Topic: [totw] Do bands have a responsibility to be political? (Read 1510 times)

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With great power comes great responsibility.
            - Spider-Man

Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not music should be political: whether someone like Bruce Springsteen actually has the right to sing about the war in Iraq, or to tell people how to vote. Personally, I think it’s a non-issue: people have the right to sing about whatever they want to, and just because someone is a musician doesn’t mean they’re automatically precluded from knowing anything about politics.
One question that’s been raised which I think is more interesting is whether or not superstar musicians actually have a responsibility to get political, to use their music  as a platform to try and make a difference to the way people think and act. It’s kind of an extension of the idea of ‘social responsibility’… The idea that everyone, especially ones that might be able to affect and persuade people, have at least some responsibility to try to make the world a better place.
Well, I don’t think anyone would really disagree with that, but really that whole thing depends on the idea that ‘musicians making a difference’ actually, y’know, makes a difference! Or a positive one, anyway… And I’m not sure that it really does.

Political music can certainly raise awareness of a certain issue, that’s true: just look at the Special AKA song ‘Free Nelson Maldela’,which played a big part in making Mandela’s plight a popular cause. But there are also some downsides to this: for one thing, people have a tendancy to confuse ‘raising awareness’ of an issue with actually doing something about the issue itself. This is particularly glaring for stuff like Live Earth: it didn’t particularly motivate people into action, and it definitely didn’t actually do anything to help the environment (all those jets saw to that), and environmentalism is a fairly well-known movement in the first place, so what’s the point? It can even raise a bigger problem, that of promoting worthless armchair activism: people who return from something like that thinking ‘Well, I did MY part!’ and not trying to do anything further.

There’s also a tendancy to oversimplify and even trivialise important, complex issues… Just look at all those anti-Bush songs and benefit concerts: yeah, man, impeach Bush, he’s an idiot, he can’t even pronounce ‘nuclear’ properly, ha ha! Let’s not talk about the gaping flaws and problems in the entire political system that led to that whole fucking debacle in the first place, let’s just boil the whole thing down to an extended ‘Bush is dumb’ joke, reel off some trite slogan or other, and make out own side look like petty, smug little douchebags in the process. There’s also fairly obvious problems in trying to boil down complex issues to three-minute pop songs, especially when they generally make an appeal to emotion instead of reason.

That brings me to the next point, that these endorsements can actually damage the causes they support. Just as atheism’s biggest problem is the smug 13-year-old with a Richard Dawkins book under his arm, and just as the anti-war movement was set back immeasurably by Sean Penn, so too can worthy causes be destroyed by an association with irritating people. It doesn’t matter how much good work your charity has done, once Johnny Borrell (or whatever his fucking name is) steps in and starts namechecking it, then the whole thing is going to be denounced as just another worthless ego-stroking Fad Of The Week.

So, yeah. All that being said, do I think it’s impossible for musicians to make some sort of difference through their music? Of course not! Just look at someone like Bob Dylan or Billy Bragg or whoever… But the idea that all musicians have a responsibility to try and change the world is a bad one, because firstly they're not particularly qualified, and secondly because I think that passing the buck on to other people (and to fucking musicians, of all things) is a kind of cheap and lazy way to avoid taking some sort of personal responsibility in political problems and such.

So, yeah. Do you think that popular bands have a responsibility to make political music?
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Bands have a responsibility to make good music!


I don't mind if they sing about politics but its basically the same thing as them singing about religion in that its usually annoying and poorly done. Songs about religion are usually something like, "Oooooh ooooh he came down from heaven, ooooh oooh he gave up his life, ooooh ooooh its JESUS, my savior, lord and master, YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!" ...... so its kind of waaaay to overt is what i'm saying. you're not making an insight or artistic statement of any kind this way. to bring this back to politics:

The Tangent, Follow your Leaders:
"Then everlasting wars to follow the leaders,
To satisfy their whims and the lies that they feed us,
On a planet where there's enough wrong,
To keep us busy for years."

What i get out of this is that the lyricist is angry at the war (or wars in general). That's a topic that's been done over and over....and its really annoying listening to it being sung in this matter-of-fact tone that implies "and if you don't agree with it you're an ignorant person!" sort of thing.

But to get away from nitpicking, the songwriters (be it in religion or politics) tend to just let the message take over the rest of the song, instead of letting it flow as any other song with non-political lyrics. I guess my problem isn't really that its political in nature, but that ITS RUINING THE SONG! (music is very important to me!)
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no, they don't have a responsibility to be political.

They should be political ONLY IF THEY FEEL LIKE IT.

