🎤 Music: The Prince of Darkness Has Died

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• Earlier this month I wrote about the suspension of duties for Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, pending an investigation of her criticism of the Thai military to longtime Cambodian leader Hun Sen over a border skirmish between the two countries. This week, there has been a new round of clashes between both countries. Read the original Signpost breakdown here.

🎸 Godfather of Heavy Metal

Tons of legends about Ozzy Osbourne abound (including, infamously, him biting the head off of a bat on stage in the 80s). What is beyond dispute is how his work both as a solo artist and as the frontman of pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath laid the template for what it meant to be a hellraiser that was also a family man.

The TL;DR is this: John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne was born in England in 1948. In the late 1960s Osbourne, along with bassist Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler, drummer Bill Ward and guitarist Tony Iommi, renamed their band from Earth to Black Sabbath after a film of the same name.

In 1970, the band released their first album, simply titled ‘Black Sabbath’, now overwhelmingly considered to be the very first heavy metal album. Their unique sound led to continued success, culminating in their second, and biggest, album of all time, Paranoid, between 1970 and 1971. Further success followed, and because of the predictable hedonism of the day, Osbourne was ejected from the band by the end of the decade. Unperturbed, Osbourne embarked on a successful solo career in the 1980s, culminating into Ozzfest, a heavy metal music festival launched in the 1990s.

In the new millennium, Osbourne was joined by the rest of his family to be on TV, launching the seminal reality TV show The Osbournes, before the Kardashians were known and before reality TV was recognised. In recent years, Osbourne reunited for shows with his Black Sabbath bandmates, performing for the last time earlier this month in his hometown of Birmingham at his farewell tour, Back to the Beginning. Unable to walk because of advanced Parkinson’s disease, Osbourne performed seated for the entire show. Joined by a rogue’s gallery of heavy metal icons from around the world and a sellout crowd of 45,000 people, the concert cemented his status as arguably the most important person in heavy metal.

Two-and-a-half weeks after saying goodbye to fans on stage, Osbourne died on 22nd July.

Because Osbourne’s life has been so dramatic and colourful, even the TL;DR of his life runs into three paragraphs. That’s why, in this week’s issue of Signpost, I analyse two opinion pieces, both from The Guardian, that focus on the two most famous roles Osbourne played in his life: heavy metal legend and reality TV pioneer.

👑 THE GUARDIAN: Ozzy Osbourne, the people’s Prince of Darkness, took heavy metal into the light [link]

📢 What The Guardian is saying
This opinion piece provides a brief history into Osbourne, warts and all. The article does not shy away from the more traumatic and damaging moments from his life, but ends, like the headline, on a hopeful note. The focus is primarily on Osbourne the heavy metal pioneer.

1. 📸 Visuals

There are several visuals in the article, including links to Osbourne’s stage performances on YouTube and The Guardian’s own video obituary, but for the purposes of this analysis I will look at the three still images included. The header image shows Osbourne in full ‘prince of darkness’ getup dressed in black. He is wearing a black jacket, along with black nail polish. He is snarling at the camera, complete with fake vampire teeth and dark eye shadow. His right hand cradles a black bird (which is looking up at him) while his left hand is outstretched towards the camera, as if clawing. His entire body is offset by a pair of black wings coming out of his back. This is an older Osbourne.

Further down is an image of Osbourne from 1978 from a performance in London. The image is black and white, and in it Osbourne is posing in a classic Nixon pose: both arms outstretched in the air above his head at an angle, with the index and middle fingers on both hands making a ‘v’ sign. Osbourne is dressed in a rather complicated looking shirt, which has a knot on the front and tassels draping both his arms. He has a big smile on his face, while behind him the stage lights shine bright. He looks happy and content.

The third still image in the article is from 1997, where Osbourne is seen with a parakeet at home. In the image, the parakeet is sitting on his right index finger as it bends down and bites on his lower set of teeth. Osbourne’s mouth is, obviously, open, and he’s dressed in a black t-shirt and electric blue shades. Behind him is some greenery and flowers, indicating that he is in his garden. The image humourously references two apocryphal incidents: one of Osbourne biting the head off of a bat live on stage, and another of him biting the heads off of doves in a meeting room with music executives.

