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Music & Politics

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a pack of wolves:
To me, politics are inextricably entwined with all forms of art. In fact, the political dimension is an essential element. So I was wondering what other people feel about the relationship between music and politics. Do you like overtly political lyrics? What do you feel about more subtle political aspects to music, if anything? Do you personally feel that music can be seperated from politics?

A lot of my conversations about music are with people from the same overtly-political musical culture, so I'm interested in what you guys coming from a broad range of perspectives think about these things.

MilkmanDan:
Politics in songs is fine, but I always get pissed off when people just sing / rap about 'political things' just to sound cool. Just yelling "George Bush is dick!" or "Corporations are totally, like, evil" or other stupid simplifications get incredibly boring. For example, the new System of a Down song. i think it's a new one anyway, I can't stand SOAD, so I don't really know. One of my friends was listening to it the other day, and the chorus was something along the lines of "Why did the president start the war? Why does he always send the poor?". Please. Let's have some subtly, or at least a well thought out, cohesive, individual perpective.

normz:
I can see where your coming from in that some of my fave bands like A Perfect Circle have definite political overtones. However i think alot more of my music is based on the human experience and emotions which then again is inextricably is linked to politics. As every song is written by a human person it always faces bias in the fact that the said persons thoughts experiences and of course political beleifs are somehow infused into their artwork. So although a song may not be political from the outset or may even be about something totally unrelated to politics (eg a song about relatioships) it still has a writer somewhere with human bias and beleifs which are of ourse influenced by their political background

Robbo:
Sometimes there is just no damn relation at all. But then a lot of bands use their music to express their views or their ideas.

I think it can easily be seperated. Looking at the first wave of Black Metal, even when the scene followed the Neo-Nazi line, the music didn't. It was still just Anti-Christian, Satanistic, Grim and Nerco, etc. Guys like Varg are racist fucks beyond question...but Burzum wasn't racist. Still the way it is today in some parts, the people are racist, but the music isnt.

But then you have NSBM, well the name speaks for it itself really.

I listen to music that ranges form all types. With any politics to strong left wing views to full some on NS stuff. Including a few nihilistic/etc things in the middle. I'm not bothered by it, it's not going to change my views on anything really. Though I have a few issues with actively supporting (eg buying) NS music just because of my own views.

Some bands just cant find a good way to express their views for love nor money and sometimes really cringe worthy stuff can be off putting. So sometimes a little line here and there is better than a whole album full of the stuff.

I'm trying to think now if anyone has really done "fair and balanced" view stuff...writing songs that show the politics of different sides together and fairly...hmm but I can't think of anything.

KharBevNor:
Music can easily be a-political, but it can never be a-philosophical. I think that's the difference I'd make. For example, outside the National Socialist Black Metal scene pretty much all black metal is a-political in a classic sense, and I doubt most in the scene would see anti-christian polemics as a political statement. Indeed, black metal was pretty much founded on an a-political basis: it was one of the things that made the still bleeding genre split with death metal in the kate eighties/early nineties so violent. Black metal purists cast death metal that dealt with politics as 'life metal' and essentially ostracised it, and the rest of the genre by association. Still, by a general rule, metal is normally not overtly political, and where it is, it is most often in the realms of philosophy rather than society. Even the aforementioned NSBM as often as not doesn't make really overt political statements, except in the odd song. Most politics in metal is on a more subliminal level. For example, Iron Maiden's '2 Minutes to Midnight' carries basically the same message as Bob Dylan's 'Masters of War', without actually saying so unless you read it/hear it properly and know a few basic facts (Such as what the title means). That said, there are the odd few bands/songs in metal proper that are overtly political or have some overtly political songs: Napalm death are a common example, and every single band Martin Walkyier has been in has ended up churning out album after album of his dense and allegorical mixture of left wing working class politics, ecosensitivity and paganism. Other bands have the odd song: Edge of Sanity placed 'Enter Chaos', a brutally vicous and strong attack on gun ownership (particularly American gun ownership: "Gun propaganda, from the 'land of the free', the land of pain and misery!") in the middle of an album that was otherwise packed full of classic mopey Dan Swano existentialism and pure fantasy/sci-fi.

Anyway, that was a bit rambling. I do like political lyrics, btw. As long as I agree with the politics: I can't stand 'Meat is Still Murder' by Propaghandi, much as I like a lot of their other stuff, and even though their musicianship is insanely excellent, I find it hard to swallow Arghoslent's blatant racism.

EDIT: I do like SOAD. The song actually says 'Why doesn't the President fight the war, why does he always send the poor', and I think it's a valid point. It also lead to a fun debate with my mates last night about how effective a soldier GW Bush would be.

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