The Culture We Deserve

The Culture We Deserve

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The Culture We Deserve
The Culture We Deserve
Never Heard Marquee Moon

Never Heard Marquee Moon

How a Twitter Meme Brings Home a Classic Guitar Album

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Adam Steiner
Feb 16, 2024
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The Culture We Deserve
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Never Heard Marquee Moon
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In August 2020 a Twitter account Memorial Device* posted a picture of far-right “commentator” Nigel Farage sprawled out on a verdant hillside, overlooking the south coast of Britain—an island nation famous for its bright white cliffs—complete with the caption: “This man has never heard a single note of Marquee Moon.” And so a meme was born.

The phrase quickly extended into several variations of a hashtag #neverheardmarqueemoon  #thismanhasneverheardmarqueemoon alongside nudge-nudge asides “they’ve never heard it”—an acidic sting that delivers a rod of taste-making justice to beat political pseuds across the papier-mache head of their public image. The Farage photo-op was later righteously edited with the addition of a passing Nazi parade and box of tissues near to hand. 

In spite of the lurid bonfire that X has become, infected by vitriolic hate speech, porn-bot zombie followers, and “verified” (paid-for) blue tick autocrats, a scorched earth wildfire fuelled by drug-addled egomania of the platform’s current owner, Twitter still endures as a platform for vicious humor, critical discussion, and sharing music and creative influences. And it was in this spirit the Memorial Device account delivered its own double-punch: combining nostalgia for Television’s iconic debut album with biting present-day satire of the self-declared commentariat class and feckless Conservative members of the British parliament—pop culture meets political angst on the internet’s best never-ending hellscape.

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A guest post by
Adam Steiner
Adam Steiner writes books, poetry, and journalism based in London and Coventry Silhouettes And Shadows: The Secret History of David Bowie’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) [2023]
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