Metaphysics of Rock&roll and the collective unconscious

Art by Leonora Carrington

 

It is obvious that music had always been a reflection of an inner personal experiences, observations and perceptions, for what had been happening in the contemporary culture of the specific era. The need that an individual possess — to create something musical, can be quite strongly suggested by an inside aspirations and can manifest in many forms. This internal urge which puts a musician into dimension of inner thoughts and feelings, rising out of his unconscious/subconscious mind — to then be expressed and to become recognized outside their own personal space, from which a specific piece of music was created.

 I want to talk about one of the most known and influential genre that is still relevant today for its controversy and so it was in the past few decades, especially because of the self and global realization potential, which can be found by deconstructing some aspects and is very much linked with our own psychological processes and the mysterious world behind the visible — day to day perception we perceive as reality. It’s Rock&Roll.

Using more of a Jungian approach I would like to show and reveal the metaphysical side/impact, that I believe is the ultimate goal and reason behind that or any other kind of artistic expression.

 A rock musician has the potential to tap and channel his own subconscious material, as well as the collective unconscious energies that are collected in this field of unexpressed emotions, experiences and perspectives, which are a byproduct of a deeper yearnings, searching for freedom, reflections etc. and repressed parts of our own psyche and society. There’s a generational gap, or lets say a misunderstanding and misinterpretation about the way this expressions were presented at a certain time period.

 Music is very powerful; It is uncontrollable. And when the performer is tapping into the unseen dimension of emotions and then puts it out there to be heard and seen — it becomes a great tool of expression, even for other people who didn’t have any direct influence on it for the time it was created. Those emotions and energies, which have found a home in the collective unconscious get very amplified, so in times where there were a lot of discord between people and the rules they place for us as a society, or any kind of inner conflict a man is facing with, an influential persona or a music group appear, to gather all of the energies from the collective state and then present it on the canvas of life — a manifestation of everything that is held back behind the curtain. It then becomes a moment of rebellion, frustration, realization. It can raise the awareness — it was always considered as a revolution.

 Musician represents a type of archetypal idea from our collective unconscious and it is through exploration that we can recognize parts of ourselves reflected by the artist.

 In the beginning the most important phenomena that “caused” rock to evolve was slavery, which brought together entirely different cultures. Then in 1950’s it develops and the original rock’n’roll stars were created (Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, etc.), emphasizing the power of the music and the emerging dominance of the rock’n’roll culture. By the early 1960s, this chapter then moves on to the arrival of Bob Dylan and protest folk rock. The inspiration was focused on individualism and widespread political awakening. Later the rebellious energies from Europe soon found its way to American shores in the wake of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and The Who. This was also manifested as a clear desire for anti-war movement. Starting in the middle of the 60’s and then in the beginning of the 70’s it shifted to a sexual revolution, at the same time as the pornography industry started to take off. During this decades a drug use has begun and philosophical issues raised by drug use and abuse in general. This can be perceived as an unconscious aspect that was created, because the activity was soo high it could not brake through for people, to deal with it in the right way. It’s a propaganda that the solution is just to focus on “love and light” and not to recognize the “dark” aspect of the psyche, which many of the leaders in music industry were actually pretty aware of, but the crowd didn’t get it for what it is. So the end of the 70’s have started with Art rock, which later and in the beginning of the 80’s emerged into Punk, New wave and Heavy metal. It was more angrily oriented and this was like a reflection from past discontentment and failure which manifested inside the collective unconscious. So while this energies of rage were still present, there was this deep sense of yearning and the most basic question appeared; what is that, that we really feel. It was the beginning of the 90’s when a Grunge movement had begun. Many people say that this was the last true memorable moment of rock’n’roll expression, revolutionary in a larger sense.

Rock music is showing shadow material that needs to be reintegrated. It’s an unspoken message of rock’n’roll. This shadow is a byproduct of an emotional or seed energies that remaining in our subconscious minds and are then gathered into the collective soup, that later manifest in this 3D reality as an unconscious aspect we try to suppress. So the artist is a filter for those energies and then tries to mirror it back.

People don’t like the fact that there’s something in us we don’t want own up to, so we adamantly deny the existence of our own “dark” aspects. What can also happen, is that while the musician provides a persona that reflects a imagery — projection from the collective unconscious, we rarely can make sense of it.

 Kurt Cobain once said in an interview, that they as a band are very much unconscious of their own creative process and that the reason for the expression become more obvious later on. I would really like to put on a spot a shock rocker Marilyn Manson, whose way of expression goes to such an extreme, it’s soo bizarre and intended to push people’s buttons. Ironically this kind of performance can be judged as a disturbing act, but it’s just a reflection of a deeper unseen reality, which is intentionally presented in a very dark and mysterious way. What then the people the media does, is to put a blame on the artist and make them a scapegoat for everything that is happening in a culture.

We became very misguided as a society — from which many responses are born and are a natural reaction to a fallen, ridiculous, cut off world. Nevertheless, there is enormous potential to heal and integrate those pieces from our psyche and the collective unconscious.

 There is the very essence and critical part in a role musicians play today. All music throughout the ages serves two purposes. The first part we can recognize as a reflection of the outer world and the second part is the one, that is in the hands of aware musician and it has gotten past that, so the power of the music can uplift the spirit of the man. Those kind of artists aren’t just reflecting from the collective unconscious, but are trying to change the perception of other people and to illuminate that, what is still unrecognized and hidden from our own eyes. It is a power to bring people together. It is universal.

 Uni — Vers (The song of one)

 

Author: Luka Višnikar