Tralls

Anybody watch the Vote for Change Concert on Sundance channel last night? i thought it was abslutely incredible, though I am a huge Pearl jam fan. Finishing it off with "Peace, Love and Understanding" by the other Elvis was beautiful. I am glad to see music is coming back as a strong, peaceful protest movement, even though a lot of the ones doing it were the same as back in the 60's! We need some good new bands!

Gatorade Frost

Eh. I think this will hurt the Democrats and those bands more then it will help them.

I don't want Dave Matthews Band telling me how to vote, and all that does is make me stop listening to them.

People's minds are made up for those that are going to bother to vote, all it does it alienate and piss people off.

They should take the politics out of music unless you're fully and completely political.

Superbelt

Wha? Musicians always have and always will have a message. The best music ever came as part of a message. Hell many people today listen to some of the greatest songs of the Vietnam era, not realizing the meaning behind them.

Darryl Whorley - Have You Forgotten
CCR - Fortunate Son, Run through the jungles, Long as I can see the light, Someday never comes, Who'll stop the rain
Jimi Hendrix - American Woman
Soul Asylum - Runaway train (It's a Message song, I think it still qualifies.)
Dixie Chicks - Travelling Soldier
Toby Keith - Angry American
Chicago - It better end soon
Neil Young - Ohio
Graham Nash (Crosby Stills & Nash) - Oh Camil!
Jefferson Airplane - Rejoyce
Bob Dylan - Blowing in the wind, The times they are a changin', masters of war, Rainy day women, With God on our side
REM - It's the end of the world as we know it
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
John Lennon - Imagine
Allman Brothers - Morning Dew
Rolling Stones - Street fighting man
Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Black Eyed Peas - Where is the love?
The Clash- Rock the Casbah

Other artists who have been big into protest songs: Pink Floyd, Sting, Elvis Costello, Faith No More, Bad Religon, Jello Biafra, Ani Difranco, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, James Brown, Dead Kennedys, Arlo Guthrie, Iron Maiden, Cat Stephens, Live, Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield, Randy Newman, Rage Against The Machine.
This is nowhere NEAR a comprehensive list. This is just what I can muster off the top of my head

You want to take the politics out of music? You just lost some of the greatest songs ever written.

Anyone here want to wipe out this list of music?

jb2000

Music will always be political because politics matters and good music is about things that matter.

Unless one is a fan of music only as a meaningless drivel that one can retreat to when they don't want to face the realities of the world:

Locke7

Obviously you can't take politics out of music, but I agree with Gatorade here. I don't need a group to tell me how to vote. I need a group to make good music. If the music is good, I'll listen to it (even if it has a viewpoint that contradicts mine). If they are spouting off about how to vote, I'll turn it off.

Lebell

I was and still am, a huge Peter Paul and Mary fan, and I can sing Alice's Restaurant from memory.

That being said, after a while I realized that if I wanted my appendix removed, I shouldn't go to George Clooney because he played a good TV doctor.

As to Dave Mathews, I lost a lot of respect for that asshole when he couldn't even stay sober to sing at Farm Aid a few weeks back in Seattle.

__________________
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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jb2000

Good political music doesn't tell you what to vote for. It shows a perspective on something, ideally in such a way that it makes you think more about an issue and make your own conclusion. It might be pretty slanted, and want to impress upon you a particular perspective, but that doesn't mean that you either have to vote a particular way or that if you aren't of the same persuasion as the artist that it doesn't have anything to offer.

We've gotten to a point where people are far too eager to turn off someone's presentation just because it doesn't jive with a particular world view. I'm not going to stop watching Arnold's movies just because he's a Republican.

If you really just want music for entertainment, and don't want the politics in it, then do like most and choose music to fit your mood. I'm certainly not saying that a-political music can't be good. But if an artist goes to a convention or rally, then it's pretty silly to refuse to listen to their music again.

We seem to be at a point of conflict about where politics are and are not appropriate. Is it appropriate to discuss it at Thanksgiving dinner? Is it appropriate for a business owner to send a political message in the envelopes with the paychecks? Is it appropriate for musicians to be open about their political views? What about members of the military or clergy?

Unfortunately it seems to come down to often to 'it's appropriate until someone voices something I don't like'. It's too often when we don't agree with our boss' note or a singer's lyric, or our brother-in-law's tirade, that we get irate and start claiming how inappropriate for that person to slam you with their views using that platform.

No, most artists aren't poli-sci majors. But they are citizens, and as such, why shouldn't they be actively involved in politics? Why shouldn't each and every one of us be involved? Unlike medicine, politics is not an exclusive club, and it is up to us to make sure that we direct the country appropriately.

