This song is about the decline of individual cultures under the homogenizing force of globalization and corporate-driven consumerism (mostly emanating from the worst corners of the United States but it is by no means the only culprit in this atrocity).
Wal-Mart (under that name or any other) or Starbucks on every corner, every country. It's a depressing thing, when you think about it, that something could be the same everywhere like that.
The whole thing reminds me strongly of what David Bowie mentioned in an interview once about his song "I'm Afraid of Americans":
"I was traveling in Java when [its] first McDonald’s went up: it was like, “for f*ck’s sake.” The invasion by any homogenized culture is so depressing, the erection of another Disney World in, say, Umbria, Italy, more so. It strangles the indigenous culture and narrows expression of life."
Gogol Bordello is all about global exchange & sharing of cultures, not just one manufactured commercial culture degrading, dominating or eradicating everything around it. This song is about escaping that stultifying, soul-sucking force, by going "through the roof and underground" if necessary.
This song is about the decline of individual cultures under the homogenizing force of globalization and corporate-driven consumerism (mostly emanating from the worst corners of the United States but it is by no means the only culprit in this atrocity).
Wal-Mart (under that name or any other) or Starbucks on every corner, every country. It's a depressing thing, when you think about it, that something could be the same everywhere like that.
The whole thing reminds me strongly of what David Bowie mentioned in an interview once about his song "I'm Afraid of Americans":
"I was traveling in Java when [its] first McDonald’s went up: it was like, “for f*ck’s sake.” The invasion by any homogenized culture is so depressing, the erection of another Disney World in, say, Umbria, Italy, more so. It strangles the indigenous culture and narrows expression of life."
Gogol Bordello is all about global exchange & sharing of cultures, not just one manufactured commercial culture degrading, dominating or eradicating everything around it. This song is about escaping that stultifying, soul-sucking force, by going "through the roof and underground" if necessary.