When Bobby Fisher was a disaffected youth at the tender, bender age of 13 or 14, attempting to burn down my public school in a political statement I did not yet understand, I had great appreciation for all those punk rock bands that, damned be musical talent, found celebration in excess. My most particular affection was saved for Green Day who, powered by the only two guitar chords Billy Joe ever decided to learn, turned the entire music industry into their plaything. They sold out concerts, sold actual CDs and, I imagine, buggered many a groupie. I threw money at this buffoonery, certain I was laughing with them, aware of the inside joke that clever marketing and a disregard for all things formerly held sacred could turn the most basic skill set into a thriving industry.
They were the Banksy of the rock world. Like the famed street artist, they were full of wonderful, raw potential, fueled by inscrutability, danger and a desire for all the uninitiated to just understand. They were neither true punks nor the opposite, just as Banksy so cleverly tows the line between graffiti artist and commercially successful thus, ultimately, dismissable, modernist. Like Banksy, they rose to prominence by sticking a well-intentioned if eventual phony middle finger up to the corporate machine only to find that while doing so, someone slid a ring around the finger to its right and they were joylessly, yet legally, wed to some of the most powerful forces of industry.
Today the both toil away, feigning disaffected, independent anger but greedily lapping up the praise and green that so eagerly flows their way. Which makes it quite fitting that Tre Cool, Green Day's drummer, has described his next tattoo as being one of Banksy's iconic rats. Consider it their version of the Masonic handshake, shared between two people who have achieved by pretending not to.
That's a profound comparison. I can dig it.
It is funny that if you still like either (or both) of those artists (or anything similar) people look atcha like you are a trend chaser--a poseur if you will--ignoring the fact that you have been a fan of their work for years and you are always waiting to see what they will do next... both the lame and the outrageous.
I do admit that both have changed their attack stance from the way they once were, but don't living organisms evolve? I mean, I think that is the beauty of all art forms: change. Who wants to see/listen to someone put out the same piece constantly? Sure, both GD and Banksy have done things that most of us "rebels" look at and cringe, but I believe that they are still doing what they want to, empire be damned.
Then again, what the hell do I know... I might just be that poseur I hated on way back when...
Cheers.
P.S. - I am still thinkin about doing my banksy tattoo as well...