Rock and Roll Cowards

Posted by: ejl on 17 November 2003

Am I the only one who is failing to find much of any political protest in contemporary pop?

The two big pop producing nations, the U.K. and the U.S., are engaged in a brutal and unbelievably ill-conceived war, for which every official rationale has evaporated in a haze of misinformation.

Yet the musical community seems silent.

I expect this from bands signed to major labels. The Dixie Chicks showed all of them the risks involved in anything less than rabid flag-waving.

Yet the independents have not really been different. I can't find even one political protest among the bigger indie releases this year.

The comparatively more peaceful Reagan/Thatcher years were -- incredibly enough -- better than this, with bands like the Minutemen, Dead Kennedys, Consolidated, Black Flag, Public Enemy, and others willing to launch a direct political criticism.

Punk now appears silent; The Strokes, Deadly Snakes, Blood Brothers, even Wire (!!) apparently had nothing to tell us this year.

With very few exceptions*, hip-hop appears interested only in its little world of shout-outs and disses.

Am I missing something? Is rock any different? Folk?

Or are contemporary artists just disinterested? Or afraid?

Eric

* Last year's "Fantastic Damage" being a welcome excpetion.
Posted on: 18 November 2003 by Colin Lorenson
Ani Di Franco had a pop.

She's always got something to say about something / anything, but particularly about US politics / gun culture / society.

"maybe i'll just take all my friends up to Canada, and die of old age". About right.

Colin Lorenson
Posted on: 18 November 2003 by greeny
Steve Earle has done a whole anti war album recently.

Plenty of artists have spoken out against it but not a vast amount seems to have made it to thye lyrics/style of most artists
Posted on: 18 November 2003 by Simon Matthews
Rickee Lee Jones new one is very anti Bush and his policies. Track one is called ugly man, you get the picture. Protest songs which avoid blandness and posturing.
Posted on: 18 November 2003 by Ron Toolsie
Try Peter, Paul and Mary for contempory antiestablishmentism. Hang on.... that was 40 years ago! Oh well......

Ron
Dum spiro audio
Dum audio vivo


Posted on: 18 November 2003 by ejl
quote:
These days I deeply resent being ranted at.


This is exactly the attitude that I suspect is partially behind the relative silence.

Why do people equate someone's pointing out social injustice, for instance, with "being ranted at"?

It can be done poorly, and it can be done well. When it's done poorly it is indeed tiresome and a rant (Joan Baez at her worst, e.g.).

When it's done well it can be funny, cutting, insightful. Would you prefer that Woodie Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, and so many others sung about girls, cars, and the little ins and outs of their emotional lives? Why insist that every lyric be reduced to the most inoffensive lowest common denominator?

If you "deeply resent" these musician's political and social commentary, o.k. But I think music and culture generally would be the worse without it. And we are worse off for the comparative absence of such figures now.

I've heard neither Ani Di Franco's nor Ricky Lee Jone's latest. Thanks for the heads up.

Eric
Posted on: 18 November 2003 by Tim Jones
This has cropped up recently in one or two other threads. Part of the problem is that the kind of 'military-industrial-complex/capitalism-sucks/we-should-all-just-love-each-other' that parades itself as 'political' music these days is nothing of the sort. It's exactly what everyone expects and that's exactly why it's (a) so lazy and (b) will never get anyone to think differently about anything.

I think the kind of music that asks little questions about wider assumptions is more interesting. On this score the Gang of Four's "What we all Want" is one of the best political songs ever written, while even things like Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" or "Cities" ask the same sort of questions.

Perhaps the problem is a certain adherence to the model of a 'protest' song. This is now an established part of the musical landscape - just as "protests" are part of the political fabric. Neither is going to undo the weave.

PS I disagree with whoever said Wire had nothing to say this year. Have another listen to "99.9" or "Trash/Treasure".

Tim