What became of the likely lads? - The death of British Lad Culture
Remember when Slaughter and the Dogs said "Where have all the Bootboys gone?". Well it looks like we're back there again, only this time they might be gone for good. And that "they" I refer to now is the "Lads". What ever happened to Lad Culture in British Music? The angry frontmen with swagger and an attitude to boot. Testosterone filled venues and rowdy gigs at risk of descending into a mini-scale riot. All now replaced by effeminate student hipster bands who are in touch with their feelings and want to constantly talk about mental health. Not for wanting to sound uncompassionate the music industry has always had it's soft side and we agree there should be an open outlet for people to get help and be ale to talk openly about their mental health issues, especially men whom this has always been a taboo subject. This is the creative industry after all, it gifted us emotional bands such as The smiths, The Cure and James to name just a few. It is just very evident that many modern bands and influencers alike often abuse these current trends as a promotional tool opposed to using their platform as a genuine opportunity to reach out and help people. Plus the fact still stands, indie bands (or anyone in a potential commercial mainstream position ) with attitude just don't get a look-in these days and in our humble opinion these are the type of people who resonate with a younger generation of males and given the same opportunity could have the biggest impact. ( Even Morrissey has become a controversial/offensive scapegoat by todays standards! ) I think the irony is that even the most angry of bands from yesteryear have almost always swayed to the left when it comes to their political stance but now the left has begun to eat itself from within and lost a lot of it's traditional identity. They once where represented by the likes of tough Miners and fought for workers rights. Not any more. Without leaping into another rabbit hole let's just say things have gotten bizarre and leave it at that.
Guitar music is at an all-time low and you could say it's been in a rapid decline since the last mini indie scene explosion in the mid noughties. These where also the final days of the music video and MTV which was often a discovery method for people hunting out new music. Kids these days are out for quick fix dopamine and can't hold their attention span for longer than a 30 second video clip before they continue on the doom scroll. This period coincided with the growing assault on what the media had earlier termed Lad Culture.
Fast forward into a new decade of social media mayhem and online anti-masculinity propaganda and this is where we are currently at. The West has gotten all too touchy-feely and this shows with each new generation of blokes. However having been loosely involved in the music industry over the years we know that those aggressive frontmen and bands with swagger still exist in the background but they just can't a look-in. The record labels either haven't got the balls to push them for fear of backlash from the cancel culture movement or the lack of big profits in the modern digital led music industry have led them to no longer be willing to take the risks. Let's face it, they would cancel Liam Gallagher for being too much of chap if he wasn't such a superstar, they certainly tried with Ian Brown after his stance on covid and the lockdowns.
I think the moral of the story is don't let anyone force you to be something that you're not. Especially if you want to be remembered for being genuine in fake world.
On that note, let's get a little nostalgic and take a trip back to a handful of the bands and frontmen of yesteryear. A golden era of real rock 'n rollers.
Drop us your favourites bands/frontmen in the comments.
