Article: Pop: No rest for the wicked Kenneth Anger, underground film-maker, occult devotee and all- round evangelist of the weird, has been a key countercultural figure since the 1960s. Now, says Phil Johnson, UK bands are paying tribute to his influence

When they come to write the great scholarly history of the pop video, a sizeable early chapter should by rights be devoted to the influence of Kenneth Anger, the American underground film-maker, author of Hollywood Babylon, and magician. In Anger's pioneering work, especially the celebrated Scorpio Rising of 1963, one finds an aesthetic for cutting images in sync to pop music that, with relatively little amendment, has since become the template for countless MTV promos. As Anger's art is linked to that of Jean Cocteau, and through Cocteau to the whole Romantic tradition of European thought, you'd think MTV would be flattered to acknowledge its illustrious forebear, or at least bung him the ...

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