended about as far down doned the philosophies and ideologies that got as one can get - all the way to the asshole. them there. Johnny Rotten comes to mind. And Now I take my assholes pretty seriously. I'm no asshole list is complete without Bono. not one to toss the term around in casual conver­ And then there's Moby- with his asinine sation. I have no problem calling you or anyone black-framed glasses and asinine Puma wind­ else an "ass," an "asswipe," a "pain in the ass" or breakers. The asshole for a new generation, even an "asswiping pain in the ass." here's a man who early in his career spoke out But an "asshole" is far worse an insult. The ass against discrimination, rampant corporatiza­ is bad enough - often flabby and/or hairy tion of culture and religious fundamentalism. cheeks of painfully loose tissue. But the "ass hole" A vegan and staunch environmentalist. Now is the rectal orifice, the sphincter cavity hidden he's a product. beneath that tissue, extending far up into the Moby sold every track of his 1999 album even more unflattering colonic area. It Play to corporations, and his songs were fea­ is the most nether of the nether tured in several automobile commercials, regions. It's essentially the despite his claims to be against the use of Arkansas of the human fossil fuel-powered automobiles. He's anatomy - everyone appeared in Calvin Klein and Gap ads, wearing knows it's down there, leather, no less. Seems like an asshole thing to do but no one really when you're a vegan. He went from profound has anything diatribes on globalization to MTV Cribs in less pleasant to say than three years. That's like Che Guevara open­ about it. ing up a Starbucks. Ever since dis­ Some rock stars will never be assholes. Jon mantling the E­ Bon Jovi, Ted Nugent, Celine Dian. All asswipes, Street Band in but never really important enough to qualify for the '80s, assholes. See, it takes a little more to earn that Springsteen's asshole. You have to stand for something - transition from whether it be social justice or workers' rights or working-class hero to third world debt relief. And then, when the asshole was a rapid one. MTVs and the Rolling Stones of the world anoint And somehow, you a cultural icon, you stop caring. Springsteen has man­ Or, maybe you still care a little, but not enough to aged to squirrel his way do anything about it. There's money to be made, back into pop culture records to be sold. It's not easy being an asshole. e ilhwration by I N. THRAI LKILL october 2002 I 09 .