superrific
Master of the ZZLverse
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Note: I've lived my adult life convinced of the ethical and political importance of music and art, and conformist versus non-conformist art in particular. I'm a follower of Adorno/Marcuse in that regard. Music can be a source of critical thinking, or a form of herding behavior. That's not exactly what I'm talking about here, but it's in the ball park.
Anyway: has our fascist moment been created in part because rock and hip-hop no longer function as oppositional voices?
1. I'm sure many posters can speak to this personally, but of course music was a huge galvanizing force behind the social movements. The anti-war movement, in particular, was inseparable from rock and roll, but obviously the civil rights movement too. Bob Dylan was extremely influential, as was Woody Guthrie. Edwin Starr (War); Barry Mcguire (Eve of Destruction). Fortunate Son. Other artists brought a more radical edge -- "Volunteers" (of America, Jeff Airplane), MC5 (all sorts of songs), etc. In the 1980s, it wasn't quite as ubiquitious, but U2 rose to fame with explicitly political songs like the whole War album and Pride (In The Name Of Love).
There's little of that today. Rock is dead. Metal has never been all that politically conscious, but there were bands like C.O.C. Nowadays, most metal is focused on juvenile satanism/paganism/norse viking shit and anyway you can't understand the lyrics and anyway you definitely cannot sing along. You won't find protest anthems in metal.
2. Punk was only inconsistently political, and not always salutary in the lyrics, but punk offered something else -- a radically oppositional, liberational form of expression. The whole point of punk was to give a middle finger to the whole world, or at least all of Western society. In many ways, rock music in the 60s and 70s did the same. "Smoke weed" isn't exactly a protest message, but it isn't exactly not a protest message in a world of stifling conformity. And liberation itself birthed radical politics, or at least liberal politics. Make love, not war is trite and sort of silly, but it shows how cultural liberation can offer resistance to a repugnant status quo.
Punk is mostly dead and has been for a long time. What remains has mostly been stripped of oppositional content. I'm sorry, The Revolution Won't Be Sung By Green Day. It's not only oppositional lyrics, but also oppositional style. Green Day is bubblegum punk, more suited to frat parties than communes. And anyway, American Idiot was 20 years ago.
3. Hip hop? Man, how I long for the days of Public Enemy. I don't know much about the current state of the genre, but my sense is that the oppositional content has mostly been neutered in favor of lifestyle braggadocio. I don't know if it's quite "Money Cash Hos" but Drake ain't gonna be singing the revolution either. What rappers today are edgy in any socially conscious way? Kendrick Lamar has his moments, but his most famous song is just a diss track. One could argue that the rise of diss tracks -- which exist because they are tailor made for popular consumption -- was a major factor in the abdication of hip-hop of its role as "CNN of the ghetto." Anyway, Ice Cube ain't taking time away from his Budweiser ads and whatever else to launch a revolution.
4. So what we're left with is generic, smooth and unruffled pop music with little lyrical content and no musical adventurousness. Worse, music criticism has seemingly abandoned its traditional role in mainstreaming underground music (genres or bands) and has turned into celebratory jerkoffs of pop music. How many "music critics" debased themselves by favorably reviewing Sabrina Carpenter? Too many for my liking.
It's because music today is so pre-fab, so generic, so made-to-order that young people have so little political consciousness. Or, to put it differently, there is no sustain there. When I was exposed to radical ideas in my youth, I would then hop into my car and listen to "Vote With a Bullet" or "Fight the Power" or "Flowers of Guatemala." It kept me going. It kept the fire raging. And if not lyrically, in musical substance. Jimi Hendrix was rarely overtly political, but he offered a stinging rebuke of the war in Vietnam just by playing the national anthem on his guitar.
Thoughts? Some of y'all know modern hip hop better than I do.
Anyway: has our fascist moment been created in part because rock and hip-hop no longer function as oppositional voices?
1. I'm sure many posters can speak to this personally, but of course music was a huge galvanizing force behind the social movements. The anti-war movement, in particular, was inseparable from rock and roll, but obviously the civil rights movement too. Bob Dylan was extremely influential, as was Woody Guthrie. Edwin Starr (War); Barry Mcguire (Eve of Destruction). Fortunate Son. Other artists brought a more radical edge -- "Volunteers" (of America, Jeff Airplane), MC5 (all sorts of songs), etc. In the 1980s, it wasn't quite as ubiquitious, but U2 rose to fame with explicitly political songs like the whole War album and Pride (In The Name Of Love).
There's little of that today. Rock is dead. Metal has never been all that politically conscious, but there were bands like C.O.C. Nowadays, most metal is focused on juvenile satanism/paganism/norse viking shit and anyway you can't understand the lyrics and anyway you definitely cannot sing along. You won't find protest anthems in metal.
2. Punk was only inconsistently political, and not always salutary in the lyrics, but punk offered something else -- a radically oppositional, liberational form of expression. The whole point of punk was to give a middle finger to the whole world, or at least all of Western society. In many ways, rock music in the 60s and 70s did the same. "Smoke weed" isn't exactly a protest message, but it isn't exactly not a protest message in a world of stifling conformity. And liberation itself birthed radical politics, or at least liberal politics. Make love, not war is trite and sort of silly, but it shows how cultural liberation can offer resistance to a repugnant status quo.
Punk is mostly dead and has been for a long time. What remains has mostly been stripped of oppositional content. I'm sorry, The Revolution Won't Be Sung By Green Day. It's not only oppositional lyrics, but also oppositional style. Green Day is bubblegum punk, more suited to frat parties than communes. And anyway, American Idiot was 20 years ago.
3. Hip hop? Man, how I long for the days of Public Enemy. I don't know much about the current state of the genre, but my sense is that the oppositional content has mostly been neutered in favor of lifestyle braggadocio. I don't know if it's quite "Money Cash Hos" but Drake ain't gonna be singing the revolution either. What rappers today are edgy in any socially conscious way? Kendrick Lamar has his moments, but his most famous song is just a diss track. One could argue that the rise of diss tracks -- which exist because they are tailor made for popular consumption -- was a major factor in the abdication of hip-hop of its role as "CNN of the ghetto." Anyway, Ice Cube ain't taking time away from his Budweiser ads and whatever else to launch a revolution.
4. So what we're left with is generic, smooth and unruffled pop music with little lyrical content and no musical adventurousness. Worse, music criticism has seemingly abandoned its traditional role in mainstreaming underground music (genres or bands) and has turned into celebratory jerkoffs of pop music. How many "music critics" debased themselves by favorably reviewing Sabrina Carpenter? Too many for my liking.
It's because music today is so pre-fab, so generic, so made-to-order that young people have so little political consciousness. Or, to put it differently, there is no sustain there. When I was exposed to radical ideas in my youth, I would then hop into my car and listen to "Vote With a Bullet" or "Fight the Power" or "Flowers of Guatemala." It kept me going. It kept the fire raging. And if not lyrically, in musical substance. Jimi Hendrix was rarely overtly political, but he offered a stinging rebuke of the war in Vietnam just by playing the national anthem on his guitar.
Thoughts? Some of y'all know modern hip hop better than I do.