[Enfants Terribles Achieves a Six-Crown Sweep at the American Music Awards!]
[Chancellor Caught Punching Official in Germany During Speech Denying War Crimes!]
['Forbidden to Forbid' Protests Erupt Across East Asia!]
When Enfants Terribles released their second album(s), Nevermind and OK Computer, in mid-September, Japan effectively detonated. There were several triggers for this explosion.
First, Enfants Terribles, the pride of the nation, solidified their status as a global phenomenon by taking home six trophies at the American Music Awards. While that alone was enough to set Japanese society ablaze, the timing of the release was the true catalyst: at the exact moment the albums hit the shelves, Lehman Brothers collapsed in the United States, causing the Japanese social order to truly blow apart.
"It is forbidden to forbid!"
"Give me liberty, or give me death!"
Even though a gale of transformation had been blowing across the world ever since the performance of 'No Surprises' at the AMAs, Japan—the very birthplace of Enfants Terribles—had remained eerily silent. No social movements had stirred.
That is, until the fall of Lehman Brothers.
Once the bankruptcy sent waves of chaos through the economy, the winds of change finally reached Japanese shores. Unlike the tepid, polite demonstrations of the past, this fierce storm began to strike at everyone: the business world, the government bureaucracy, and the political elite who had used public education and the media to internalize the concept of 'Japanese-ness' into the citizenry.
"We don't want 'Japanese-ness'! We want humanity!"
"We don't want to live as 'Japanese people'! We want to live as ourselves!"
The Japanese political system, famous for its opaque structure where responsibility is never clearly assigned, usually managed to wait out public anger until it dissipated. This time, however, the citizens' rage was directed at every single gear in the machine. The public sentiment was simple: to hell with 'who's responsible'—just tear the whole thing down and start over.
"These riots are not just consuming the future of our descendants; they are eating away at the legacy of our ancestors..."
"Quit your bullshit and dissolve the Diet already! You son of a bitch!"
The heat of that fury even emboldened idealistic rookie politicians. In the Liberal Democratic Party, where the hierarchy is absolute, a freshman member made headlines by smashing the Prime Minister directly in the jaw.
In the midst of this unprecedented phenomenon, the media outlets were moving frantically.
The fever for change in Japan was beyond words. Media companies saw this as an opportunity to reclaim true freedom of the press.
"Burn it all down! All of it!"
"You bastards are dead! Do you have any idea how much we've held back?! Ever since I was a cub reporter, you've been barking about 'report this, don't report that.' Go eat shit! Ptooey!"
Simultaneously, the media began to swarm around the focal point and spiritual center of this syndrome: Enfants Terribles.
News agencies no longer sat with stiff necks, waiting for the band to come to them. They spent twenty-four hours a day calling the band's manager in America with the desperation of people praying to a god. Some even chartered planes, sending dozens of reporters across the Pacific.
"Please! Just give us one word!"
"The people of Japan are waiting for your opinion!"
The members of Enfants Terribles were utterly bewildered by the volcanic reaction.
In reality, OK Computer—which was being hailed as a masterpiece of political subversion—wasn't exactly the product of the bald bassist's firm ideological convictions. It was more that the books he had recently read happened to be by Noam Chomsky, so he had mindlessly blended those arguments into the lyrics.
"Good grief."
"Can't we just do whatever the hell we want? Why do they keep asking?"
The influence of Enfants Terribles was now absolute. A throwaway comment from one of them could become the slogan for protesters worldwide.
Just as the Beatles once had, Enfants Terribles had become the icon of a counter-culture, vacuuming up the attention of the entire planet.
Michael Stipe. He was a man who had grown sick of music that did nothing but brag about meaningless wealth, but he had started listening again after discovering Enfants Terribles.
Hearing the news that the band's second album(s), Nevermind and OK Computer, had been released, he naturally headed to the record store.
The massive shop was so packed it was difficult even to take a step. In one corner was a listening station where customers could sample the tracks before buying.
Just how good is it to cause such a ruckus?
Enfants Terribles had always delivered incredible music. However, in his view, the current phenomenon surrounding this release was something bizarre.
The sight of people holding the Nevermind album high like a holy relic while marching was eerie to a man who usually cared little for social issues.
"Damn it... there are too many people..."
He tried to make his way to the listening station but immediately ran into a problem.
The crowd was suffocating, and the line for the headphones was so long he couldn't even see the end of it. The queue snaked from the entrance to the back wall in a massive zigzag. Michael Stipe shook his head in disbelief.
"I mean... I've been seeing them on the streets a lot lately, but this is insane..."
Ordinarily, one might just download the music online if they weren't interested in owning a physical copy for display, but Michael Stipe was a hardcore 'old-school' traditionalist.
Finally, after a five-hour struggle, he succeeded in purchasing the albums.
"What is up with this cover...?"
Michael stared at the artwork and found it jarring. The cover of Nevermind featured a strange, naked baby, while OK Computer had a picture that looked like some weird piece of modern art.
I need to hear what these crazy bastards did.
He was dying of curiosity. Clinging to the albums with their bizarre covers, he hurried to his truck.
.
.
.
.
The moment the final track ended, Michael Stipe steered his truck fiercely toward the protest sites. He was ready to ram the suits of Wall Street with his rig.