2. ✍🏽 Words

The headline references Osbourne’s deep connection to both heavy metal and people, calling him ‘the people’s Prince of Darkness’ that ‘took heavy metal into the light’. The subheading gives a brief preview of the angle of the article, spanning his entire life from Osbourne’s past that he ‘escaped’ from, to his adult life as ‘rock frontman’, to becoming a ‘national treasure’ in his later years.

The article begins by mentioning his full name and the unlikelihood of Osbourne’s tremendous success. We get a sense of Osbourne’s childhood, including his struggle with ‘dyslexia’, the ‘sexual abuse’ he faced from ‘two older bullies’, and his hopeless attempts at being ‘a criminal’ at 15 years old when he attempted to steal ‘a television’ and ‘a selection of baby clothes’ for which he was ‘sent to prison for six weeks’. Soon, Osbourne began as a vocalist in a ‘heavy blues rock band called Earth’ (the original iteration of Black Sabbath) with a simple plan: show up at gigs uninvited in the hope that they could perform.

The writer then describes Osbourne’s voice, saying that ‘you didn’t need to know about his dismal CV’ to understand his ‘desolate, unschooled wail’. Here, Black Sabbath is credited for creating heavy metal, a ‘genre they more or less invented singlehanded’, because of an idea by drummer Bill Ward, who thought ‘if people queued up to see horror films, why note create a rock equivalent’. The writer further explains by saying that the band’s ‘response to Ward’s idea felt organic, not calculated’, shaped by their surroundings of ‘grim, provincial, industrial’ worlds full of counterculture drugs but none of the ‘freedoms’ enjoyed by ‘London’s bohemian elite’. Their music is further described as ‘lumbering angrily around with a kind of monstrous hangover that feels more like a nervous breakdown’.

Speaking about their debut album, the writer calls their sound ‘a kind of curdled Cream’, referencing the 1960s supergroup. Yet critical appreciation in the early days, as the writer reminds us, was missing, as heavy metal as a genre was ‘dismissed by “serious” rock critics’. And yet, because the band was able to connect with ‘a vast audience of disaffected teenagers’, their success only continued. Here the writer reminds us that, despite their image, the band ‘spent a significant portion of the early 70s explaining to journalists that they weren’t actually satanists’, exemplified by the ‘disparity between the way they sound’ and ‘the way Osbourne looks’ while performing on stage. ‘He behaves remarkably like a member of the audience who’s been allowed on stage and can’t quite believe his luck’; a rock star who behaved ‘just like you’.

Osbourne’s firing from the band is mentioned next, which ‘bandmates blamed on drink and drug-related unreliability’, while Osbourne insisted ‘he was no more indulgent than the others’. But his career was then resurrected to new heights by ‘the formidable Sharon Levy’, daughter of the manager of Black Sabbath Don Levy. The two ‘ended up marrying in 1982’ and Osbourne embraced his Prince of Darkness persona as ‘rightwing conservatives and Christian fundamentalists’ attacked heavy metal as a genre. Osbourne’s two bird-head-biting-off incidents are mentioned next, along with another incident of him dipping ‘his testicles in a glass of wine at a dinner with his German label bosses’. Despite his rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, ‘his voice was apparently unaffected by the abuse he visited upon his body’, to the point where ‘nothing, it appeared, could dent his success’, including his ‘increasing addiction problems’, and his arrest for ‘attempted murder after strangling his wife’ following a ‘drink and drug binge’.

Despite this, he went to rehab, ‘his marriage, incredibly, still intact’, and kept releasing music. Soon, ‘his celebrity was boosted by reality show The Osbournes’, putting him in ‘national treasure status’, and he ‘fully embraced his Godfather of Metal tag’. The article ends with the writer contemplating how heavy metal would have evolved ‘had Black Sabbath not existed’, while also admitting that the band’s impact would’ve been limited ‘without Ozzy Osbourne’.

