I have to admire the boldness of young Vincent Ryder. Some people can get away with what at face value appears to be a direct insult to the consumer while others can’t. The risk factor is always there and it can kill you.
Even Jenny Lewis’ ‘super group’, titled passively as Nice as F*** and with an eponymous album, lasted about five minutes after their appearance on The Late Show in 2016; just long enough to pack their bags and leave. Middle America is too darn pristine for that.
And I can’t forget just how quickly the audience evaporated at a Norwegian festival I attended when both Idles and Slowthai assaulted them repeatedly with the F word. By the end of the set Slowthai was simply eff-ing himself. Everyone else had eff-ed off. I’m getting into the swing of this now!
Plus, you’ll simply never get played on the BBC Vincent so if that was an objective, forget it.
If we dive a little deeper it is possible to unravel his motive for the in-your-face profanity. His target isn’t a person who has offended him but rather ‘Generation Z’ to which he belongs.
Now I’ve never understood this ‘generation’ thing. When I was younger there was only the younger generation and the older generation because generations used to be calculated to last 33 years. But Gen Z spans only 14 years (1996 – 2010) and was replaced by Generation Alpha, which I’d never even heard of and whose time is probably up now anyway. Generation Beta is waiting patiently in the wings. A sign of the times.
I agree with Weyes Blood, and her ‘Generation Why.’ That says it all.
Anyway, there is something about Gen Z that bothers Vincent.
He says the message of the song is “to be yourself and not be subdued by people who can’t accept or understand you,” implying that the courage to be yourself is something his own Generation Z is too afraid of. He wants them to find that courage.
Now that’s at least starting to win me over. Because I’m of the same ilk. One of the reasons I started Nordic Music Central is that too many people on too many other music publications didn’t like what I wrote and tried their best to make life uncomfortable for me.
So I suppose we’re F-Buddies, Vince.
And the song is a litany of accusations directed at his peers, while he takes a baseball bat to the chair that I assume allegorically stands for the enemy in the video.
Many of them are rattled off so quickly I couldn’t keep up with them but his early doors remarks are sufficiently cutting:
“You make beauty fade away; you turn every colour into a shade of grey
You think you’re so much better than the mainstream; that’s what makes you mainstream”
Ultimately, what he’s written is a traditional protest song in reverse because he’s not so much calling for radical action as conservatism.
Stylistically he was inspired by Bowie and Ian Dury and both are evident on this song; the Bowie-like vocal, close to drawling in that Sarf Laandon way of his and Dury’s punky rhythms. Perhaps ‘hitting me with your rhythm stick’ was what prompted him to assault the chair. Add a dash of funk from out of thin air and you’ve got a unique sound.
He’s only 19 but he’s got enough in the cojones department to take on an entire generation, for which I give him credit. I’m sure he knows it could get him cancelled and I noticed the video below had only picked up 26 views in two days and zero comments or likes until I gave him one.
But even if the worst comes to the worst and the single and forthcoming album bomb I’m sure he’ll keep on plugging away. That’s what Dylan did, and a host of others who had a point to make but which initially fell on deaf ears.
And, after all, the times they are a-changin’.
Because it’s an age-related video with restrictions, you’ll have to access YouTube directly –
On October 13th, Vincent Ryder will release his debut album ‘The End of the World on TV.’
Before then, another single, ‘Bulletproof’ will be released on 15th September.
Find him on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vincent.ryder.50
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vincentrydermusic/
