This website is about the Pink Floyd music opera called "The Wall"

The Wall is a perplexing socio commentary about a drug addict set in the 1980's. The setting is very much one of the 1980's. What does this tell us sociologically?

The first thing to note is that the piece is likely designed as a college-age experience that involves marijuana. The heavily animated feature is very appealing to the senses and the music likewise is "experimental" and has a look-and-feel one can describe as being drug oriented.

There are hints of futurism in The Wall, however, the outcome is passe. It is similar to the early special effects seen in film during the 1950's. While the futuristic scenes cannot be said to look-and-feel modern the visual aspects might be said to reflect the writing and thus the songs of The Wall.

In other words the visual clarity of The Wall lacks in the context of the lyrical quality of the piece. It could be said this lack in visualization was the purpose of the animation, however, even here the animation by modern standards of 2001 lacks.

So if one looks at The Wall without its futuristic conotation what does the Wall leave as a contemporary piece of the excessive 1980's?

The 80's were a time of high finance and material excess. The Wall as a socio commentary reflects this in an opposite sense. While the high-rollers of Wall Street built new economic system the battered musician appears as one who barely made it to the penthouse.

The character portrayed appears as though he is on social welfare and despite his talent the best he can accomplish is being a cog in the machine. The transitory nature of his existence is remarked throughout by the character's attitude.

Fitting somewhere between post-Hendrix and pre-corporate-music the character of Pink is deified as a survivor of the post-hippe musical era. This is probably the greatest accomplishment of The Wall as a historical record of the music industry.

The sophistication of the film aspect is not present to the same degree. The pattern of life has been translated from such classic as Citizen Cane to some extent but the real accomplishment of the Wall is in its music.

The Wall resultingly cannot stand on its own without a fan base. The fan base is similar to that of the Grateful Dead. I think the Wall is mostly a product that is used in conjunction with the albums of Pink Floyd and so has a limited appeal regardless of the sensibility of the viewer.

As a vehicle toward adulthood, the Wall can be said to transition a person from Saturday morning cartoons to a more adult perspective through the coming of age done through group musical experiences.

Just stopping short of pornography, the Wall is able to provide an extended framework that youths can consider. As a group experience the Wall is a "dating movie" insofar as drug experimentation is concerned.

I think the Wall is a bit more relaxed in its attitude than similar outings by the Grateful Dead and so appeals to a more inner mentality like that of the European rather than the dancey type of experience Americans have opted for on college campuses from the time of the Grateful Dead and onward.

Is the Wall a canonical work?

It hardly seems so for the average American. For the European it can possibly leave a more indelible mark as it contains flash points reflecting the second world war. For the American, however, the scenery is not so intense other than the fact that the Wall might have some relation to a historical context.

I am not sure if the Wall even has this impact on the European. Films done about the second World War provide a much stronger context toward an understanding of the second world war than does the Wall particularly films like Schindler's List and even Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner and other work done during the Vietnam War.

As a geographical work of course the actual sites such as Pearl Harbor and various European battle locations provide a stronger sense of the second world war, but I think also as a global endeavor the Wall does not make the cut into a global cultural cannon.

It is difficult to understand the context of the Wall for the European. I suspect it is transitorily viewed in Cambridge as a curiosity and not really considered as a serious commentary on any aspect of actual society existing today or before the 1980's.

The Wall is thus a period piece. It is a work not applicable to any current standard or mode of thought. Moreover it is historical of only a small group. It could be said that the Wall is to the 1980's as Henry James was to his era.

The attempt of the Wall seems to be one of mixing culture. The concept appears to be that an English musician is living the "American Dream." The irony is that the piece comes across as seemingly reflective of the superstar American musicians of the 1960's who traveled to England.

I do not think the Wall represents any historical possiblity of say the Beatles or the Who or the Rolling Stone in 1970's New York or on the other side Dylan, Joplin, etc in London.

The Grunge music of the 1990's was probably more reflective of the condition of American youth during the 1980's and the long-hair bands of the earlier period was probably more reflective of the superstar of the same period.

The character of Pink can thus be taken out of his context and stripped from his identity. The character is thus alienated from his environment and is an individual. The portrayal then is limited insofar as the condition of his existence.

The character of Pink exists inside of a vacuum he has created for himself. In fact, it could be said the character is himself an inward creation and the entire sequence is a dream and the character is not even a musician.

What is left then of the film is gibberish. As a coherent work the film degrades to a drug fantasy. The film wants to encompass a wider range but this limitation is possibly a trait of the Pink Floyd band itself--being a group formed within the period of drug ecstasy in music.

Why then does the Wall persist as an iconic work? Could it be that the Wall actually refers to the Berlin Wall and its falling?

I do not believe this is the case. The imagery is suggestive of future struggle toward hegemony. In the context of the time period and the falling of the Berlin Wall the divider already existed.

The Wall is then viewed as an evangelical work portending disasterous seperation. It is as if a divider shall befall us and the Wall is predicting this.

So it is impossible that the Wall can refer to the Berlin Wall unless it was meant as a work that took as its context the non-existence of the Berlin Wall and non-occurrance of the second world war.

It could be possible this is an underlying meaning of the Wall. It could be a parody that assumes there has been no second world war or that there ever was a Berlin Wall.

I think, however, that such analysis is aphrodiasical and is this viewer's straining to arrive at a higher meaning for this work. As the contents of the Wall can never exist or translate into any kind of actuality taken as a socio commentary or micro psychological process the Wall can transcend its artistic boundary through slotting of the human condition.

As an instrument of the modern intelligensia then the Wall becomes a description of the other--the unknown. It becomes a pschological drama or horror flick. It represents the lower base of human thought process and can appeal to those who divide rather than conquer through cultural understanding.

The Wall becomes a figment then of a global culture. On one hand there is widespread acceptance of the work but on the other the work is derisive.

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