BoC music and history...

[fabio222]

Hi all,

First time making a proper post here so before I begin I'd like to thank you all for your informative and fun discussions over the time I've been a 'lurking' member. It's a nice outlet to have when you don't really know anyone personally who enjoys BoC music all that much!

Anyway, when writing my masters thesis on links between US military research and the design of cars and homes in the 1950s I found BoC music to be very fitting, specifically the Campfire Headphase album (maybe because a few tracks were put on YouTube to the video of Design for Dreaming, a film by General Motors promoting American design at the time). It seemed to convey an optimism that was also present among many in the US (if you were white and male primarily) during my period of study. However the music also had a sense of danger to it, as did the Cold War background to my research.

Moving on to my PhD thesis on the energy crisis of '79 the Tomorrow's Harvest album came out and certain tracks from it conjured up the fear present in the 70s that we were rapidly running out of resources and that the world was to go through a massive change due to the "population bomb" and the Hubbard Curve etc. I didn't finish that thesis for a number of reasons, primarily my own mental health and a need to move on with my life. However the link between my study and the music remains.

I'm not sure if many understand just how close the world came to all out war in the early 80s with various NATO exercises and Operation RYAN in the USSR misinterpreting those exercises as full on war. I think a lot of BoC music, Geogaddi in particular, tends to feed from that sense of fear. Early albums by The Cure have that sense as well I feel.

Has anyone else made links like this? I know we all have to an extent in that we know that 1970s horror films played a role in BoCs development of their sound but has anyone made these links while doing the now research in the way I was doing? If so it'd be cool to hear your stories.

Thanks!

[Valotonin]

Hello !
Welcome to Twoism (-:

I think the link you made between Tomorrow's Harvest and The Cure's earlier records is a strong one. Particularly 'Seventeen Seconds' which in its self is a reference to the alleged time between the flash wave and the shock wave of a nuclear bomb. I think it was taken from a documentary released around the same time saying something along the lines of 'This family, having painted their windows and taken refuge, will be safe. For seventeen seconds at least'. But I am sidetracking a little. I sense a lot of optimism in The Campfire headphase and similarly with songs like Roygbiv which seem, to me, to reference the economic optimism, growth and a positive vision of technology and the future in the 1980s. TH seems to resonate a lot with military excercises and US operations overseas as well as totalitarian states and hidden agendas and the sinister hidden directions and side effects of technology.

Interesting post (-: