Sick of Christmas music? Want something a little less saccharine? Welcome to a musical world where the weather outside is always frightful, the fire is quite... well, quite
extensive really. And best not to touch the snow - it's probably
radioactive.
According to some, we are now entering the final countdown to the end of the world – an event dated by the Mayans to 21st December 2012. Of course, this isn’t the first end of the world prophecy, and it won’t be the last (unless – and there’s always the off chance – that it’s right). In fact, worrying about the end of the world has led humans to do what humans do best – grab their guitars and start writing popular songs about it. From the Cold War to 9/11, the rapture to the pollution of the seas, popular music has, from its first emergence in the 1940s, charted our fascination with the “end of all things”. Apopalypse Now: An Advent Calendar of Apocalyptic Music explores the weird, wonderful, and occasionally disturbing world of pop’s obsession with Armageddon.
According to some, we are now entering the final countdown to the end of the world – an event dated by the Mayans to 21st December 2012. Of course, this isn’t the first end of the world prophecy, and it won’t be the last (unless – and there’s always the off chance – that it’s right). In fact, worrying about the end of the world has led humans to do what humans do best – grab their guitars and start writing popular songs about it. From the Cold War to 9/11, the rapture to the pollution of the seas, popular music has, from its first emergence in the 1940s, charted our fascination with the “end of all things”. Apopalypse Now: An Advent Calendar of Apocalyptic Music explores the weird, wonderful, and occasionally disturbing world of pop’s obsession with Armageddon.
Why an Advent
Calendar?
Everybody loves a countdown – and at advent there’s nothing
we love more than opening up a new window of the advent calendar each day to
see what surprise lies beneath. The windows of the Apopalypse calendar aren’t so much prised open each day as
shattered by the force of nuclear bomb blasts. Beneath their remains lie songs
of atomic jingoism, fear of destruction, comedy and imagined post-apocalyptic
landscapes. Each day a new song and new approach to apocalyptic thinking will
be revealed. Think of it as a little dose of cultural history to help get you
through the day. For your listening pleasure, each song will have a link to Youtube (or some other source) so that you can hear the music in all its glory. You can also follow the developing Spotify playlist at the following link: Apopalypse: Apocalyptic Advent Calendar
What time periods do
you cover?
Everything from 1945-present. I will be covering broad
themes (including nuclear destruction, apocalyptic comedy, the Rapture, songs
on failed prophecy and festive apocalypse) rather than a strict chronological
pattern. The music I choose may be unknown to the majority of readers (obscure
Korean War songs; post-apocalyptic modern folk); or it may be the products of
million-selling boy bands and alternative rock stadium fillers.
Who are you?
I’m a lecturer and writer on all things apocalyptic – from the
seventeenth century up until today. This blog is meant to be a fun way of
exploring our cultural obsession with endings in a way that will entertain and
interest at a moment of heightened apocalyptic excitement. I hope, in some small way, to show that the
academic study of popular culture can be a valuable and interesting way of
looking at history.
