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Originally Posted by jico.
for me, ideals like antisemitism are unquestionably unethical. there's nothing to shock.
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See, the problem with this is that, while I am entirely and rabidly against antisemitism [I don't need to qualify that], I do think that, in some regards, music represents the voice of some people. Racism in Anglo-American music is just stupid individuals with stupid opinions. And I'm not going to be stupid enough to say that anti-semitic music is necessary or good - it isn't. But that's not to say that a culture who feel strongly negative about the existence of Israel shouldn't represent in song their feelings. Anti-Israel is not,
prima facie, anti-semitism.
This is a pretty tricky argument to navigate - by analogy, that doesn't justify the homophobia of Dancehall/ hip-hop; however, it does go a way to explaining it. With Dancehall, it largely comes from a country with a fairly militant police force and, so far as I know, pretty clear opinions on 'the gays'. I'm not sure if 'the gays' are illegal there, but I'm fairly confident that 'the gays' don't have the liberties they do in this country.
I remember a Steven Wells article about Burzum, years ago (actually, it was that article that made me check them out) where he said it's easy to be a racist in Norway, there's roughly 5 black families there. It's a different thing in Birmingham/ the Bronx.
I suppose the problem is that a music cannot represent a sophisticated situation, such as that of Israel, instantaneously and catchily in 3-4 minutes. But does that mean people shouldn't represent opinions on it in song, however much we 'the liberal west' dislike it?
FORFUCK'SSAKEISOUNDLIKEI'MWRITINGFORTHEFUCKINGGUAR DIAN.