Politics in Music
 

One of the things that sort of disappoints me about a lot of bands at the moment is the way in which they've got either no political content whatsoever, or else when they have, it's of that celebrity chic, post Live Aid, carrot cake, herbal tea, stop the war while adopting a 'frican variety. Which is just self-obsessed bollocks, as we know. Where the fuck are all the bonkers Krautrock types, the Les Rallizes Denudes, the Yoko Onos?

Is it morally sound these days not to be political in music? Is it fuck.

You know what I like about a lot of bands today is that they don't have a bunch of political crap in them. They must have realized at some point that all it does is get people all riled up and angry, but with no real results.

If you want to make a change in politics, run for senate, don't start a band.

having political lyrics si not about trying to make a change. it is more like talking about what you care about. like Morrissey sang, "sing your life".

if you love art, sing about art, if you are apssionate about politics, sing about politics. if you are a reactionary psycho pseudo-fascist who loves orchids and cheese, sing about that.

what I see is that over the past 25 years, the youth of the USA (I cannot speak for other nations) are driven further and further away from politics, in an concerted effort to create a disenfranchised section of the populace, who, because they do not care about poltics will not get involved in local activism, or in national activism, or even be concerned about when to vote and such things.

we in the USA are bred for apathy in the last 3 decades, because the people that run the show, the powerful elite, got scared out of their wits between 1965-and 1975.

by virtue of that, bands spend more time singing about pathetic stupid shit like how a girl hurt your stupid feelings or how they have a very expensive wristwatch or how they are just angry, but they DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE ANGRY ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just my thoughts on it.

I see what you mean.

I guess I fall under than apathetic category, so I see it differently.

I'm not too interested in political music these days.

I agree.

I don't like ultra-political bands much ( like Dead kennedys or Crass ).
I feel the music is just a mean to an end , and they're making it just to get a larger audience than if they wrote a book.

so you truly feel the dead kennedy's were just trying to get an audience? you think jello and company were pretending? perpetrating a fraud?

come on.

jello would slap yr bitch face

;)

you know what the most political band in the last 25 years is?


FUGAZI


for the it is about personal politics. very important. social change through personal change.

I sometimes mind politics in music and I sometimes don't. I like it when Crass does it, and even if I don't agree with all of it, it does make me think a lot. What I don't like is when I'm going to a show (especially every show I've been to in the past three months) and every fucking band is pushing Obama down my throat or some shit. I guess it all boils down to how effectively and creatively a band is able to incorporate a political message in their music. I think it can be a great thing when it's pulled off right.

What s your reason for existence?
Do you believe in anything?
Or does your lifestyle contradict
The words you write the songs you sing?

Are you happy in your work
As you protest abut the unemployed
You don t wanna work but you need the money
The reality you can t avoid

But do you wanna work for the money?

Do you wanna work for the system?

Are you happy as you vote
To keep the parasites alive?
You don t want to vote but you think you should
They said it was right and you never asked why

But do you wanna vote for your conscience?

Do you want to vote for the system?

Are you happy signing up
In the army just to get some pay?
Fighting a war without a cause
Can you manage to ignore your self-decay?
But do you wanna fight for your country?
Do you wanna fight for the system?
You re their reason for existence
They use you to finance their state
The words you shout with such conviction
Is it the only way to express your hate?

blatant politicking a la rage against the machine or megadeth comes off as heavy handed and tedious, and in rage against the machine's case, very juvenile, screaming "wahh waaah waah I don;t like the bad boogey man wahhhh"

I do not like such stuff, but when people talk about social change, about becoming involved , about what is important to them that can move me.

dead kennedy's did it right. they wanted to showcase their leader's political anger, well-informed political anger.

yes and no. see, it is good when it is done more intellectually, but at the end of the day, sometimes the angst must be let out through the music. sometimes political music makes a gig and opportunity to vent out so much frustration with out having to go out like they do in Gaza strapped with some explosives or some monks in Vietnam... in other words, the extreme in music is sometimes necessary to contain and channel the extremes in reality.. I can pit away the frustration with the Varukers instead of having to go outside and end up hurting some one, thus refreshed I can approach the more assertive, positive and progressive means of social change..

I can dig it

I just wish RATM equalled their intense fervor with intensely intresting music, but all we get is chugga chugga

Agreed. That's one of the things I like most about Fugazi. The lyrics aren't like 'FUCK THE GOVERNMENT, MAN!!!'. They're a bit more cryptic, more subtle, and much more personal. It's been said a lot about Fugazi (with good reason) that for them the personal is the political. I've always been fond of that idea. I think quite a few of their songs are very introspective, but can be seen in a much broader context too.

