11 Times Yoko Ono Had A Huge Influence On Pop Culture
"Thank you, NME, for this great honour. I accept this as your encouragement for me to keep making my 'Sound of Music'." That’s what Yoko Ono – icon, artist, activist and musician – said of the ‘Lifetime Inspiration Award’ she will pick up the NME Awards with Austin, Texas on February 17. The ceremony will be held the at O2 Academy in Brixton and will see Ono, who turns 83 the day after the event, thanked for the massive impact she’s had on pop culture in the last 50 years, from pioneering contemporary art to inspiring John Lennon, whom she married in 1969. Here are eleven times Yoko Ono helped to shape the face of popular culture forever.
Grapefruit
Ono’s 1964 art-book Grapefruit is full of instructions and aphorisms such as: “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is a reality.” The messages within the book seem simple, but her real talent lies in the clarity required to achieve that simplicity. When you consider the 140-character nature of Twitter (which Ono’s pretty excellent at), you can see how ahead of her time she was.
‘Bed-In’
In 1969, Ono and Lennon staged two identical protests at the Vietnam War, one at the Hilton hotel in Amsterdam and one in Montreal, riffing on the idea of a ‘sit-in’. They take it one step further and stayed in bed for a week after their marriage, beneath signs that read “Hair Peace” and “Bed Peace”. At the time, the stunt provoked sniggers at its apparently suggestive nature, though its critical reputation has improved, which Ono acknowledged last year: “It’s coming back around, have you noticed?”
By: Jordan Bassett
Source: NME
