Pump up the truth: Christian Slater plays a cultural prophet

The second main juncture in the film arrives when authorities learn that Hard Harry’s broadcasts are being looped beyond city limits, at which point they notify the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Arthur Watts, head of the FCC, arrives to address the situation. Upon exiting his limo, he says, “We at the FCC believe that democracy is all about protecting the rights of the ordinary citizen. Unregulated radio would result in programming of the lowest common denominator – the rule of the mob.” Then he turns to graffiti on his truck and says, “This is vandalism, not free expression!” Watts is an archetype for the social responsibility model of mass media creation and distribution. In other words, the individual’s rights, desires, motivations and emotions should be sacrificed to ensure the stability of society. Hard Harry, on the contrary, represents the libertarian ideals that prioritize individual freedom over the top-down umbrella-shaped system of control that has evolved in industrialized nations – most notably the United States.

With Nora’s guidance, Mark builds up the courage to broadcast again, even though he knows that the FCC will be using their scanning technology to locate him. Mark wires his radio equipment (somewhat unrealistically) into his mom’s topless Jeep Wrangler and asks Nora to drive while he talks. Without even hearing Watt’s speech, Mark says, “Imagine a fucking political hack being in charge of free speech in America. I’ll bet Watts was the guy who took names in high school when the teacher was absent. He’s the kind of phony in politics who wears a wig.” Watt’s hears this and says, “This is the problem with free speech.” This recalls the backwards mentality of Orwell’s “1984,” where the government develops “newspeak” to confuse and control the population. In that terrifying world, the Ministry of Truth is in charge of burning books, altering newspapers and dissipating lies to secure their power. Words are literally deleted from existence, so the ability to think becomes drastically reduced.

In Mark’s final on-the-run broadcast, he tries to mend any wounds he has unintentionally created. He abandons his busted voice disguiser and heads straight for the mass of people listening behind the high school.
“We’re all worried. We’re all in pain. That comes with having eyes, with having ears. But just remember one thing: it can’t get any worse. It can only get better. I mean, high school is the bottom. Being a teenager sucks! But that’s the point. Surviving it is the whole point. Quitting it is not going to make you strong. Living will. So just hang on and hang in there. Ya know, I know all about the hating and the sneering. I’m a member of the ‘why bother’ generation myself. But why did I bother to come out here tonight? And why did you? I mean, it’s time. It begins with us. Not with politicians, the experts, or the teachers, but with us. With you and with me – the ones who need it most. I believe with everything that’s in me that the whole world is longing for a healing. Even the trees and the earth itself are crying out for it.”

One interesting cry during Mark’s mobile broadcast was this: “Welcome to radio free America. America’s ready! I’m ready! I mean, I want a million voices crying out in the wilderness!” The most shocking notion, and possibly the hardest to understand or accept, is that this spirit of anarchy could be the very thing that saves democracy. If the powerful few who control a society (i.e. - politicians, corporations, churches, etc) can no longer hide their dirty secrets, and those who have traditionally delivered information to a population (i.e. – newspapers, radio and television) lose their secondary control over the flow of that information, this is going to be a very different world.

It’s important to note that “Pump Up The Volume” was not an enormous success. There are just as many tacky moments as memorable ones, even if the tackiest parts are realistic to everyday teenage discourse. “Volume” survives by employing important themes, suggesting useful ideas and showcasing decent performances by Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis. At that time, there was no way to know that the Internet would eventually allow millions of people to act similarly. Even at the turn of this decade – when the Dot Com frenzy was still burning out, and the interactivity of Web 2.0 had not yet been born – vast amounts of user-generated mass media seemed improbable. One key difference is that a blog, like any Web site, is accessible anywhere in the world. A radio station, while appealing more directly to the emotions than words on a computer screen, has a limited broadcast radius.

What the film does not predict is the role that the music industry – and their guard dog, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) – would play in modern times. They will stop at nothing to protect their economic interests from the threat to profits posed by illegal file sharing. Granted, Mark’s activities are more akin to a music blog than a peer-to-peer downloading network. Today, innumerable people post MP3s on their blogs for people to listen to worldwide. Regardless of whether or not those people have permission to do so, it seems that they aren’t usually asked to take the music off of their web site. Some people – especially young artists – view this as a global advertisement that they wouldn’t otherwise have. Of course, Internet radio stations have also become prominent these days, particularly the ones that tailor music to the listener’s tastes like Pandora and Last.fm. But even internet radio has come under attack from the music industry, who tried to impose per-song fees that would destroy most of the operations.

Perhaps Moyle’s greatest failure was not showing us what happens to Mark after he is arrested in the film’s final scene. Unfortunately for the viewer’s sake, Mark’s dad only suspends the principal instead of firing her, there is no confrontation between Mark and his parents, and we don’t know the extent of legal action taken against Mark. Instead, Moyle chooses to end the film with a collage of like-minded pirate radio broadcasts around the country, implying that the truth is infectious – and the means for obtaining and sharing it existed even in 1990. But today, with the interconnectivity of the Internet, that potential is greater than ever. The difference now is that more individuals are willing and able to fight for justice in the world, and less afraid of the malevolent forces of the past.

A million voices cry out in the wilderness, echo off the wall of tyranny and return united as the voice of truth.

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Comments? Questions? Contact Nick Meador at meadorni@msu.edu