“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” Moving from the joyous musical stampede of last week’s songs about farming to an entirely different herding instinct, come the words of Scottish writer and journalist Charles Mackay, from his classic study of history’s key moments of mass hysteria, panic and frenzy - Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841). He goes on to say how “whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.”
Are we talking about the history of pop here? Well, his book actually highlights society’s greedy periods of economic panic buying, such as those around the South Sea Bubble of 1711–1720, the Mississippi Company of 1719–1720, and the Dutch Tulip Mania of 1637, when fortunes were temporarily won, but mostly lost, over a new of tulip bulb that appeared to be priceless one week (10 times the average annual income of a skilled craftmen), but then was nothing more than an onion-bulb of pig food the next. It was all an overhyped illusion fuelled by frenzy and greed. And things certainly haven’t changed in the modern era. Mackay also drew on the crusades of of Middle Ages to the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, and all kinds of oddities, borne of public and private obsessions from London’s Cock Lane ghost in 1762 to the work of alchemists all around Europe. Alchemy! Mmm. Let’s make some. How about some finest “green”, fresh from Lord Percy in Blackadder?
Delusions, often driven by insecurity, are only revealed by time’s perspective. Mackay wasn’t always right – he also thought railways were one just a passing fad in 1860 - but history repeats itself in many forms and frenzies, serious or trivial, are nothing new, from the 1950s era of McCarthy to that of McDonald’s. Mind you, in the 1960s many thought the McCartney era, along with that of John Lennon, with the mania of screaming fans, was an evil, erroneous passing fad too, and a century earlier the same was said of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution and natural selection.
But what might history reveal to be the illusions of subsequent decades? Sometimes some such delusions were obvious while they were still happening. The 1970s era is still now being uncovered as an era of dark secrets. But what of its musical mistakes? The Bay City Rollers? Disco Duck or other dance crazes? And what in the 80s? The craze of the Cabbage Patch Doll?
Or Sigue Sigue Sputnik, billed as “hi-tech sex, designer violence, and the fifth generation of rock’n’roll” but who seemed to be dressed a bit like Dutch tulip mania themselves? Or Pat Sharp’s hair? How about the 1990s? Lads’ Mags? B*Witched? Peter Andre? And in the new millennium? George W Bush? Weapons of Mass Destruction? Reality TV? Big Brother/The X Factor/The Voice? Overnight camping to buy an Apple iPhone? Inflated house prices? Political polls? Banks and economic crashes? Fossil fuels? One Direction? Work? Making and writing about massive song playlists? Oh hang on, scratch that last one. Perhaps there are some instances where we can point instead to the wisdom of crowds …
But this week’s theme is not only about mass delusion, but individual confusion. So your song suggestions might, in their lyrics, take in a historical perspective on war or famine or politics or other tragic events, or instead the lyrics might also focus on personal cognitive discomfiture, such as misplaced adolescent obsession. Are we always going to be foolish and young and heart? The key thing is, all your song suggestions must point to seeing and getting things wrong. And when they do so, songs on this subject are often made more effective when they are powered by a desire to work out where this confusion or delusion comes from, or in the joyous moment when the songwriter or performer suddenly sees it all from a new perspective – and a rush of relief comes through the words and music.
A little bit of reference now - we have previously touched on the past with playlists about historical figures and events, and even ancient history, but there remains much to pick out and ponder upon with a focus on cyclical confusion and delusion. Who better then to see clearly through the massive mists of historical misunderstanding and the thick fog of personal folly than our very own professor of perspective - Abahachi? So put your songs forward in comments below, and optionally in the Spotify playlist by last orders (11pm BST) next Monday 10 August for Abahachi’s final list to be published next Thursday 13 August. It will all become so much clearer by then …
To increase the likelihood of your nomination being considered, please:
• Tell us why it’s a worthy contender.
• Quote lyrics if helpful, but for copyright reasons no more than a third of a song’s words.
• Provide a link to the song. We prefer Muzu or YouTube, but Spotify or SoundCloud are fine.
• Listen to others people’s suggestions and add yours to a collaborative Spotify playlist.
• If you have a good theme for Readers recommend, or if you’d like to volunteer to compile a playlist from readers’ suggestions, please email peter.kimpton@theguardian.com
• There’s a wealth of data on RR, including the songs that are “zedded”, at the Marconium. It also tells you the meaning of “zedded”, “donds” and other strange words used by RR regulars.
• Many RR regulars also congregate at the ‘Spill blog.
This September 2015 the glorious Guardian Readers Recommend blog is going to be 10 years old. There will be an informal celebration of this during the weekend of Saturday 19 September, with a meeting up from lunchtime onwards on that Saturday in London, near the Guardian’s offices. For more details, and possible other meet-ups around this time, please email peter.kimpton@theguardian.com or keep an eye out on the Readers Recommend topics appearing here each Thursday.
