Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group

by Ian F. Svenonius

Since the rock ’n’ roll group was a child of the Cold War, proliferated internationally to serve as a weapon of propaganda by the capitalist countries, it’s no surprise that the use of portmanteau and neology in ’50s and ’60s rock ’n’ roll descends from its use in the US and USSR’s militaries—particularly their intelligence apparatuses. The Soviets started futurizing their language in this manner immediately after their revolutionary triumph, peppering their terminology with words like “agitprop,” “gulag,” “spetsnaz,” and “Smersh” (the organizational precursor to the KGB, its name was derived from the words “smert spionam” or “death to spies”). Soviet ideologues insisted on the “scientific” correctness of socialism, and were convinced of technology’s ability to deliver not just the USSR a victory against their imperialist tormentors but also mankind from its woes. Their language reflected this approach to nature and the world in its modernistic word-mashing. “Psychotronics” was the name the Soviets gave to the study of mind control through hypnosis, suggestion, linguistics, and parapsychology (ESP, clairvoyance, telepathy, etc). When discovered by the CIA, it led to great fear in the agency of a “psychic warfare gap.” Since the Cold War was a competition of concepts and style, as well as propaganda and military hardware, the US Army therefore followed suit.