Every baby boomer’s favorite R-rated comedy is no longer relevant and will be forgotten history
Author: Robert Skuch Published
Last year, when Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (my review here ) was announced and I’m ecstatic and can’t wait to see it. Growing up around sarcastic-loving musicians, people I still hang out with today, I’ve always thought that everyone spoke highly of this movie as one of the greatest comedies ever made. To my horror, I recently learned how niche 1984’s work was This is a spinal tap In fact, its cultural returns are diminishing year by year.
generation line (noun) – A cultural threshold that marks whether a work survives its original moments and remains emotionally legible, impactful and willingly accepted by posterity.
“But Rob, the spinal tap is on that The Simpsons You’re probably thinking “an episode from 1992.” However, it’s also a profound cut that not many people born after 1995 will resonate with, let alone consider it a major pop culture moment (Harry Shearer might disagree).
The latest modern media properties operate within the same space This is a spinal tap yes meta-analysishas become a distant memory. The crazy thing is, I know a lot of people who praise this fantasy cartoon as being directly inspired by This is a spinal tapbut never actually saw the movie itself.
So what’s going on? Why Spinal Tap, Bands, and Movies Don’t Crossover generation line? The answer is surprisingly simple. The object of its satire no longer exists.
We have the same rock stars now as we did then
One thing any musician, and many non-musicians will tell you, is that the idea of the legendary rock star is effectively dead. Don’t get me wrong, bands like Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, The Rolling Stones and AC/DC still exist, but that’s exactly the problem. Anyone born in the 1980s grew up watching these rock stars dominate the airwaves.
These artists no longer live excessive lifestyles, no longer destroy dressing rooms, or make headlines for doing anything particularly outrageous. When they do make the news, it’s usually about retirement travel or long-term health planning, since you can’t live forever. Rock star status has become closer to brand management.
What’s more, hindsight teaches us that some of the so-called excesses were not as unhinged as we once thought. The infamous Van Halen story about destroying the venue over brown chocolate beans is a perfect example. For years it was regarded as the pinnacle of rock star madness.
David Lee Roth later explained that their Tour rider was actually a practical safety check. Van Halen’s stage shows were massive, technically demanding, and very, very dangerous. The brown M&M rule exists as a visual shortcut. If a band sees brown chocolate beans in their dressing room, it means the venue is not reading the riders carefully, which means the stage may not be safe for the band and the audience.
If the venue failed the test, the band would refuse to play but would still get paid and would occasionally vent their frustrations with a food fight as the entire night was effectively ruined. As soon as the story came out, rock music began to feel less like reckless mayhem and more like logistics wrapped in drama.
I’m not saying that bands like Mötley Crüe or Pantera didn’t earn their reputation, because they certainly did. But that excessive This is a spinal tap Even at the time, skewers were over the top for the average casual music fan.
So who do we have now? Green Day and Blink 182 can still move units, but they’re not exactly chickens anymore. This is not a knock, this is how time works. Machine Gun Kelly sells records. Taylor Swift has sold more than everyone else combined. Meanwhile, if you still listen to your local rock station, you’ll hear the same artists as before. This is a spinal tap Parodied in the ’80s, only now are they awake, stretching, and trying to stay flexible enough to complete the tour.
These guys don’t destroy hotel rooms anymore. They were burning incense and doing yoga. Lars Ulrich rides his peloton for a cardio workout before taking the stage. That version of rock star doesn’t support the same type of satire.
Weird Al Theory
Even setting aside modern rock logic, a cult classic like this is the real nail in the coffin This is a spinal tap It’s that we don’t consume media in the same way anymore. The idea of everyone watching the same thing over the weekend and talking about it on Monday is basically gone. Remote working has played an important role since there is no longer a water cooler to gather around, but the bigger issue is fragmentation. We no longer watch the same content at the same time.
There are countless streaming platforms with algorithms directing us to hyper-specific content that perfectly matches our personal tastes. Most people call this the death of a monoculture. The album used to be released every Tuesday. Comic books are published every Wednesday. Movies premiere every Friday. Now, whenever someone wants to post something, it appears, sometimes with zero promotion.
Recently, I’ve started calling this lack of monoculture the “Weird Al Theory.” In the ’90s, hits could last for months or even years. Every few years, “Weird Al” Yankovic resurfaces, parodies the biggest hits, and releases an album that feels just right. The model simply no longer works. Musical trends die out almost immediately, and there’s no common cultural runway for imitation to land in the same way.
The same thing happens in This is a spinal tap. Its purpose is gone. Rob Reiner knows this clearly, here’s why Spinal Tap II: The End Continues It’s more of a straight comedy than a satire. You can still make a movie about musicians fighting over stage performances and egos, but it can’t be niche if you want people to buy tickets.
People still say “This goes to 11” but most people don’t know it’s a joke about Marshall amplifiers. All they knew was that it meant one to ten, completely out of context.
As time goes on, Spinal Tap, the band, and the movie about them will continue to fade further into obscurity. That was a really tough sandwich for me to swallow.
This is a spinal tapand Spinal Tap II: The End Continues Both are currently streaming on Max.
