Music and Politics don't mix. Music won’t ever change the public votes. The only musician in my eyes that has ever come close to successfully mixing the two is Dylan. 'Blowing in the wind' asks questions about peace, war and freedom yet doesn't provide any answers. If anything this encourages the public to think for themselves.
However some would argue that 'pop becomes the expression of its political and social context' (street in F.S.S) This has some truth, for example Live8.
Another criticism of music mixing with politics could be the fact that the artists and industry are quite hypercritical. An artist like Bob Marley giving a voice to a counter capitalist movement is met with the capitalist system making money from this.
At the end of the day I stick with my first point this music and politics don’t and shouldn’t mix. Yes artists should write from their heart and if that has political aspects then fine, but this won’t achieve political change.
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You are very certain of the inability of popular music to effect political change, could this be because your definition of politics (i.e. votes within a democratic system) is drawn a little narrowly?
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have decided not to do last weeks blog after all?
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