❓ What it means
It is obvious that the writer is a fan. Most of the article is focused on the career that Osbourne had as a musician, and most of his dips are mentioned briefly, if at all. In fact, the largest section about Osbourne’s less successful period is focused on the quality of the music he produced, rather than any physical or emotional chaos Osbourne may have been creating for himself and others.

We don’t get a lot of Osbourne’s life before he became Ozzy. I suspect this is because that’s how the world knew him — Ozzy Osbourne, rock star. Not the teenage criminal. Not the middle-aged drug addict. Not the elderly Parkinson’s sufferer.

⚠️ Why it matters
Obituaries, especially of famous people, are often tricky to write without your own bias creeping in. After all, who is the audience for obituaries? It’s people who know the person who died, and more likely than not it’s fans. In this moment of grief, do fans want to read about all the ways their hero was flawed? Or do they want to celebrate the moments that made their hero a hero to them?

There’s nothing that’s written in the article that, I assume, is factually incorrect. But it does view Osbourne’s life through rose-tinted glasses when the man had more than his fair share of demons, and influences on others both good and bad. Perhaps this obituary is itself the best example of how Osbourne had gone from teenage criminal to ‘national treasure’.

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📺 THE GUARDIAN: The Osbournes changed reality TV for ever for better or worse [link]

📢 What The Guardian is saying
As one can gauge simply from the headline, this opinion piece is focused purely on Osbourne’s influence as a reality TV star in the new millennium. It reiterates Osbourne’s own misgivings about appearing on the show, and while the article celebrates the success of the show, it offers a more nuanced perspective on the legacy of this show on popular culture.

1. 📸 Visuals

There is one video linked in this article which is a clip from the show on YouTube, but otherwise there is only one image used. The header image is a photo from 2004 showing the stars of The Osbournes: Jack (son), Kelly (daughter), Sharon (matriarch), and Ozzy Osbourne (patriarch) of the family. The photo is taken at an event of some kind, with Jack Osbourne in a pair of jeans, a buttoned shirt under a t-shirt, Kelly Osbourne in a matching grey skirt and top, Sharon Osbourne in a black leather jacket on a black top and skirt, and Ozzy Osbourne in a black jacket, a black t-shirt with a red heart on it, and black trousers. Ozzy Osbourne is also wearing a dark gold cross and chain along with dark blue glasses.

They are all standing next to each other, and while Jack, Sharon, and Ozzy are all smiling, Kelly looks less enthused.

2. ✍🏽 Words

The headline sets the scene for the angle of the article; this is unlikely to be a hagiographic writeup about Ozzy Osbourne as the show he helped create influenced popular culture ‘for better or worse’. The subheading reminds us that while he ‘leaves behind an iconic music career’, he was also instrumental in pioneering ‘a particular brand of intimate celebrity TV’.

The article starts with setting one thing clear: Osbourne is ‘destined to be remembered’ for his music, especially since he, with Black Sabbath can claim ‘to have invented a whole new genre’ of music. However, ‘for three short years two decades ago’, he also ‘changed television for ever’, the impact of which ‘is genuinely debatable’, with the writer claiming ‘it would be rude’ to not remember his work with The Osbournes. This is despite, in hindsight, the setting for the show seeming ‘quaint’, where ‘an MTV camera crew’ documented the daily life of Ozzy Osbourne’s family. The format has since been, according to the writer, endlessly copied and ‘worn into the dust’ by ‘thirsty nobodies’ looking to ‘replicate the formula’ for their own success. At the time the show launched in 2002 however, it was ‘like a grenade going off’.

