Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll
This novel is a portrait of the rise and fall of a rock band in the heyday of the genre, the 1970s. This was the decade in which the iconic image of the decadent musician with one foot in their mansion and one foot in an early grave was really cemented. The narrative trek of Daisy Jones and the Six reveal the members of the group to be almost stereotypical caricatures of the live fast die hard, have sex and take drugs lifestyle. Within this theme of hard partying rock and roll life is the suggestion that the reality of this life choice for most who pursued it was that it often came quickly but was short-lived, leaving those who managed to survive it facing a long chunk of their lives with the glory days behind them and getting farther in the distance with the arrival of each new hot next thing.
Feminism
The title of the book notably puts a female member of the band out front. It is not called simply The Six, but Daisy Jones and the Six. This decision immediately introduces a recurrent theme of feminist ideology and philosophy. In particular, the strength and independence of Daisy and other female characters are used to highlight and comment upon what has come to be known as the Second Wave of the feminist movement which was part of the more comprehensive countercultural revolution of the 1960s. Situating the story within the milieu of rock and roll affords the opportunity to examine this theme from both sides. The advances of the feminist movement in the 1960s was widespread but faced steadfast resistance in those industries which were most misogynistic and patriarchal. While women certainly became rich and famous and influential as artists in the industry, it remained an aggressively male-dominated business in which women were expected to seek success according to the expectations of men both behind the scenes and in the audience. Daisy seeks to gain exactly the same sort of lifestyle and influence previously limited to long-haired male rock stars.
The Light and Dark Sides of Addiction
The most obvious reference to the theme of addiction is the widespread drug use throughout the story. This addiction will prove to be the downfall of the hopes and dreams of the band. At the same time, however, the pursuit of a career in music is presented as the type of positive addiction that allows people to fulfill unlikely dreams. On a more macro level even alcohol and drug addiction is presented as having both light and dark sides. The dark side is obviously the utter destruction of lives but for a while at least drugs provide the upside of numbing profound emotional pain for characters simply incapable of dealing with that pain in any other way. The two brothers, Graham and Billy Dunne, become the living embodiment of this theme in that Graham’s ambition is lacking the quality of addiction, but he manages to avoid the same fate as his brother whose addictions inevitably turn only toward the dark side.
