Pretend We're Dead (track) by L7

From soundguardian 03/26/2013 03:02

Punk rockers - turned grunge all-girl band L7 make a societal statement with this 1992 song about conformity. Written and sung by L7 co-founder and vocalist Donita Sparks, Bricks Are Heavy song "Pretend We're Dead" is a relatively simple arrangement of four chords with instrumentation in the style of punk rock and (as intrinsic to the grunge movement) contains very relevant social commentary - for this, about anti-individualism.

Many movements of the western world, in especial the goth and hipsterism ones, were at their respective zeniths at the time that this piece was released. A means to associate particular trends and tastes in music, fashion, other media, and lifestyle, the gothic and hipster subcultures of the 80's and 90's, and later the emo subculture of the 2000's, often tended to only establish new, unwanted conformity, instead of promoting individuality.

An alternate interpretation in a broader sense is a panoramic commentary on how the new generations of youths fail to involve themselves in the process of societal amendment, preferring to blindly accept general consensus (because it's easier "pretending to be dead" and following the masses than it is developing unique opinions and convictions) over questioning the status quo. Sparks is sarcastically implying that there's no way to "turn the tables with our unity", because that unity - that sameness in ideology - is what hinders progress and improvement in culture and policy.