Eminem
The Marshall Mathers LP
Universal/Interscope, 2000

Although he is best known as the author of Rebel Without A Cause (1955) and for creating the "50 minute hour", psychologist Robert Lindner was also a fierce critic of the emerging psychoanalytical orthodoxy.

"You must adjust . . . This is the legend imprinted in every schoolbook, the invisible message on every blackboard," Lindner warned, attacking the commonly-held view that rebellion was pathological. What would he though of l'affaire Eminem?

The fact that Eminem had the second-highest selling album in 2000 and was also nominated for four Grammys suggests that America's biggest selling product is psychopathic rebellion, with a dash of humor.

The critics judged The Marshall Mathers LP as homophobic and misogynistic. The Eminem controversy/l'affaire Kim was good for reaching circulation figures and for generating article copy. This copy in turn sparked various debates about "artistic responsibility." Even Marilyn Manson weighed in with public support.

Well, I don't buy this for a second. Far from being America's enemy numero uno, Eminem is the best friend that the music press had in 2000 (besides Napster).

The real "conspiracy" was how Marshall Mathers morphed - like the PoMo creation that he really is - into Eminem. I appreciate the creativity needed to pull this off, and the role of Dr. Dre, but there are other manipulators at work. Consider how the violent imagery of his music taps into genetic programs and dispositions that are millions of years old. How transnational record companies, like other media, tap this imagery to reach global markets (overcoming language barriers, since violence transcends culture, language and societal imperatives). How every column inch spent on debating Eminem meant that our attention was taken away from issues of real importance.It's time that Marshall Mathers took out a Bust Magazine subscription.

If you want to really whine about how Eminem simply reflects America's trash culture, consider the advice of musician Robert Fripp:

"The way we describe our world shows how we think of our world. How we think of our world governs how we interpret our world. How we interpret our world directs how we participate in it. How we participate in the world shapes the world."

Regardless of whether you like his music or identify with his humor, we all got suckered.

It's time to get smart. Will the real Jimmy Iovine (Interscope Records CEO) stand up?

Nine Inch Nails
Things Falling Apart EP
Universal/Interscope, 2000

Don't call this a sell-out. For all the MTV exposure that Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have received over the past decade, few people have grasped the dark imagery that is central to the band's music recordings and video projects. It's a suitable soundtrack for George Gurdjieff witnessing the 1917 Russia Revolution, or Aleister Crowley splintering his mind whilst traversing Southern China in 1906.

The Fragile (Nothing/Interscope, 1999) will probably be the band's great "undiscovered" recording: Reznor has always been "closer" Roger Waters than most bands featured in Alternative Press. The remix EP Things Falling Apart will hopefully prompt some listeners to re-examine Reznor's themes.

Whilst limousine rebels battled the emerging peer-to-peer (P2P) distribution systems, Reznor plowed his money into a state-of-art recording studio equipped with Digidesign's ProTools. Or the precision of execution with Radio Nothing.