One of my favorite bands, Vienna-based alternative pop rock band Charlywood, released their new single — ‘Television Glamour‘ — today. A track with a cool guitar riff, a pounding drum beat, stellar vocals and a catchy melody.
But, more importantly, an important message.
Because ‘Television Glamour‘ was written by the band’s lead vocalist Andy Charlewood due to a mounting sense of frustration and urgency he feels every time he reads the headlines.
As Andy Charlewood explains:
“I was frustrated by a sense of individual powerlessness; what can a songwriter do? The attempt to express these feelings resulted in this song. It is a call, a call to action aimed at myself as much as everyone else, but also a call for connection because I needed to feel like I am not alone in feeling this way.
And for the first time it is not my biggest hope that people like the video to this song, I would prefer that it makes them angry, because there is so much going on in the world that should. There are already more than enough entertaining distractions.
The fact is that we are all part of a system that is manipulating and exploiting us while destroying the planet we live in, and a lot of people don’t seem aware of that.
Since I started working on this song at the end of 2018, the #climatestrike and #fridaysforfuture and #extinctionrebellion movements began so that was a loud answer to a lot of the questions I had, and a pretty big relief if I’m honest.”
‘Television Glamour’ outs the corporate manipulation and planetary destruction we are all living with
‘Television Glamour‘ comes with an official music video, and it was this that was my first introduction to the track when Charlewood sent it to me a few weeks ago.
The video cuts backwards and forwards between the band performing the song and Andy Charlewood walking around his hometown of Vienna, passing in front of billboards and advertising posters.
And it is the latter he wants people to pay the most attention to.
The fact that, as we move around our daily lives, we are inundated with messages from corporations and politicians (nowadays, just another type of corporation) telling us what we should wear, eat, drink, feel and think.
And all the while trying to persuade us that what they are pushing is ‘good for us’ while, most of the time, their billboards just make us feel like crap about ourselves in every way possible.
As Andy passes the billboards they flip to a black screen with subliminal messages saying things like “Surrender responsibility”, “You’re too fat”, “You are irrelevant” and “You are trivial”.
Because isn’t that how you feel on a daily basis as you browse Instagram, read magazines that are now 50% advertising, and watch YouTube videos that cut off every few minutes to show you another ad about a product that will ‘change your life’?
The feeling that you will be better, look better, do better if you only buy that product that says you will.
Related: Austrian pop rock band Charlywood has everything it takes to be huge
And, as Andy says about his reasons for writing ‘Television Glamour‘, it is bad enough we are all inundated with an avalanche of messages designed to make us feel worthless. Just so that we will spend money to give us a few minutes of feeling like we’re not.
But what is even worse is that much of the stuff these companies are trying to sell us not only won’t ‘fix’ anything, (including us, because there’s nothing wrong with us in the first place), but it is also destroying the environment of the planet we live on.
So what can you do if you agree with Charlywood’s ‘Television Glamour‘ message?
If you agree with Charlywood, and would like to see these corporations with less control over you and everyone around you, and do something to help save the environment of the planet we live on:
Love and accept yourself, and stop giving corporations the power to tell you who you are.
Stop believing advertising. Most of it is lies spewed out to make you buy things.
Stop buying things you don’t need.
Stop buying products from and supporting companies that our destroying the planet we live on.
Support ethical companies that are trying to change the world for the better — and that aren’t lying to you while they’re doing it.
Buy organic. Recycle. Go plastic-free. Go vegetarian or vegan.
Protect the planet we live on. We only have the one.
And, of course, Watch Charlywood’s music video below 9,000 times (the more times you watch it, the better YouTube promotes it!).
Then Listen to ‘Television Glamour‘ in the Spotify widget below that. Multiple times.
The excellent band Charlywood are:
Andrew Charlewood — Guitar/vocals
Fabian Lewey — Guitar/backing vocals
Leo Ihrybauer — Drums/backing vocals
Simon Mueller — Bass/backing vocals
You can follow them on Facebook and, of course, on their YouTube channel and on Spotify.