Protest music for a new generation
The anniversary of Woodstock has come and gone, and with it scores of revitalized folk records and overused tie-dye designs. Many years have passed since the anti-Vietnam movement flooded the streets of America, and time has brought international conflict, economic downturns, and changes in the ideology of our political leaders. The question left in the wake of this anniversary is one that has gone relatively unnoticed in the post-Woodstock generation – where has all the protest music gone?
The radio, record stores, and even all-encompassing iTunes are missing the throngs of political protest music that used to hold such revolutionary impact. Of course, the fringe music still exists: loyal Kimya Dawson fans can still find anti-Iraq war messages in many of her songs, including “Loose Lips.” And artists outside the mainstream, like Saul Williams or Le Tigre among countless others, can be relied upon for controversy to appeal to a narrow base of fans. Yet mainstream, far-reaching artists are noticeably quiet on political issues. This strange silence of political music cannot be attributed to a lack of subject matter; political controversy is still vibrant in the military, economic, and social arenas. What has happened to protest music? Does it only exist in the shadows, cowering away from most big-name records? Or has it changed forms completely, and will it ever come back? Though musical expression of politics post-1980s may seem to have decreased, the tradition of politics in music continues to flourish, albeit not in the same manner.
Where has all the music gone?
Of course, this is not to say that political music has completely disappeared. Examples of political protest music have been well advertised, whether in support of politicians, against political leaders, or discussing ideological standpoints of artists. Further, though most music takes a liberal stand, songs with a conservative twinge exist as well. George W. Bush’s presidency was a catalyst for not only protest songs denouncing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (like the Beastie Boys’ “In a World Gone Wrong”) but also political music expressing patriotism and support (like Toby Keith’s “Proud to be an American”). The presidential election of 2008 led to a flourishing of pro-Obama songs, including the Black Eyed Peas artist Will.i.am’s “Yes We Can,” which uses the Obama campaign slogan to stress his call for change. Yet few would argue that the activist tradition of John Lennon, Sting, and Jimi Hendrix lives: rarely are songs released into the mainstream today explicitly political; those that are receive high press coverage solely because they are so unusual.
Political art or political artists?
Indeed, the main contribution of the music industry to politics today is not through songs, but rather through the direct positions of recording artists. Musicians now leave their political beliefs out of the recording studio, and instead project them on stage. During Coldplay’s recent concert tour, for example, lead vocalist Chris Martin made digs at Fox news anchor Bill O’Reilly in between belting nonpolitical hits like “Violet Hill” and “Viva la Vida.” How things have changed: in the 1984 presidential election, Bruce Springsteen and his band explicitly refused to endorse Ronald Reagan’s campaign, though their song “Born in the U.S.A.” caused quite a pro-conservative fervor. The band had previously avoided explicit partisan stances or making their views public, but after contributing to a New York Times article in 2004, they became active supporters of John Kerry and Barack Obama. Countless other examples exist – the Dixie Chicks and Green Day, among others – who have lent their fame and time to support their political opinions rather than writing songs to incite political interest.
Dynamic Forms and Creators
What encouraged this shift of musician interests? It could be the shift of political expression towards other forms of media. The influence of the Internet has expanded enormously since the 1980s, and the impact of communication media cannot be ignored. With the prolific number of political blogs existing today, as well as websites dedicated to political awareness, political music is another aspect of the general frenzy for communicating individual political opinions. But artists today may find political expression too risky for their careers.
This may be why the number of amateur political artists continues to grow as mainstream musicians tone down their activism: almost 60,000 results for individual songs pertaining to politics can be found on YouTube alone, and this does not include scores of independent artists broadcasting from other sites. As it becomes easier for amateurs to communicate their ideas on an expansive level, so has the need for political music from mainstream artists diminished. Further, the independent amateur artists can proclaim partisan ideas with much less risk than mainstream artists: most do not have music as their sole source of livelihood, and thus are freer to express political opinions without fear of the consequences.