__________________
"Don't tell me we're so blind we cannot see that this is my land! I can't pretend that it's nothing to do with me.
And this is your land, you can't close your eyes to this hypocracy.
Yes this is my land, I won't pretend that it's nothing to do with me.
'Cause this is our land, we can't close our eyes to the things we don't wanna see."

- DTH

Tralls

So for those that think protest should stay out of music, I take it you dont listen to Dylan, since his music is so political. Music is a result of protest. During slavery, African Americans used music as their form of protest. Music is a result of protest, and protest a result of music...they go hand in hand.

maximusveritas

It might piss off the diehard Bush supporters, but they were already going to vote for Bush so it doesn't matter.
The point of things like this is to get to the 40% of Americans who don't vote. These people might show up because they just want to hear some good music. During the show, they'll probably learn some new facts about our failure of a president. Hopefully, by the end, some of them will be motivated to vote for change.
These artists aren't "telling me how to vote" any more than Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh. Most of the time they are simply presenting an opinion and hoping you do the right thing on election day.

roachboy

there are real limits to how much explicitly political information you can give in a performance context--i have seen lots of artists try it---performances, particularly pop/rock performances, are zones of shortened attention spans--you cannot make an argument, you have to traffic in sound bites.

but in a pop format you can make explicit political statements through lyrics for example (the strict constraints of the form at the musical level make parallel sonic statements very difficult)---among the few things i admire about springsteen is the how he has developed various strategies for making large-scale political arguments through songs about particulars.

in this, he has cultivated a level of expertise that far outstrips what you would find in anyone who has gone through undergraduate training in political science.

politics then can be understood as a following from modes of processing experience. this processing can take the form of stories that show the consequences of living in this order. or it can take the form of arguments against that order.

the attempts to invoke some kind of formal training that defines "expertise"---claims that are empty in themselves---function solely as attempts to silence all of this.

for most musicians, there is something political about simply continuing to produce music in the face of indifference, in the face of situations organized around making it difficult to maintain such an engagement.

and it turns out that most who have had to struggle day to day simply to maintain their engagement find themselves politically in opposition to the dominant order.
this opposition often is far more profound than you would imagine.
and it is a cultural opposition.
what freaks out the right is that these people are often very articulate about the exact nature of their opposition.

it does not surprise me, then, that conservatives would be hostile to the fact of artists participating in politics, and that they would whine about how unfair it is blah blah blah. maybe that is because when it comes to finding conservative musicians, they are reduced to country players, and to acting as though conservatism in that context is not every bit as much a marketing tool aimed at a particular demographic as "revolt" is for rock players.

but there is nothing they can do about it.
they have tried gutting funding for the arts.
they have tried imposing censorship on such funding as exists.
they have relied on privatized patronage to impose de facto censorship
they have tried arguing that the market is rational and so mediocrities like dave matthews are legitimate as speakers, only to turn around and criticize these same people when they do speak.
they have tried slander
they have tried everything.

what conservatives want is a wholesale disempowerment of artists.
it follows from the central tenent of their politics, which opposes organization of people, opposes public life, opposes dissent.
that would mean that the disempowerment of artists is like the canary in the mineshaft.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

TheFu

I'm a Republican and a DMB fan. I went to the Vote for Change concert Friday night. Dave said his usual "Thank you for coming I hope you are having a good time" and followed it up with "You know why we are here. We just want to say it is important to vote and that you vote November 2nd. And hopefully you'll vote for the same guy I do." With that they played the next song. They didn't tell anybody how to vote. In the televised things, Dave and Boyd said how they felt about things but they didn't tell anyone how to vote. I admire all those bands for standing up for what they believe.

One thing that has pissed me off about this administration is how some Republicans have made such an issue over having a different viewpoint than that of the administration. Disagreeing with the President is unpatriotic. I think that was the biggest load of shit I have ever heard. I don't hear it as much as I used to but for the period right before we went into Iraq I thought it was pretty bad.

TheFu

That wasn't my experience. The bands didn't say a whole lot, just said why they were there. They kind of expected you to know the issues and to tell your friends about them. In line at the concessions and in line for the toilets you'd have people passing out flyers or absentee ballot forms. You get stuff like that at most concerts anyway. Save the animals, save the trees, meat is murder, blah blah blah. During the show there isn't any way to get out a message like that. The fans wouldn't have allowed it no matter where they stood on the issues. Damn, you just spend $50 on a ticket you want some music.

And the whole vote for change idea. Why not vote for Kerry? The vote for change concept is pretty scary because no one is really voting for Kerry, they're voting for change. Does that frighten anyone at all?

Suave

Why would you give a crap about who the artist wants you to vote for? I listen to artists for music, and watch movies for entertainment. The political leanings, or any other personal aspects of the people who entertain me matter not a bit. I even listen to MICHAEL JACKSON'S MUSIC. I will continue to do so even if he is convicted, and I'm not even a big fan.