Sex, Nazism and rock ‘n’ roll: Why rockers love to goose step in the gaslights |
From the swastika-emblazoned shirts of Sid Vicious half a century ago, to Kanye West’s lifelong admiration for Adolf Hitler, countless pop and rock stars have played in the Third Reich sandbox. Few suffered lasting career damage for fetishizing Nazism.
Published in February, “This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika, and the Third Reich,” offers the first comprehensive history of the music industry’s obsession with Nazism. Alongside a parade of iconic goose-steppers, author Daniel Rachel interwove a “parallel narrative to explain the original meaning of Nazi symbolism, events and terminology,” he told The Times of Israel.
“The book doesn’t so much point the finger and accuse musicians of being antisemitic as lay out a history,” said Rachel. “The book says, here are the facts, this is what artists have said or done. The history is in plain sight,” said the award-winning British music historian.
Central to Rachel’s thesis is that rock and pop musicians get a “free pass” for appropriating the swastika and other fascist symbols. Whereas glorifying Nazism is typically punished in other art forms, said Rachel, “Rock ‘n’ roll has willingly reproduced the swastika and images of the Third Reich since its inception. Artists’ actions are sometimes challenged but mostly not,” he said.
Adopted by Adolf Hitler in 1919, the Hakenkreuz — or swastika — was explicitly intended to be antisemitic, according to the budding dictator in his memoir. Still, said Rachel, the swastika’s connection to antisemitism “is not widely associated with the symbol and helps to explain the ‘free pass,’” he said.
Fascination with the Third Reich’s design aesthetic was catalyzed by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will,” released in 1935. An extended, high-tech commercial for Hitler and Germany’s reawakening, Riefenstahl made the party’s Nuremberg Rally look like the first rock ‘n’ roll concert, said Rachel.
“That comes out of the mouths of David Bowie, Gene Simmons and Mick Jagger,” said Rachel. “Stars of that status saw the parallel, then began to adopt similar ideas in their dress and stage design. In the mid-1970s, Bowie requested his designer to make his set like Nuremberg rallies.”
It should come as no surprise that many musicians — whether in his native Britain or the United States — are confused about Hitler’s appropriation of the swastika, said Rachel.
“More than half of the states in the US, to this day, do not teach the Holocaust. It was only taught in the United Kingdom from 1991 — more than 40 years after the discovery of the death camps,” said Rachel.
For Holocaust education to be effective, teachers must be “trusted sources,” said Rachel.
“When people marched in Charlottesville, chanting ‘Jews will not replace us,’ it is highly possible the majority had no real understanding of what the Holocaust was. It explains a lot,” said Rachel.
Rachel is particularly concerned about teens and young adults, many of whom imbibe antisemitic tropes in popular music. Far too often, he said, these tropes go uncontested and unrecognized as hate speech.
“I don’t want to be the Simon Wiesenthal of rock ‘n’ roll,” said Rachel. “But the extent of the artists involved in flirtation with the Third Reich is unbelievable,” he said.
‘Reclaim the narrative’
While some musicians claim ignorance after deploying Nazi symbols, others — including the late John Lennon — were self-admitted experts on Hitler and his genocidal movement.
As a boy, Lennon made sketches of Hitler and collected Nazi badges to trade with friends. The budding Beatle also referred to himself as John “Adolf” Lennon. In his peak fame, Lennon drew criticism for giving Hitler-like salutes and — during some performances of the song, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” — changing the lyrics to, “Baby, You’re a Rich Jew.”
Almost half a century after his death, Lennon is not closely associated with Hitler or the Nazis. As with most pop and rock stars who deploy Nazi symbols, criticism directed at Lennon for invoking the Third Reich rarely rose above the level of chatter.
“When it’s presented in pop music, I think there’s a division between atrocity and theatrical spectacle. There’s a sense that it’s cool to do this, it’s against the mainstream,” said Rachel.
To research the book, Rachel spent two years exploring the history of musicians who’ve dabbled in Nazi aesthetics. Some of the artists he studied — including the Beatles and Bob Dylan — were old favorites, while the songs of other acts — including Indigo Girls and Lady Gaga — were relatively new to his ears.
“I went back to many [Third Reich] books and films and documentaries with a fresh mind as how best to apply the ideas to the behavior of musicians who have flirted with Nazi ideas and images for the past 80 years,” said Rachel.
Raised in a progressive Jewish household in Birmingham, Rachel said he’s been fascinated by the Third Reich since childhood.
“For the research of this book, I undertook a solo round-trip of the Nazi extermination camps in Poland and many of the concentration camps in Germany. Witnessing first-hand the topography of the Third Reich was an incredible and deeply moving experience,” said Rachel.
In past interviews, Rachel referred to “rejecting” his Judaism. When asked by The Times of Israel if he hopes to visit the Jewish state, the author responded affirmatively.
“I have always wanted to visit Israel, as I do many countries,” said Rachel. “So often, understanding places and people is about inhabiting their world, whether that means treading historical paths or imbibing a current socio-political situation. With regards to modern-day Israel, it is not really relevant to the book, and I am literally, physically, removed from the realities,” he said.
In recent years, the music industry started to confront some of its bigotries with more urgency, said Rachel. However, there is still “no acceptance” that hating Jews should be considered alongside other prejudices, he said.
“Rock ‘n’ roll is making great strides to confront racism and misogyny, particularly since the death of George Floyd and the #MeToo movement. “[The industry] must now accept its past and reclaim the narrative from the tropes of the Third Reich,” said Rachel.
Declaring a “global rise of fascism,” Rachel said the music industry “needs to confront its shortcomings, stand against persecution, and address its historical failings.”
If not, rock ‘n’ roll will no longer “remain at the vanguard of the revolutionary spirit,” said Rachel.
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