From open access
Qalam strives to explore the interpenetration of different cultures. To this end, we have decided to launch a series of playlists in which music mediates between different geographical and ideological spaces. Our first playlist is called ‘West to East: One Hundred Best Songs’. It will be updated several times a week, and its curation will focus on how Western pop culture has reflected the realities of the East, whether they are musical, geographical, religious, or political. (The terms ‘West’ and ‘East’ should be taken as broadly and arbitrarily as possible.)
The most prominent American art prankers of the New Wave and one of David Bowie's favorite bands released their famous single ‘Mongoloid’ in 1977. Today, the song may seem incredibly politically incorrect, and even then, some radio stations refused to play the song, fearing it would offend members of the Mongoloid race and hurt people with Down's Syndrome (the word ‘mongoloid’ was part of the slang used at that time to describe them). In fact, Devo, as proponents of the theory of de-evolution (the source of the band's name) and followers of the fictional Church of the SubGenius, did not mean any offense. They were simply poking fun at the existing order of things, in which a living person is forced into one idiotic framework or another for racial or medical reasons. ‘Mongoloid’ is a very touching and humanistic work, and it is no coincidence that there is a recording of a drunk John Lennon singing this song.