I had forgotten all about Billy Idol's concept album "Cyberpunk" until I ran across a mention of it this morning. Boy was I scathing about that album at the time. In hindsight, I really should have just chilled out. I tend to be a lot more forgiving of other people's foibles these days, now that - not to put too fine a point on it - I'm not 20 anymore.

 

There were two basic criticisms of the "Cyberpunk" album at the time: First, that it co-opted a culture (to wit, cyberpunk) that aggressively punished anyone who postured incorrectly. And second, that it was completely out of the loop, being a sort of advanced/future-pop album that was released well after the entire music scene seemed to have gone ape over the kids with their grunge movement. Utterly out of touch, in other words.

 

In hindsight, the first charge is a bit silly. For one thing, Idol clearly was really into cyberpunk, it wasn't just a cynical marketing cash grab. (We would see plenty of those later in the 90s, with entire musical acts concocted solely by the marketing department.) He made the album in his home studio, and stumped for it personally online. And these were the days when "online" basically meant the WELL, and you had to be pretty devoted to that kind of thing to have a WELL login in 1993, much less be willing to use it.

 

(One charge which has stuck is that Idol started out as a genuine member of the punk movement, and ended up as a pop star who clothed himself in the garments and attitude of the punk movement. I have no defense for him on this count. Except to say that maybe the "punk movement" needs to get over itself a little, and I say that as a devoted onetime-punk myself.)

 

In a weird way, I don't blame Billy Idol for commercializing a grass-roots movement. If you think about it, it's cyberpunk's fault that it was so easily commercialized. When you take a genre that's all about looks and attitude, with very little skill or hard work needed, not even any philosophical heavy lifting, maybe that's something that needs to be questioned. 

 

We all took cyberpunk so dreadfully seriously, back in the day. But no one really knew what it meant, beyond a vague belief that "the future is awesome, and also scary." It hardly seems fair to judge people by how they interpret that, be it the habitual wearing of motocross jackets in the absence of actual motocross participation, or releasing a concept album.