“Politics of Pleasure”: A General Electorate Playlist (reposted from Facebook)

It’s tough when you’re an independent songwriter and recording artist. There’s no label to back you financially. You have to manage your own mailing lists and fan outreach. You have to book your own gigs. You don’t have a Pepsi or Coke endorsement paying for the use of your likeness or your recording to generate a revenue stream in the absence of a robust market for album or singles sales.

One of the few avenues of recourse we have is to show up on playlists on such platforms as YouTube or Spotify. To that end, I’ve begun compiling playlists of my own to help leverage my music.

This summer, I released an album with several collaborators that recorded under the moniker THE GENERAL ELECTORATE (and there’s still some remixes to come later in the year -- please consider buying them!). The album, SYNTHETIC BONES, was a sonic homage to 80s New Wave music, synth pop in particular since we were recording out of our home studios to keep costs low.

Now, I’m creating playlists for each of the tracks so you can hear the songs individually (rather than en masse, since the idea of an hour’s worth of previously unknown material is anathema to people nowadays), surrounded by the sounds that inspired them. “Politics of Pleasure” is one of the two tracks on the album that is relatively light on synth sounds and features guitars fairly prominently. It was inspired probably most heavily by Modern English’s “Melt With You” and The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” but it bears the hallmarks of any great 80s power pop single: relatively easy chord structures (in comparison to many of the more complex offerings later in the album); a propulsive, driving drum track; clean guitars; and an easy, sing-along refrain (honestly, the whole song is pretty easy to sing along to, as long as you know what neo-nihilism is and how to pronounce it).

The playlist includes such great 80s artists as the aforementioned Modern Enlgish and Buggles, as well as the likes of the Eurythmics, The Motels, David Bowie, The Motors, The Vapors, Patty Smyth and Scandal, The Cure, Blondie, Robert Palmer, XTC, Madness, .:: THE MONROES ::., Dream Academy, and more!

If you have spotify, give the playlist a listen HERE, and feel free to share with your friends to help spread the word about The General Electorate!

LYRICS:

Helicopter me across the border to escape this post-millennial stress disorder. I may have one been divergent but lost the knack last pointless passing of the zodiac. Shepherd my soul to a true and timeless treasure. I sold mine out to finance the politics of pleasure.

I want a place beyond the boundaries of what society ravages, The narcissistic neo-nihilism of techno-savvy techno-savages. I’m coding in binary dead hopes and living regrets As capping couplets for coupling Capulets. Shepherd my soul to a true and timeless treasure. I sold mine out to finance the politics of pleasure.

Love took a vacation and never came back, left me with nothing but a hatchet to hold. I mined that vein for all it was worth, but there was no warm blood and no glistening gold.

I’m watching the sky fall as history repeats: Boss Tweed in the courthouse, scent of you in my sheets. I want a lover whose soul’s price-tag is too high for the general electorate ever to buy. Shepherd my soul to a true and timeless treasure. I sold mine out to finance the politics of pleasure. Shepherd my soul to a true and timeless treasure. I sold mine out to finance the politics of pleasure.