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rfmcdonaldI've found myself contrasting two songs by Mylène Farmer, her 1991 international hit "Désenchantée" and her smaller (but still #1 in France) "Dégénération"
"Désenchantée", video and song both as I wrote some years ago, is a song that became a huge hit because it connect with the zeitgeist: the world was changing, war was about, the future seemed grim. The lyrics deal with this confusion from the beginning.
The video's solution, of revolt against the oppressive circumstances and boldly venturing into an uncertain future, is probably the best answer you can come up with for a disenchanted generation ("génération désenchantée", as she sang in the chorus).
"Dégénération", now, does things differently. In some ways, the song is a reply to "Désenchantée" with its chorus asking "Where is my generation?"
The entertainingly stuttering techno song itself doesn't come to a solution, an articulation. Apparently when it was first released listeners thought it was some sort of remix, the sort that did away with most of a song's lyrics. "Dégénération" lacks any kind of narrative, any kind of internal development apart from a desperate desire for escape.
The science fiction scenario that's the video, featuring the singer playing a demigod who's able to reduce the scientists studying her and the soldiers guarding her into flesh puppets, can't be said to offer an inspiring vision.
I wonder. Is this pure artistic artifice, or does this speak to a change in mentalities between 1991 and 2008, to an abandonment of the possibilities of change and progress and resignation?
"Désenchantée", video and song both as I wrote some years ago, is a song that became a huge hit because it connect with the zeitgeist: the world was changing, war was about, the future seemed grim. The lyrics deal with this confusion from the beginning.
Nager dans les eaux troubles
Des lendemains
Attendre ici la fin
Flotter dans l’air trop lourd
Du presque rien
A qui tendre la main?
Swimming in troubled waters
Of my tomorrows
Waiting here for the end
Floating in the air too full
Of almost nothing
Who do I give my hand to?
The video's solution, of revolt against the oppressive circumstances and boldly venturing into an uncertain future, is probably the best answer you can come up with for a disenchanted generation ("génération désenchantée", as she sang in the chorus).
"Dégénération", now, does things differently. In some ways, the song is a reply to "Désenchantée" with its chorus asking "Where is my generation?"
Ou où est où
Ou est où
Dégénération
Ou ou est ou
Ou est où est
Ma génération
Degeneration - Mylene Farmer from Exhibicion on Vimeo.
The entertainingly stuttering techno song itself doesn't come to a solution, an articulation. Apparently when it was first released listeners thought it was some sort of remix, the sort that did away with most of a song's lyrics. "Dégénération" lacks any kind of narrative, any kind of internal development apart from a desperate desire for escape.
J'sais pas moi mais faut qu'ca bouge
J'sais pas moi mais faut qu'ca bouge
Suis coma la mais il faut qu'ca bouge
J'sais pas moi mais faut qu'ca bouge
I'm in my bed, my bed has to get out of the way
I don't know myself, I have to get out of the way
I'm in a coma there but it has to get out of the way
I don't know myself, but I have get out of the way, I have to get out of the way
The science fiction scenario that's the video, featuring the singer playing a demigod who's able to reduce the scientists studying her and the soldiers guarding her into flesh puppets, can't be said to offer an inspiring vision.
I wonder. Is this pure artistic artifice, or does this speak to a change in mentalities between 1991 and 2008, to an abandonment of the possibilities of change and progress and resignation?
