By DONNA BALANCIA
Blondie has released the video for “Doom Or Destiny,” the opening track on the band’s 11th studio album Pollinator.
“Doom Or Destiny” brings together music icons Debbie Harry and Joan Jett as news anchors on a satirical TV news show. The results are provocative and funny in a scary sort of fashion. The video is inspired by the current political landscape and social turmoil across the globe.
Harry and Jett (on backing vocals) take over a news broadcast, loaded with apocalyptic weather reports, feminist statements, satirical fake news and a presidential puppet.
“We wanted to comment on the bizarre state of media and news in the current political ‘idiocracy’ we are watching play out in real time,” Harry said. She said the duo wanted to create a news channel that dealt with “current issues such as the environmental collapse, fossil fuels, bee population decline, global warming, sexism, patriarchy, Trump and Russia, feminism, consumerism, the marketing of war and more.”
“In trying times we try harder,” said Blondie co-founder Chris Stein. “Politics have become the new pop culture phenomena, but it seems the current landscape of music videos has so little to do with true protest or some kind of social message. It can be truthful, but irreverent, fun and funny. The punk style protest is somewhat removed from today’s modern music.”
“Blondie – Debbie, Chris, Clem and everybody – have been my friends for more decades than I care to admit,” said Jett. “They have their own style and were pioneers of the modern age of punk and rock. I’m so proud to have been invited to contribute to ‘Doom or Destiny,’ I love the music and I love the message.”