"Bloody hell, he's got bells on his legs!" or: The Effect of Tradition on Modern Music

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith.

Tenuous I agree, but give me a chance here. Subliminally, unconsciously, completely unbeknownst to themselves, hard core rockers have been influenced by the maypole and its ribbon-bearing dancers. Though this is no definite fact, were it to be made into a psychological study, I’m pretty sure the results would be promising. The most convincing case for this argument is that of the circular mosh-pit. As I stood back and watched the great unwashed get all sweaty (and even smellier) whilst watching NoFX at Reading festival 2002, it struck me as peculiar to see the crowd running in a circle. Now, if you deconstruct the basic concept of a circular pit; the empty space in the middle, the slower inner-circle of runners and the outer-circle of ruuners/thrashers, all you need to do is plonk a huge wooden pole in the middle with some ribbons hanging off it and…that’s right, punk pansies.

Now if you found that hard to swallow, just wait for this next shot of evidence: raves and paganism. Oh yes. Now, you must realise that pagans have had it hard over the centuries, being accused of being witches, warlocks, cannibals, bestial and all sorts that is most likely false. Though the truth of the matter is, I’m not sure what they do or what they stand for, especially not in modern times, so please excuse me whilst I have fun making things up.

If you think of it in terms of fiction, it’s a lot easier to swallow. So lets say raves are generally like the ones that happen in an episode of Skins, and the ridiculous attire the girls wear is like…pagan women competing for their men, showing off their, er, credentials and wealth to attract the most desired bloke. The mammoth amounts of make-up worn by all the women and the neon paint slapped on could be equated to war paint…or mud. And the ridiculous hairstyles one might find when looking hard enough could be paralleled to being dragged through a hedge backwards, like most pagans probably enjoyed doing on the weekends.

` Superman that ho!

Finally, to complete this wide-reaching investigation, I bring you the bad man of hip-hop, the one and only body-popping bonanza that is the break-dancer, or the modern-day Morris dancer. Ta-Da! All you need to do is stick some Blue Peter fashioned bells around your mate’s ankles and thrust a couple of your dad’s hankies into his fists and in a ‘here’s one I made earlier’ fashion, you have yourself a very amusing image. Observe: performing variations on a series of moves in a set space where everyone else forms a circle around you, watches and claps. Hip or Morris? I'll leave you to decide.

So are we really as original as we think we are? And do we really reference merely popular culture from only as recently as we assume? It seems not. So next time you see a carnival or a village fair, don't walk by scornfully, you could be missing the next big thing.

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