Will Morrissey’s Next Album Be Another Battle of Cancel Culture?

Will Morrissey's Next Album Face the Same Challenges?

Morrissey is currently touring Europe with his album Make-up Is a Lie, and has already taunted us with the prospect of another. On his personal website, he thanked everyone who bought the album, and proclaimed that "A certain injustice was rectified" (most likely referring to the record industry politics of his still-to-be-released Bonfire of Teenagers).

It's no grand revelation that Morrissey is and will always be a figure of profound mystery. For years he has been the tabloids' very own Enigma Code, which not even Alan Turing himself could solve. Failing to understand his complexities, the slush of headlines found it easier to reduce him and his vast chassis of work down to an emblem of misery, leaving the question marks of his psychology and sexuality to public speculation. This means there is very little left unarticulated about Morrissey in the grapevine of slander and gossip. However, his unreleased album Bonfire of Teenagers signified the opening of a whole new Pandora's box.

What Happened to Bonfire of Teenagers?

Morrissey claimed that his record company, Capitol Records, prohibited the album from being released due to the title track's unapologetic exploration of the 2017 Manchester bombing. Not only did this cement the fact that there is a mere fag paper between Morrissey and complete cancellation, but it sharpened our awareness of society's fight-or-flight response to any form of confrontation.

Morrissey, Art and the Cancel Culture Debate

Music has always sparked controversy, from the bigger-than-Christ Beatles to the Nazi-bearing Sex Pistols, but we seem to be moving towards a landscape of conformity, in which artists who diverge from the mainstream are being gagged and closeted from the public eye.

Record companies have seemingly narrowed their focus onto polite pop stars with lashings of break-up hits, or else indie-by-numbers bands who all flock from the North to enlighten the world of their faux council estate heritage. We must start to question: why is art, the medium of creative expression, so forcefully shaped by industry, commerce and business? If record companies release music simply with the aim of making money, is cancelled art, therefore, art in its purest form, as it is untouched by such superficialities?

In the title track of the album, Morrissey mockingly sings

"the silly people sing Don't Look Back in Anger"

Which refers to the Manchester sing-a-longs of the revived Oasis hit that swiftly followed the attack. While strength and community are certifiable lifebuoys in the face of adversity, victims might have found it disheartening to know their stories were being swept conveniently under the carpet of history. Morrissey's angrily iterated statement,

"I will look back in anger 'till the day I die",

might not satisfy the blitz-spirit optimism of the public, but might well grant him the title "Ringleader of the Truth-tellers".

While Morrissey's voice is certainly not gospel, maybe society needs someone who's willing to test boundaries, as it shows that people can still speak out in this climate of cancel culture. In true Moz fashion, his follow-up album (set to be recorded in January) will inevitably be divisive, but the music industry will always need its controversies, because what is art if not a vessel to provoke and challenge the norm?

Watch Morrissey perform Bonfire of Teenagers

Charlie Jolley
Contributor, BritRock Heaven