Season 8, Episode 8
April 23, 2023
Theme: Coca-Cola
Playlist

Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is one of the silliest songs from the 1980s. Its a catalogue of notable names and events from the 40 years preceding its creation, attempting to capture all of the wild moments witnessed by the songwriter. These range from light moments in pop culture, like the release of the Disney movie Peter Pan and the failure of the Edsel, to more serious horrors, like Charles Starkweather murdering 11 people and the AIDS pandemic. And I think that is the song’s undoing. It glorifies the mundane and in turn denigrates the historic. The line “JFK blown away – what else do I have to say?” has always struck me as tonally bizarre. It seems too casual, too indifferent. And on the other side of the spectrum, you’ve got “Rock-and-roller cola wars – I can’t take it anymore!” Oh, is that your breaking point? Musicians singing about soda?

Part of the issue is that a competition between two companies selling sugar water was framed as a “war.” Let’s imagine that for a moment. Santa Claus and polar bears leading troops, clad in red and white, from Atlanta toward their enemies in Purchase, NY. Soldiers of sweetness wearing blue marching under the banners of The Pepsi Generation. “We shall fight them in the fountains, we shall fight them on the endcaps, we shall fight them at the backyard summer cookouts.” No blood spilt – just gallons of high fructose corn syrup turning battlefields and waterways sticky and brown.

In the 1980s, executives at Coca-Cola saw their flagship product losing market share to Pepsi and even its own reduced calorie version, Diet Coke. They commissioned “Project Kansas,” an effort to create a new formula to complete with these products. On April 23, 1985, they released New Coke. People hated it. Well, they didn’t actually hate the flavor; a lot of people thought it was fine. But there were two major issues: bottling facilities suing over changes in corporate practice, and southern drinkers, whose identities in some ways were inextricably linked to the beverage. Within three months, Coca-Cola Classic was back on store shelves. New Coke – like Crystal Pepsi a few years later – became a punchline.

There are few things as emblematic of the United States as Coca-Cola. Your opinion of the drink as a symbol possibly reflects your opinion of the country. Is it a source of comfort and nostalgia? Is it too powerful and potent? Is it best experienced in small quantities? Can we change the formula – or are we limited to just one flavor?

Our theme for episode 8 of Community Radio, season 8 is Coca-Cola.

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