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Credit: Far Out / YouTube / Jazmin Quaynor
Has modern music become a ‘Peep Show’ parody of itself?
Throughout Peep Show, the hapless Jeremy Usborne and partner in crime Super Hans attempt to make it in the music industry and fail on multiple occasions. This pair of ne’er-do-wells are no good at music but will do anything to reach their goal of fame and glory. Unscrupulous characters, they stoop to depressing lows such as trying to steal work off the affable but dim teenager, Barney, in yet another botched rise to the top.
It is clear that the duo, who are seemingly close friends, will gladly screw each other over to reach their ultimate goal and become musical legends. This is evident on many occasions, whether it be Hans biting the hand that feeds him when Jez has a brief stint as a talent scout in the industry or when Hans ditches their band Coming Up For Blair, opting instead to join Pete Preston’s outfit The Executioner’s Bong, who they had long labelled “a bunch of wankers”.
By the end of the first series, it becomes apparent that the two will never make it. When Jez grapples with the state of his life and all the mistakes he’s made, in one of his most candid states at the end of the season five episode ‘Mark’s Women’, he postulates to his flatmate Mark Corrigan: “Maybe I’m not in the 1% of people who think they’re gonna be successful musicians and are totally right, but in the 99% of talentless, misguided dickheads”.
Whilst Peep Show is one of the most intelligent parodies of the idiosyncrasies of modern British life, the point that Jeremy makes when having this dawning realisation could quite possibly be writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong’s finest moment from all nine series.
Even though the line was first broadcast in 2008, it perfectly accounts for the music industry and how it appeals to people with grand dreams but no talent to back them up. As for all of Jez and Super Hans’ attempts, becoming a celebrated musician like the ones they constantly mention is unobtainable.
Across Peep Show, Jez and Super Hans represent the pinnacle of hipsterdom, sneering at the work of everyone without the self-awareness to realise that what they are doing is objectively terrible, even if the work of those they criticise is also not much cop.
Memorably, in season eight, when playing the band name game and displaying this kind of foolery, they say The Chemical Brothers “nicked [their] sound”, label alt-rock heroes Pavement as “fakers”, and describe The Flaming Lips as “bullshitters turning wank into cash”.
By this point in the show, we have long since realised that Jez and Super Hans are the archetypal hipsters with a disdain for absolutely everything that anyone else does. Think a talentless version of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker from Steely Dan.
In another stroke of genius from Bain and Armstrong, their take on the most deluded elements of hipster culture was not only a brilliant parody, but it had so much foresight that it has now come to life. The duo were once only fictional Nathan Barley-esque edgelords, but now, they are ubiquitous in admittedly “cooler” aesthetics. Camberwell, Fallowfield, Headingley, and Kemptown are crawling with these misanthropes.
It’s typical of where we are in 2022. Life has become so ridiculous that even the most outlandish characters from one of our most cherished TV shows have sprung to life and are permeating our favourite venues with their musical creations, and in my opinion, it is not a good thing. It’s all laughs when Jez and Hans appear on a TV screen, but when they play your local venue and attract a crowd, it’s a cause for concern.
Fans of the show – who also happen to be music lovers – are all too aware that there are many outfits following in the path of groups like Danny Dyer’s Chocolate Homunculus, but without the irony that characterises the fictitious Peep Show.
It isn’t just the unironic aesthetic choice to don zoot suits of Hans’ band in Brockley that makes me say this, it’s also their music. In every single one of our most cherished independent venues, we are witnessing the bunkum cannons spraying with reckless abandon and creating an audio experience that isn’t for comedy like it is on the show, but for the sake of “art” and a genuine want to become successful. Before you know it, a baguette loaded with cigarettes will be used as a stage prop.
It’s a point that is even more pertinent when considering the fictional musical outfits we come across in Peep Show. They would fit in at almost any night boasting the latest hot property on the local music scene. They might claim to be ironic, but there is no irony here. This lack of real self-awareness has moved us into a state of paralysis, where any form of innovation is hijacked by nonsense.
This current crop of musicians is stifling themselves with a desire to be as experimental and therefore cherished as their heroes, who were genuine pioneers. They are also dealing with the unwavering need to be more imaginative than their peers, meaning that they’re creating pressure that produces garbage results, such as in the life of Jez and Hans.
Garbage synth sounds and spiky, Fall-esque guitars come complete with lines such as “I am in loco parentis. I am the last remaining contestant on The Apprentice. I am the home-trained dentist. Ah yai yaa yai”, which everyone seems to be lapping up like a cat to milk as if it has just been sung from the mouth of the next great songwriter.
This current juncture can be accounted for by the fact that the zeitgeist isn’t as clearly defined as it once was, with Y2K, the niche moments of the first wave of post-punk, and the more pretentious aspects of prog-rock and jazz all vying for dominance over the cultural landscape. Look at what’s happening at venues such as The Brixton Windmill, Wharf Chambers, or YES; the music scene has been well and truly Jackson Pollocked.
It is clear that if the Hegelian Dialectic is true, we are currently in a moment of antithesis, waiting for an explosion of genuinely brilliant innovation, the synthesis, to come about finally. All it needs is one group, equipped with some modicum of talent and a coherent understanding of what creative direction they want to head in, to step up and take the scene by the scruff of the neck.
For every one of the ‘Jez’s Honda Track’ that we hear at venues on the regular and the outlandish aesthetics, these acts also come primed with names plucked straight out of the Peep Show universe. They are similar in spirit to the many names that Jez and Super Hans have for their ephemeral act, such as The Hair Blair Bunch, Man Feelings, The Homunculus and other bands we come across, such as Dance Witch Abortion and The Executioner’s Bong.
In the second series of Peep Show, just before Hans breaks it to Jez about joining The Executioner’s Bong, Jez asks him a question about another of the great parodies of music in the entire show. It’s something that this current crop of bands could do with considering: “So Hans, old issue, I know – but the band name. I mean, I know it’s a statement, obviously, but what does a statement mean?”
On the branding front, and the question of what a statement actually means, the attitude of bands at the minute can be summed up by this classic Jez line: “Right now we’re called ‘Various Artists’, just to fuck over people with iPods. We think it’ll set us back two or three years, which is cool”.
Following this, the attitude Jez receives from Hans when it is first indicated that he might be willing to sign them to Ben’s label also compounds this sentiment. “So what you might sign us, like we even care?” suggests this attitude-laden pseudo-Y2K ideal that’s omnipresent at the minute. Furthermore, when questioned about his group’s name, Man Feelings, backing himself completely, Hans explains: “That’s our USP, ‘coz we’re all men, and we have feelings. We’re a group of men with feelings who play in a band”.
It’s a guarantee that our most treasured grassroots venues and mid-level ones are brimming with various outfits with names such as Boys That Will Not Harm You, The Pink Bottoms, The Nicest Stretch of the M25, and Evergreen Terrorist. It’s the cherry on the cake following the performance of tracks such as ‘This Is Outrageous’, ‘Loco Parentis’ or ‘Jez’s Honda Song’.
It’s a strange phenomenon, but we seem to have entered an age of post-post-irony with our current music scene that is best symbolised by the world of Peep Show. Of course, there are some glaring positives that it is bringing, but these are in the minority. Broadly, it appears to be more regressive than constructive, where songwriting and genuine care are replaced with what can only be described as a load of old guff.