I think it is pretty much that simple


personally I think it is stupid when I see bands going political on the MTV level.
I like the sex pistol's level of politics, a more local or national thing.
Or Fugazi addressing political issues, because they are true to their beliefs and usually say cool stuff.
yeah
Last Edit: June 30, 2008, 05:00:57 pm by DJ Soup
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bands that get all political tend to piss me off because their message usually has to get watered down to fit into their songs and even then on top of that you have to water it down for the mass audiences more than likely as well thanks to the record labels and their quality control or whatever

vague statement followed by something more concrete

I hate it when theres a bunch of retards out there that feel enlightened by the political message in a song that they dont understand at all. case and point: the entire album Burnin' by the Wailers.
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Songs about religion are usually something like, "Oooooh ooooh he came down from heaven, ooooh oooh he gave up his life, ooooh ooooh its JESUS, my savior, lord and master, YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!"
aahahaha what?
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aahahaha what?
christian rock bro. I went to Catholic school i know my shit!
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Yeah he's actually right. Christian Rock consistently follows this formula:

what's popular rock these days? (emo and pop-punk most of the time recently)
water it down
add jesus
nauseate

My mom had some christian station on the radio the other day and the song seriously repeated "there is no god like jehovah" for at least forty-five seconds before I told her to change the station.

I actually hate it when musicians try to be too political. I mean, saying something in passing or writing an entry in a blog or something fine. Writing a song about it or campaigning about it is basically just showing off how important they think they are. Considering most big political musicians are some of the most self-important, overinflated pieces of shit (Bono, etc. don't want to research and BONO for fuck's sake), I just say keep it to yourself or to your big fans. Shit, nobody wants to hear a band scream out their political views at a concert. Nobody wants to turn on the TV and see Bono preaching at them. It's ridiculous.

If it's that important to you, blog about it.
Last Edit: June 30, 2008, 10:17:54 pm by Alec
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most political art is really terrible, and this includes political music. i mean. it  may have a fun beat and the music may be good, but the political lyrics generally suck donkey cock.  most of it is too obvious and infantile and ridicolous. "war kills children/poor children" ugh

there is a reason why a lot of neruda's latter poems are terrible - thats because they turned political.

dont mistaken me, i am a very political guy but i think art's responsability is mostly aesthetical. 
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examples of good political songs I usually find from punk bands

MINUTEMEN - THIS AINT NO PICNIC

Working on the edge
losing my self-respect
for a man who presides over me
the principles of his creed
punch in punch out
8 hours 5 days a week
sweat pain and agony
on Friday I'll get paid

THIS AIN'T NO PICNIC

Hey mister don't look down on me
for what I believe in-
I got my bills and the rent
I should go pitch a tent
but our land is not free
so I'll work my youth away
in the place of a machine



FUGAZI - MERCHANDISE

When we have nothing left to give
There will be no reason for us to live
But when we have nothing left to lose
You will have nothing left to use
We owe you nothing you have no control
Merchandise keeps us in line
Common sense says it's by design
What could a businessman ever want more
than to have us sucking in his store
We owe you nothing
You have no control
You are not what you own


Last Edit: July 01, 2008, 03:43:20 am by DJ Soup
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Well, when I read this, I immediately thought of rolling stone magazine. Every single one of their political articles are basically the same thing over and over "screw bush. its his fault". and every musician they laud? same sort of thing. ultra-political message. I recall a recent interview with the guy from coldplay, and they seemed to try to FORCE a political message out of the guy. I'm starting to feel like that's what its becoming. They don't necessarily have a responsibility (like the topic questions)... they just feel like they do.

I personally hate this sort of stuff. It ruins what could potentially be a decent band. and it really seems like its just fueling the young tender minds of the children who listen to it. it has a catchy beat, so yeah, kids are gonna listen to it. its on mainstream pop stations, so the kids are probably gonna listen to it. you know, its this sort of stuff that supposedly wants people to put down closeminded thinking.

What someone else mentioned is that's been overdone. the sad thing is... they still think they're edgy and cool. and so do a lot of the youth. They think its better because they aren't talking about girls or relationships or something. I seriously think that this is becoming the new "my-girlfriend-broke-up-with-me" music. its whats in right now. maybe if we believe real hard, it'll go back to being decent to listen to again.

another sad part is, it seems really tacked on. Its like adding a gay character or something to a tv show. it just doesn't fit. When I write, it generally isn't political (I'm in the middle when it comes to that stuff).
Last Edit: July 01, 2008, 06:16:07 am by fatcatx2l
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Generally musicians don't know politics any better than your standard Joe. It's a problem because their fans will obviously think they "know better" and maybe even adopt their views without understanding any of it themselves. It's dangerous to have people with way too much influence compared to their knowledge in any field.

