Pop Icons and the Government by Rainer Isle
Fears of rebellion fueled the phone-tapping and constant surveillance that John Lennon suffered during the Nixon administration. To some, this seemed like a “laughable” cause showing the true ignorance of the government. However, this fear was not unfounded, as pop icons presented a medium for dissemination of radical ideology. Author James E. Perone of American History Through Music: Music of the Counterculture Era, states, in reference to the band Chicago, that their “wide appeal translated into album sales” which “allowed what radical political messages” that were in the songs to “find their way into many American homes” (105). While the band Chicago had no relation to John Lennon, the concept of radical ideology “finding” its way into the American home through pop music certainly applied to him. It is likely that the U.S. government saw his popularity in the counterculture as well as in pop culture and feared that he, as well as other radical pop icons, would influence the minds of Americans. While the phone-tapping and surveillance of John Lennon and other radicals was highly unethical, the fears that spawned these actions were real.