Perhaps it seems strange to talk about politics and music (generally two separate topics) on the same weblog...Of course I haven't actually written about music yet but well...that's not the point!
So then, perhaps I'll take this opportunity to bridge the gaps and ruminate on both topics...Where do these overlap? Well there are certainly many songs about personal politics and works inspired by freedom etc...I've been thinking lately about the fact that so few artists have been writing about the political realm today. Back in the sixties it seems like everyone was involved in commenting on the Vietnam War within their songs (usually criticizing it or at least lamenting the tragedy of the whole thing).
Based on their music at least, it would seem that people had a much greater involvement or at very least interest in the world around them than they seem to today. That may be a leap of faith of course and if so, why doesn't anyone seem to be writing about the war???? The few artists who have (Beastie Boys come to mind) seem to have been forced to put the track on their website and not release it commercially...Is this because the companies are all too closely involved with the war machine themselves?
Certainly the ever-merging media companies want to be buddies with the White House to allow even greater acquisitions and mergings to take place. They contribute to the politicians campaigns to help have favorable legislation (such as the latest FCC rulings) passed...Is it a fluke that the only time I heard Tom Petty's "The Last DJ" played on the radio (a track critical of commercial radio) it was on a college station? The climate is certainly not conducive to anything that questions the establishment and in this country the establishment has never been so ESTABLISHED as it is today.
There's obviously something very wrong when an artist can't even write about a hot issue without fear that the folks in control of distribution and promotion will simply ignore it and no one will hear it. Record companies may have always been about making big money but they were certainly far more interested in taking chances (or at least WILLING to) back in the old days. How can dissenting viewpoints find their way out there now? Maybe the artists and labels alike are scared of a Dixie Chicks style backlash (a backlash supported wholeheartedly by folks like Clear Channel who were sponsoring pro-war rallies and happily not playing Dixie Chicks records).
It's hard to blame anyone for not wanting to make lots of enemies by using his or her constitutional right to FREE SPEECH!!!! The Dixie Chicks obviously did nothing WRONG and the sheep destroyed their cd's in big bonfires and...it's just way too comfortable to be part of a mob scene and not have to actually THINK. If one actually contemplated the pros and cons of being part of a mob before acting in such a manner then at very least that person's though processes would still be intact. All I know is I guarantee the Germany of the Weimar years never would have suspected itself capable of carrying out or complying with the atrocities of the Third Reich. No one ever thinks themselves capable of anything horrific: probably even when it's actually going on.
12:47:10 PM 
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