Protest music today?
Does anyone want to weigh in on this interesting Talking Points Memo Cafe commentary/discussion on protest music today, that includes the likes of Bright Eyes, the Decemberists, Sleater-Kinney, Dylan and hip-hop? I'm curious about what people here would say.
The point of discussion begins: "Jason Zengerle's attack on Conor Oberst's pretensions to be doing good political music is welcome and correct, but in a tragic case of thesis inflation, Zengerle seems to be arguing not merely that "When the President Talks to God" is bad but that quality political tunes are impossible under present social conditions. That's a clear error.
Consider "Combat Rock" and "Entertain" by Sleater-Kinney, the Decemberists' "Sixteen Military Wives", "Monster Hospital" and "Succexxy" from Metric, or even Le Tigre's charmingly didactic "New Kicks"."
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1 comment:
touche. here's what i wonder about with regard to the idea of political "anthems," which is part of the argument that gets made in full on the website with regards to "sixteen military wives," which is for certain a good song, and a political song, but not really fit for anthem status. i think the properties of the anthem have been co-opted by the establishment. every damn pop song nowadays is gunning for the kind of ubiquity that anthems achieve, which is quite different from the pop song back in the mid-60s, which was nothing more than a novelty. now that we have a fuller appreciation of music's ability to change public perception, it's actual ability to be a force for change has been reduced because we don't trust it the same way. kind of a catch-22. now that music is more pervasive in our culture than ever, its effectiveness is lessened.
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