The writer surmises that ‘MTV must not have been able to believe its luck’ that somebody of Osbourne’s stature was ‘willing to subject himself to the indignities of a reality show’. This was also Osbourne’s own hindsight, having distanced ‘himself from the series’ since the show ended, because he was “stoned during the entire filming”. The writer calls the show ‘the closest thing’ to a ‘live-action Simpsons’, with episodes fluctuating between ‘ridiculous celebrity excess’ and ‘aggressively caffeinated escalation of domestic life’. A few moments from the show are mentioned here, with the writer saying that despite the family being unlike any other, ‘everyone could see parts of themselves in them’.

The members of the family, Jack, Kelly, Sharon, and Ozzy, were all ‘genuinely hilarious’, making the show a ‘near-instant sensation’ and at launch it was ‘MTV’s most-watched show of all time’, while also winning ‘an Emmy’. All members of the family ‘vaulted into fame’, or at least, as the writer reminds us, ‘the ones who agreed to appear onscreen’. Through it all ‘Ozzy remained the centre of gravity’ of the show, becoming ‘the most relatable member of the family’.

The article ends with a list of others who mimicked the show, including Paris Hilton, Gene Simmons, Ice-T, The Kardashians, and others. The writer announces that ‘they were all rubbish’ in comparison.

❓ What it means
Once again, despite the headline indicating a more in-depth cultural analysis of the impact of Ozzy Osbourne and his family on reality TV and what that has meant for the proliferation of reality TV in today’s televisual landscape and online entertainment, the article mostly focuses on the show itself and celebrates it. If there’s any criticism levied, it’s against all those who came after The Osbournes, who, according to the writer at least, were never as good.

This is despite the writer admitting that the Ozzy Osbourne’s legacy will be first-and-foremost as a musician. And, ultimately, the writer never really discusses or analyses his legacy as one of the first stars of reality TV. There’s no argument one way or another. It simply is.

⚠️ Why it matters
This article takes pains to not criticise Ozzy Osbourne in any meaningful way. In fact, if there is any criticism of The Osbournes, it is couched in the argument that even Ozzy Osbourne tried to distance himself from the show in later years. There’s no explanation of why Osbourne agreed to do the show in the first place. There’s no explanation of what, if any, impact this had on his finances, his relationships within his family, and the diversification of his image from rock star to reality TV star, especially to a brand new generation of fans.

Frustratingly, we don’t learn anything about Aimee Osbourne, the eldest child of the family who did not agree to be on the program. Once again, we are provided with rose-tinted glasses.

WHAT’S GOING ON? 

🤘🏽The Legacy of Ozzy

I wanted to explore the differing perspectives that can sometimes exist within a single news media publisher, and The Guardian’s opinion pieces slotted nicely into exploring the same story (Osbourne’s legacy) through two different lenses: as rock star and as reality TV star. Unfortunately, it’s clear that in both cases the perspective is exactly the same. According to The Guardian, Ozzy Osbourne was a legend who will be missed.

Perhaps I’m being unfair. Like I mentioned earlier, this is probably not the time to be analysing with a storied criticality about the true impact of Ozzy Osbourne, whatever lens you may choose to use. Right now the heavy metal and global music community are grieving the loss of one of the true pioneers of the genre, who helped change what we even define as music and TV.

Osbourne is practically the poster child of the rags-to-riches story, who enjoyed the rarefied company of those who couldn’t put a foot wrong even when they did, and whose reputation was bulletproof. Every trauma was excused, every success was celebrated. And that’s probably because we hoped life would treat us the same way as well.

So, will Ozzy be remembered as the scandalous live-bird-chewing Prince of Darkness? The pioneering Godfather of Heavy Metal? Or the mumbling, shuffling patriarch of The Osbournes?

The truth, as always, is somewhere in between.
Read widely. Question thoroughly. Decide accordingly.

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• Another septuagenarian popular culture hero left us this week — American wrestling star, reality TV star, and man who sued entertainment gossip publication Gawker out of business (with the help of tech billionaire Peter Thiel) because of a leaked sex tape, Hulk Hogan, died at 71.

Was this forwarded to you? Signpost is a free weekly newsletter analysing what the media says, what it means, and why it matters. It’s free to subscribe. Alternatively, you can add me on LinkedIn.