Politics and music
Posted by Vicki on 01.07.03
Nothing is created in a vacuum, especially art, opinions and music. That people insist on persisting in attempting is most insulting, and the combination of the latter two increasingly contravertial.
Certain bands are associated with outspoken political lyrics and opinions but in the aftermath of September 11th and the war on Iraq it appears that a number of individuals and bands felt the need to raise their voice. Freedom of speech not a right in the UK and at times it appears that freedom of thought is barely allowed, so I welcome people feeling they can speak their minds. However, I do not listen to a band in order for them to try to indoctrinate me with their overwhelmingly ill-informed views and occasionally wish they would stop spoiling a pretty noise with politics.
It is also damning that many of these bands are unable to express their political views without a slew of swear words. For example, Mudvayne's comments regarding the war back in February were unrepeatable because they felt the need to swear literally every other word, and consequently went unreported. This not only ensures that any message is diluted or lost but also makes people less inclined to even consider what they have to say.
An example of why politics in music is no necessary is the conflict between Biohazard's Evan Seinfeld, and Audioslave's Tom Morello and System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian, due to the latter's anti-war stance and continuous criticism of Bush's foreign policy. Seinfeld stated that "Rage Against The Machine, those guys talk so much like they want to be communist but they're total capitalists." There are a variety of arguments for both sides, but the fact remains that Rage Against the Machine created some good music, albeit excluding the entire of 'The battle of Los Angeles' and 'Renegades of funk'.
Much of what Seinfeld was saying was vaguely understandable: "like our album title says, kill or be killed, and in the end, I'm worried about myself and my brothers in my band and my family and my son and my friends and my girl first." However, many people's immediate reaction to Seinfeld's statement that "Tom and Serj should pack their [belongings] (edited) and leave" was to dismiss it as the knee-jerk reaction ramblings of a redneck.
My personal stance on war is irrelevant, but I did dislike the people who attached themselves to either side of what became a very public argument. The Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins launched an attack on bands who spoke out against the war in Iraq, stating that such bands only did it to earn media cool points. Contrastingly Ginger from the Wildhearts made a drug addled speech against the war and Green Day released a dire anti-war mp3.
Following a statement by Daron Malakian that the new batch of new songs are inspired by the recent war in Iraq I am dreading the next System of A down album. The video for 'Boom' and indeed the song itself was less than entertaining. Silmilarly the new NOFX album, 'War on Errorism'. While NOFX at not new to the putting politics in music game they are getting worse at it, when the lyrical highlight of the album is yet another reference to Davey Havok then it becomes clear that NOFX lyrics are simply a list of people they know or feel like name-checking. Again this further diminishes any positive impact their politics might have.
(For reference the two songs that mention Davey are 'Mattersville', with the line "at the end of my cul de sac, Davey Havok's house is painted black" and "Whoah on the Whoas" with the line "Between AFI, and The Offspring, I don't think we need anyone else to sing, any more whoahs.")
A number of bands over the years have printed merchandise that belittles political figures and inevitably find that it is not as well received as they intended. A recent example is Mogwai's decision against selling their anti-Bush T-shirt on their US leg of their tour. Multi-instrumentalist Barry Burns told the Las Vegas Mercury, "It's dangerous! It's nothing no-one else isn't thinking, we just thought it would be funny. We always go too far and don't mean it. We're just excitable."
Even on social issues 'rock stars' frequently try to represent themselves as the voice of reason, while I understand why Evanescence's Amy Lee would be annoyed at someone coming to the show simply in the hope of seeing her breasts I don't see the need for her comment, at great length, "I don't think there's any reason for some of the stuff that women celebrities do. It's a real shame, and it offends me because you're representing me. We're all women, we're in this together." It rather detracted attention from guitarist Moody, who was quoted three years ago as saying Evanescence's message was simply "God is love" - a slightly different tune than they are currently singing.
Even while politics in music is potentially disastrous there are examples where a band's politics does not ruin the music. The Beastie Boys' pro-Tibet stance is not forced down their audiences' throats. This can be contrasted with Powerman 5000's new image which involves abandoning the spacesuits that gave them a semblence of personality and instead filling the void with quasi-political nothingness such as "this is a theme to a fake revolution / A battle won and lost with confusion / This is a theme to a fake revolution / Make no mistake there is no solution."
Whilst the lyrics are very similar to their previous songs Powerman 5000 are now trying to make themselves appear politically active. Rage Against the Machine made a name for themselves by being political, now they have split it appears that traditionally less popular bands are trying to step into their shoes. Hopfully this trend will pass but if it doesn't then be prepared for Avril trying to cover the Sex Pistols 'God save the Queen' and then we will all be damned.
