Die Antwoord

I wanna talk about Die Antwoord for a moment, because they represent a part of our psyche that is not often explored because of its very nature - awkwardness.

Whether or not you've heard of them, the first thought you would probably have upon watching this live performance is "What the fuck?", probably accompanied by that laugh you reserve for the embarrassment you feel on behalf of someone you think is (or should be) embarrassed. You will hear many people in the audience in this video laughing that way.

So what's so embarrassing about this?

The fact that they take themselves so seriously? Maybe the way the girl looks like she knows its awkward but still goes for it anyway? Maybe you're sitting there thinking, 'you know what, they're not half bad, and the guy definitely has talent, if he would just stop acting weird'.

Is this anti-pop pop? They are popularly unpopular, the Internet Explorer of the music industry, the musicians you can only like ironically. They're way too real, too gritty.

Most embarrassing of all is the way they unflinchingly and unapologetically represent themselves in the face of people's ridicule.

That's awkward and embarrassing, because we've never done that, we were never encouraged to do anything like that. We have only ever been trained to construct ourselves in the most acceptable way before we present ourselves to everyone else.

I still don't like Die Antwoord. I can't listen to their music without making fun of them. In the future, if I get the chance, I'll probably go to one of their shows expressly to make fun of them live. Like how we deliberately have movie nights where we watch B-movies and make fun of them.

It will be a sad day when we all finally succeed in embarrassing them to conformity.