That said, I do enjoy overtly political bands as well. For instance, I love the DKs. And one reason I love em is just because they were so over the top, and sarcastic, and in your fucking face about their politics.

I think they were an average rockabilly-on-speed band and that without the lyrics , they would have sold 5000 records.

a band like Super Furry Animals is very political, and in a very subtle way.

this channeling of extremes into music is an ancient purpose of music. War songs, fight songs, dirges, political songs, chants, these things are by no means new. People have sung with passion and angst what was honestly inappropriate to actually do..

Nonsense.
Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions that affect others' lives.

Minot Threat were a political band in the sense that they were supporting the prohibition of weed and the blame of alcohol use.
That doesn't seem to bother anybody.

Depends on where you look. I'm of the impression that it's very difficult to absolve yourself of a political relationship with the world, or better, with where you fit in a politcal schema. Elton John isn't without of politics, but the politics he's part of isn't really the same gestural politics that Billy Bragg or the DKs take part in.

Having said that, there's a good point to be made that just saying 'everything's political' or appealing to the notion (inherited from second-wave feminism) that 'the personal is political' doesn't make whatever gesture, or art, you're making gratifying within its existence as a political monad [excuse the wankery].

I've always hated the idea of some punk band singing to a crowd of white liberals about how racism is bad. In many senses, that egalitarianism, the 'everyone's here for a good time' social politics of the devoutly apolitical rave scene seems more appealing than a load of right-on people playing music that is essentially white music. There's nothing wrong with music being white. But there's no virtue to it either.

And regarding music being apolitical now - I often wonder if people look at what people sing about in different territories in its political context. If you're coming from a world where Crass and the DKs are common knowledge, the Dixie Chicks are not radical enough; there was, nonetheless, a massive shitstorm over some of what they said. Likewise, from my perspective, I'm always fascinated to hear how dancehall appropriates gender politics and gun culture, but I wonder if the people from the Dancehall societies just sing about what they sing about, with no consideration. Obviously, this isn't true of Capleton or Buju or Sizzla [etc] but do you think Dr Evil considers what he's saying as in any way 'political'?

Closer to home - Coldplay manifest perfectly a certain concessionary politics that is common to the UK, where nothing gets said ever and everyone waits at the back of the queue nicely.

Herr Rail: are you talking about people being explicitly political or what? Because I think a lot of Brits found that a bit hokey around the time of Red Wedge.

First of all, everything is political. So we should not only include politics of the United Nations and D.C. but also the politics of tuition rates, property tax, rent control. There is no avoiding it as a human being...Introducing your politics into your music is kinda inseperable. There has to be a balance.

What bothers me is that people in the US make a career out 'destroying'. Like it is silly. When Johnny Rotten left the Sex Pistols he know he made his point and moved on...To profit off of destroying is SHAMEFUL

rage against the machine's case, very juvenile, screaming "wahh waaah waah I don;t like the bad boogey man wahhhh

People in the US make a career out continually underming the system...Thats silly. Rage against the machine for example, I like them, but the politics is too much.... At what point does a young revolutinary social activist become another suit in with a false face...If they don't like the Machine they don't fly, don't charge for concerts. At what point do they start building up? If you like anarchy then I'm gonna steal your gear...LOL

stop the war while adopting a 'frican variety

No War guitar strap! LOL http://www.theonion.com/content/node/31342

If you want to make a change in politics, run for senate, don't start a band

I disagree tremendously. Think of politics as a lion that needs to be tamed...When a protest singer sings, he is not singing to the politicians with an expediant agenda, he is speaking to the voter with a mind and a vote. Politicans are the first to buckle under the weight of public opinion...

Actors and musicans have an agenda, in the roles they play and the songs they sing...They are very vital to the health of the people's belief..
They can articluate the argument better, and that what it comes down to...which side of the spectrum argues their point more effectively...

Yeah, I should clarify my original post.

I do believe that every action is a political one in so far as it either reinforces or critiques a given 'system'. Whether anyone living in that system can ever properly attack it is a difficult one. Personally I think it can but a flood of theory says I'm wrong.

Whatever I'm saying, it isn't that we need to return to the tub-thumping of red wedge, but rather the way in which culture can be used as a questioner of consensual values. In this sense It's my belief that a group like Public Enemy were more politically useful in their attitude to the language of music than they were lyrically. Any innovation in musical structure or attempt to redefine how music can be produced or distributed is (for me) far more politically useful than seeing a singer on stage with an acoustic guitar bemoaning the war. In this sense, whether he wants to acknowledge it or not, I'd say that someone like Dr Evil is potentially far more political than someone like Chris Martin. Spouting reactionary ideas via a radicalised language is far more useful than spouting supposedly radical ones via a dead one. The Dixie Chicks call into question a particular issue but ultimately uphold the system that allows for it. Dr Evil calls into question that very system simply by existing, it seems to me. Seeing him sing 'More Punnany' on daytime TV would be one of the most radical things in music I can think of right now.

