It’s true that the British Invasion brought in purely popngroups like Peter and Gordon and Herman’s Hermits, but itnalso gave us the Hollies and Graham Nash, Van Morrisonnand Them, Eric Burdon and the Animals. We were back tonthe ballads, and if it torpedoed the career of Neil Sedaka, it’snsmall wonder. As Neil complained in his 1982 memoir.nLaughter in the Rain: “Groups like the Rolling Stones —nantiestablishment, sexy, rebellious, crude — ascended tonthe top . . . exactly the opposite of what my music represented.”nYou know the rest of the story of the 60’s: drugs,nrebellion, campus Marxism, communes, Woodstock—thenwhole revolution thing that John Lennon made such fun ofnbefore falling for it. Since I’m “talking about my g-g-ggeneration,”nlet me share a little thesis I formed over thenyears. Very few of the kids listening to rock music in, say,n1967, were political. If they thought about the war at all, itnwas first: “Please Mr. Custer, I don’t wanna go”; second; ancertain admiration for the men fighting it: “Silver wingsnupon their chests, these are men, America’s best,” as Sgt.nBarry Sadler sang in his top ten tribute to the Green Berets;nthird, a rooted contempt for the bureaucratic leadership thatnviewed their body counts and kill ratios as so many profit andnloss statements.nThere were hard-core, leftist troublemakers, but much ofnthe campus unrest amounted to little more than the studentnhijinks that have terrorized colleges since the Middle Ages.nIn an interview for the recent book Off the Record, JohnnMellencamp — one of the best rock musicians of then1980’s — tells a tale that will seem familiar to most studentsnof that era: “I went to Washington … to protest against thenwar. Afterwards I went back to my mom and dad’s housenand back to college. How committed was I, really? Did I gonto Washington for the party? For the drugs?”nOther than good times and the usual high spirits of youth,nwhat did fuel the so-called revolution? At the time, it strucknme as something like the spirit of the Southern Agrarians innthe 1920’s. What you heard most often were complaintsnagainst machines and bureaucracy, the lack of religious spiritnin America, the routinized, unchallenging jobs in thenmarketplace, the lack of tradition and the decay in the sensenof community. With McNamara going from Ford to thenPentagon, the country was obviously being run by facelessncorporation men, even more colorless than Ward Cleavernand Ozzie Nelson. President Johnson’s entire Cabinetnseemed to be made up of passionless men who knewnnothing of real life. Bob Dylan summed it up, this riftnbetween the generations, in a memorable line: “Somethingnis happening and you don’t know what it is, do you Mr.nJones?”nBut if rock and roll had started out as a reaction againstnthe liberal status quo, it turned into a vehicle for left-wingnprotest against everything. And so it continues to be today,neven when the country has moved temporarily beyond suchnpuerility. Why? There are two reasons, I think. The first isnthat the culture of Europe and the US is essentially leftist.nSince few rock musicians are at all educated, they are forcednto take their cues from the pundits and professors whomnthey otherwise despise. Liberalism is the air we breathe,nwhether we call ourselves radicals or conservatives. AsnAlasdair Maclntyre pointed out recently, there are neithern12/CHRONICLESnnnradicals nor conservatives in the modern world, only conservativenliberals, liberal liberals, and radical liberals. Whatnchance does a lower class ignoramus like John Lennon ornBruce Springsteen have?nThe second reason follows from the first. If the mainstreamnculture is liberalism, then any commercializationnmust embody that culture. “Buy the World a Coke” is bothna great commercial message and a great liberal message.nThe original rockers were, by and large, Christian countrynboys with a conviction of sin and an irrational patriotism thatnputs them far to the right of virtually every conservativenjournalist or politician I can think of, and it is typical of thenlifelong Democrat Jerry Lee Lewis that he supportednRonald Reagan in 1984 not because he believed in supplysideneconomics, but because he loathed Geraldine Ferraro.nBut Jerry Lee is a redneck, born in a state of rebellionnagainst everything official. Nice college boys like RicknNelson — Chicken McElvis — felt the pressures of thenliberal mainstrearh and went with the flow. I’ll never forgetnseeing him in the late 60’s on The Tonight Show. WhennCarson quipped to Nelson that his music seemed to be morenpolitical than in the old days. Rick answered: “That’s right,nJohnny, it’s in to be committed.”nAnd so they are committed to every conceivable causenthat comes around. When they’re not cutting records ornfreezing their brains with coke, rock musicians seem tonspend their time doing monster benefits for the oppressednpeople of the world: Sun City, LIVEAID, BANDAID,nAIDS AID. Even the cynical Lou Reed has got into the act.nA man previously famous for celebrating heroin, speed, andnsadomasochism has now discovered a social conscience, andnhis new album is full of compassion for the victims of thenRepublican Party. After telling us, a decade ago, to “Take anWalk on the Wild Side,” Lou now wants us to have pity fornthe AIDS patients who apparently took his advice.nConservatives tend to take a dim view of contemporarynrock music, even conservatives who profess to like then”classics.” In a general way, they are right. MTV, Madonna,nMichael Jackson, Prince, and the ritualized violence ofnheavy metal are not the signs of a healthy culture. Like Dr.nJohnny Fever (of the television show, WKRP in Cincinnati),nreal fans of rock and roll spend much of their timenlistening to Oldies stations, because in the 1970’s and 80’s,nreal rock and roll was almost smothered by disco, synthesizernmusic, and by such ominous pop stars as Liza Minnelli andnthe saccharine Barry Manilow, who went from writing TVncommercial jingles to writing songs that sounded just likenairline commercials.nI can sum up the trend line of 70’s music by cihng onenlittle bit of history: in 1975, Neil Sedaka once again had an#1 hit single, “Laughter in the Rain,” and in 1976 henreceived five BMI awards as well as song of the year. Hisnsongs were recorded by Captain and Tenille — remembern”Love Will Keep Us Together?” — Bette Midler, and LizanMinnelli.nThere is a false and hysterical note in most passionatendenunciations of rock. First it was the philosopher-kingnAllan Bloom, and now, more recently, it is Stuart Goldmannin a recent National Review article, who tells us that thenproblem is aging rock and rollers who are supposedly an