No, I don't think it's a good thing to think that bands have a responsibility to be political. Personally, I don't mind politics in songs because I generally pay a little attention to the lyrics.
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Yeah he's actually right. Christian Rock consistently follows this formula:

what's popular rock these days? (emo and pop-punk most of the time recently)
water it down
add jesus
nauseate

My mom had some christian station on the radio the other day and the song seriously repeated "there is no god like jehovah" for at least forty-five seconds before I told her to change the station.
what you have done here is made a blanket statement and considered "bible bashing radio station" and "christian rock" to be "all christian music"

note that while the "christian rock" genre is often like this, not all christian themed music is!
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I didn't say christian themed music, I said christian rock. Any band that considers themselves christian rock does follow that formula. There's plenty of bands that consider themselves just rock or whatever and sing about what they like but also have religious values and occasionally sing a religiously-themed song.

Maybe I skimmed over too fast and was going with his last post where he mentioned "Christian Rock," but most songs about religion are sung by christian rock bands, and they really suck.
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Yeah man Contemporary Christian Rock music is pretty terrible. I play drums in a praise and worship band every sunday and thus I know roughly 100 songs by heart pretty much so I guess I would consider myself the authority on that shit around here heh *smokes a blunt*

but I think you've misled everyone about it. its not nearly that formulaic. its still terrible for the most part, but there are still a lot of good musicians in that musical movement who manage to crank out a good tune here or there that isnt so terribly obvious about its christian message
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Well, do I think they should be responsible? No.

I personally think a majority of them are being pidgeon holed into it by the media, especially if you pay attention to the interviews you'll see how it's going like fatcat said. Of course some of them sing that stuff because it's what drives their emotions. I don't care so long as theres actually feeling in it and isn't just a half baked atempt at jumping the band wagon.
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it depends on the kind of music a band or artist makes. punk and hip-hop are genres with a big political component i think, because they were kind of spawned for political reasons. not all punk or hip hip is political but most of the good stuff is i think, because that's kind of what drives this kind of music for a lot of the artists. i mean, if you think of punk bands who aren't political generally they have shitty lyrics about frivolous things. same with hip hop, although a lot of hip hop is just party music too so that's okay.

anyway what i'm saying is when it comes to certain kinds of music i expect a certain kind of lyrical content i guess. i don't think any musician has a responsibility to do anything other than play their music for their fans. when bands get really big and have a lot of influence over people - the kind of band thecatamites mentioned - like i dunno U2 or whatever they tend to get really uh obtuse and sanctimonious etc cos bono is a bit of a prick.

i like it when music is political and actually thoughtful though, cos i'm a political kind of guy and there is a lot of material in like social injustices for people to draw good lyrics and music from. it's just one avenue an artist can use to make the music they want to make. so if they want to, then yeah. i don't think even the more politically inclined genres have a responsibility to be political. if the music is good, then good. if it's got good lyrical content and the band are smart about what they say, then even better.
Last Edit: July 08, 2008, 11:01:54 am by real_jamicus
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I don't think so, unless they feel strongly about particular a subject and have to get out, that's one thing...but the only thing bands really need to concentrate on is making good music (like another poster said). That should be their first goal.

Making political songs can be tricky, but if you're terrible at it, the song could come out being forced and awkward. But if done right...they can be really, really good.

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since they're just a bunch of dudes who can manipulate sound in a way that people find pleasant I don't see how this makes them smart about political stuff by default
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There’s also a tendancy to oversimplify and even trivialise important, complex issues… Just look at all those anti-Bush songs and benefit concerts: yeah, man, impeach Bush, he’s an idiot, he can’t even pronounce ‘nuclear’ properly, ha ha! Let’s not talk about the gaping flaws and problems in the entire political system that led to that whole fucking debacle in the first place, let’s just boil the whole thing down to an extended ‘Bush is dumb’ joke, reel off some trite slogan or other, and make out own side look like petty, smug little douchebags in the process. There’s also fairly obvious problems in trying to boil down complex issues to three-minute pop songs, especially when they generally make an appeal to emotion instead of reason.
I don't see how this is very objectionable. A lot of musicians aren't as informed as they should be, yet they sense to some degree that what's going on is in conflict with their personal ideology. They have the opportunity to preach to an audience and feel compelled to make use of that. Not everybody is as knowledgeable or poetic as Bob Dylan, but you can't blame the others for trying or making due with what they have.