Freewheelin'

Was music ever really subversive? If it was, are those days gone? Or, as some people say, is art inherently subversive, no matter how crass or terrible the age?


William Vollmann’s Europe Central contains some information on these questions, particularly with regard to the Russian artist Dmitri Shostakovich. So do recent Chevy truck ads, with regard to the American artist John Mellencamp.

One conclusion from that information might be that although we like to think of art as subversive, it really isn't. Another is that while it's probably less unpleasant for an artist to be co-opted by General Motors than by General Stalin, the ensuing silence is just as empty.