42 pages • 1-hour read
Daisy Jones & The Six
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Themes
The Unsustainability of the Famous, Fast Lifestyle
The plot of this novel tracks the rapid rise to fame Daisy Jones & The Six experience. In a music industry notoriously filled with drug use, musicians are expected to stay up through all hours of the night performing day after day. This fast lifestyle is one that the characters chase, but it also leads to the deterioration of the band. Hard partying and endless concerts sound like the makings of a seducing life, but it is not a sustainable one.
Billy Dunne finds himself in the fast lifestyle of quick fame when The Six tour for the first time. His drug habits evolve into overabundant consumption, and every night the band performs, Billy takes drugs, drinks copious amounts of alcohol, and cheats on his pregnant wife with multiple women. It is a life Billy is ashamed of, but also one that he believes is his destiny, a life that comes with the territory of being a rock star. Billy must reckon with his drug abuse early in the narrative of The Six to survive through the next albums and tours, but the pull of fame and partying never leaves him.
Daisy Jones finds herself in the spiral of fame even earlier than Billy, with potentially disastrous consequences. She is only 14 years old when she begins partying with rock stars, and her drug abuse worsens each year as her fame grows. With Daisy’s notoriety come people like Hank and Nicky who will provide her an endless supply of drugs, and who encourage her to dive deeper in the fast lifestyle of the rich and the famous. Daisy performs her music with style and soul for most of the novel, even though she is suffering from the loneliness that accompanies her drug addiction and fame. Daisy’s character trajectory demonstrates how addicting fame and success can be and the nasty cycle of abuse that fame can establish.
Ultimately, every person in Daisy Jones & The Six must consciously step away from their rampant fame to get their lives back on track.
Rock ’n’ Roll as a Philosophy
Rock ’n’ roll arose in part as a response to the rigid rules and expectations of the 1950s and 1960s in America, ones that kept women in housewife roles, prevented African-Americans from voting, and sent young men to Vietnam. The harsh sound and critical content of rock ’n’ roll music called attention to the not-so-pretty aspects of life, but the music also celebrated love and freedom. Rock ’n’ roll as a musical genre acts as a type of philosophy in this novel. Daisy Jones & The Six commit themselves to living as rock stars: breaking the rules, not listening to “The Man,” aggressively pursuing their independent thought. Some of the band’s most tense moments come when the integrity of the rock ’n’ roll music itself seems to be at risk; many of the band members see Daisy and Billy’s new music as more “pop” or “soft rock,” which cheapen the tough quality of their music.
Consumption of drugs and alcohol was yet another way for young people of the 1970s to declare their freedom from society’s standards. In juxtaposition with the conservatism of American culture, rock stars were icons of rebelliousness. Rampant drug use was almost an expectation for musicians chasing stardom, so tied was it to the hard-partying lifestyle of a rocker. Daisy has a serious drug addiction, but for years only Simone seems concerned about it, because Daisy is surrounded by rock stars who are taking the same drugs night and day, not noticing that Daisy has lost control. To become sober is, in this novel, almost a futile way of battling with the world, whereas pouring one’s soul and voice into music is a real solution. When Billy becomes sober, his music is still good, but he constantly struggles with the suspicion that he has become softer in his music, less rock in his persona. When Billy decides to leave The Six, it is because of this close connection between partying and being a rock star. He knows he cannot stay sober and be the rock star the people want, so he walks away from rock ’n’ roll.
The Effects of Second-wave Feminism
Second-wave feminism started in the 1960s and continued for two decades. Characters in this novel such as Daisy Jones and Karen Karen are symbols of this new wave of feminism. In the 1950s and 1960s, women could vote, but they could not open a line of credit without a man, most universities and colleges did not accept female students, and pursuing a career was an almost laughable ambition for a woman. Karen and Daisy stand in stark contrast to this life. They are both tough, smart, and ambitious, and they live their lives in the music industry the way men do.
Karen is more conscious of her identity as a woman in a man’s world, but she admires Daisy for seeming not to care. While Karen always feels the need to prove herself as a musician, Daisy doesn’t feel the need to prove herself to anybody. Karen wears shirts and pants to be taken seriously, but Daisy dresses with the knowledge that men are attracted to her. Daisy doesn’t let men’s objectification of her get in her way; in her mind, that’s a problem for men and not for her. Daisy is an icon of the 1970s because of her beauty and style, but also because she was a front woman for rock ’n’ roll, outplaying and out-rocking even the toughest men.
Karen is, in her own way, transgressive. When she becomes pregnant with Graham’s baby, Karen doesn’t let society’s standards of womanhood and motherhood interfere with her life. She loves Graham, but she loves her freedom more. While abortion was a contentious issue in the 1970s, Karen and Camila don’t need to go back and forth about the Christian morals of the act: Karen gets an abortion, makes decisions about her body and her life that would be shocking to most Americans at the time. That Karen knows she does not want marriage and children would have set her apart from traditional society, but in the music world Karen is free to pursue her dreams. Karen’s strong sense of self, a knowledge that is self-reflective and much more prominent than Daisy’s, is a true symbol of the second-wave feminists who advocated for free love and reproductive rights.
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