"they tried again to change the system, but this time it was too late, there was no system left to change, the people ran the entire land..the subverts became politicians and finally got the upperhand, meanwhile back in Subvert City, someone's writing on the wall, FUCK YOUR GOVERNMENT spraypaint hero in subvert city, its subvert rule! its subvert rule! sub! vert! sub! vert! sub! vert!"

Revolution means change. You stop being a revolutionary when you stop changing as a human being, and become complacent in whatever it is you make your routine, even if that routine is seemingly revolutionary.

the extreme in music is sometimes necessary to contain and channel the extremes in reality..

Excellent point SuchFriends...I would rather hear gangster rap then get shot without warning while I take photos of daisys in the Ghetto...

real politics in music related to revolution and the musician living in an oppressive, shit situation because of the government: A+



too bad you can't get a lower grade than a big, red F

well you can't even mention facts under the current zietgeist because you get smeared as a "conspiracy theorist". So waht the FBI set up activists and had them murdered, discussing these things makes you a conspiracy theorist, at least according to many people on this board. I find the current generation to be assertively apathetic, but I think this comes out of fear , fear of power and fear of their own insecurities.

It is interesting to me the paid attack stooges seem to have vanished from this board now that the occupation in Iraq is a fait accompli. Or maybe Leatherbrain had to get a real job outside of the CT fusion center LOL!

public enemy sought to destroy "music" and to ignite a fire in the asses of complacent black people.

they did not succeed in the former because the "MUSIC" industry made it prohibitively expensive to sample more than one or two songs for any given track. the fucking assholes

they did not suceed in the latter because they were overshadowed by meaningless, self-agtrandizing, gang and prison worship rap a la 2-Pac and Biggie and every fucking wanna be "gangsta" rapper, that foloowed the fully FAKE ASS GANGSTAS of NWA, because the rich white suits realized that the fake ass gangstas of NWA's ilk are easier to sell to the 12-18 year old white teen market.

the Music industry did not know what to do with PE. PE and sonic youth, remember that?
The music industry did not know what to do with real "gangsta rappers" like Geto Boys eaither.
By real I mean talking about the reality in life, not talking about how great it is to be a pimp and have fly shit when you are actually a fucking high school drop out with no money living in yr momma's basement and renting bling, cars, and jets, for your videos.

Minot Threat and Fugazi might have influential but not in terms of realpolitik.

Bands like SY or Rage made much more of an inroad into people's brains and thoughts than Fugazi or Minor Threat. They might have been purer but, I can't help but think that bands such these ultimatley are rememebered as a 'tempest in a teapot'...

they chose to stay that ay though, to preserve their self-determination

and that is exactly why people in the 'hood' listen to this music, because it reflects and contains these experiences, just like ol coal mining music reflects the experience of ol virginia coal miners..

and that is exactly why people in the 'hood' listen to this music, because it reflects and contains these experiences, just like ol coal mining music reflects the experience of ol virginia coal miners..

It is not ornamental but an everyday necessity...

they chose to stay that ay though, to preserve their self-determination

I guess they (bands of that ilk) weren't that hardcore after all

The rap industry is not sustained by people in the hood (who as a market force are pretty negligible.) It's sustained by white, largely middle class males who get off on a certain romanticised idea of ghetto-life. Black kids in Compton may listen to it on the radio, but it's not for them. If anything they're simply buying into somebody else's version of their life.

The music industry may have exploited and mass marketed these groups, but you know damn well that for better or worse the original NWA crowd was all the broke as car stealin, crack smoking, purse snatching mother fuckers from Harris Avenue and Alondra Blvd...

I agree that, buying into somebody else's version of their life.
But we never get the whole picture of anything or anyone. Stereotypes are not 100% but generally not that far off either....

I am sure that Bollywood is not 100% accurate description of East Indian life, but it helps my understanding of their culture when I visit an Indian restaurant once every 5 years..

It's the song I hate.

Definitely agree regarding certain stereotypes. I actually think gangster rap was more significant politically in the way that it helped provoke a new wave of censorship that was so obviously grounded in a certain race and classism. The political is often less about what you say as the way in which people respond to it. Even if it doesn't intend to, an action that creates a response can highlight aspects of a social system that system might not want highlighted.

seen. politics in music is a vibe more then an ideology. who feels it knows it y'all