A Different Kind of Attitude
Nor can one ignore the shift in the tone of political music: parody, whether earnest or tongue-in-cheek, has evolved to become a form of protest outside of the proverbial music box. During the 2008 election, voters were barraged with political music videos of a political nature. Obama Girl’s “I Got a Crush on Obama,” with over fifteen million views on YouTube, and McCain Girl’s “The Incredible McCain Girl” (three million views) exemplified some of the attempts to use humor and music for drawing support. Others, like “Whatever I Like” by Alphacat, parodied catchy songs in popular culture-and built entire reputations on playful Obama imitations.
But technology has affected protest music in more than just its distribution-the tools of creating music itself have changed. In”Two Minutes Fifty Seconds Silence for the USA,” Matt Rogalsky used “a distillation of George W. Bush’s address to the world on March 17, 2003, in which he gave Saddam Hussein forty eight hours to get out of town.” Rogalsky used software to “remove [Bush’s] voice from the thirteen-plus minute speech,” leaving only thumping sounds to represent “the reverberations of Bush’s voice inside the White House.” Many have interpreted them to be the “drums of war” and thus have used the song as a symbol of protesting Bush and his connection to the Iraq War, but the ambiguous nature of the song makes assigning it to one narrow attitude impossible. With so many differing forms of musical communication for protest, there is no standard political song that rises above the rest to define the group; differing in genres, subjects, and forms of communication, there is no way to collectively define political protest music as collectively as in the past.
It’s Not Protest, it’s Social Commentary
Instead, the seeming lack of political music may be a problem of perception, and the definition must be rewritten to include more than the usual partisan or war topics. Perhaps today’s political music should be considered to include artists like Jay Brannan, whose song “Housewife” considers the perspective of a gay man who wants to fit into the “wife” role and questions how others criticize this desire. Maybe we need to include Ani diFranco, who speaks of gay rights, feminism, and other women’s issues, while John Rich protests the conditions confronting the working class under the impact of the economic crisis with his “Shuttin’ Detroit Down.” By moving away from the traditional subjects of political protest, artists of today are still commenting on the political climate, yet in a way more responsive to the social needs of a new generation.
It’s All on You, Really
Music is a source of free expression, of individual emotion and declaration. But the transition of music from the individual artist to the populace involves communicating a greater sense, or emotion, that strikes a chord in both parties. The music that reaches, impacts, and resounds with the masses is what reflects the emotions held by the people at that time; this has been true through all ages of musical communication. Thus, it is fundamentally the fans, not the artists, which decide what music will be produced and will represent the greater society.
Artists with political music respond to the desires of the fans, whether that is stating the partisan opinions held by a group, or by reflecting the emotions experienced in a time of changing political culture. The fans effectively shape the artist and overall political music climate by deciding which songs to listen to, to highlight, which to pass on to their friends and family. In this new age, where political music is less frequent, appearing in interludes and from a variety of sources, perhaps the needs of the people are changing; perhaps the rise of societal commentary in addition to traditional political protest music is a reflection of the increasing desire for multi-issue based thinking, or of the increased diversity in thought and culture.
As Sanford Kwinter, renowned American architectural writer and theorist, said in an interview with Johan Bettum, it is important to look also at “the convergence of communications with the automation power of computing.” “While we take these developments largely for granted today,” he claims, “they remain the most powerful engine driving the transformation of contemporary social and economic life.” Music may be a reflection of this idea. With a greater ability to communicate comes a greater need to represent a more diverse array of ideas, beliefs, and emotions. There is no standard anthem of musical protest today because there cannot be one. Though there are many songs that arise in popularity because they are evocative, powerful, and musically sophisticated, artists today cannot so easily articulate the needs of the people so universally.
Looking to the Future
Though it seems to have retreated to the shadows, protest music is still alive and well — just not in the traditional sense. It flourishes through the expressions of social commentators like U2 and Belle & Sebastian, but finds outlets in the off-stage voices of artists as well. These songs can be ambiguous, accompanied by video, or in parody form, and yet still be political; there is no longer a clear definition as to political protest music, nor is there a single source of media for its expression. Whether or not the political declarations of artists are beneficial to society, the relevance of political music itself will not decrease. By encapsulating the emotions of societal commentary and partisan opinion, music is a form of artistic connection whose ability to translate reason into emotion cannot be replaced by any other means. Even without tie-dye shirts.