In 1989, rocker Neil Young released a song called “Rockin’
in the Free World.” The lyrics were directly critical of the George H. W. Bush
administration, referencing Bush’s (in)famous “thousand points of light” speech
and his campaign promise for a “kinder, gentler America.” We got a thousand points of light for the homeless man, we got a
kinder, gentler machine gun hand, Young sings. It wasn’t the first time
that music had shed light on politics, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
And although the song made Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time”
list, it was soon forgotten amongst thousands of other contemporary rock songs,
some with more time-relevant messages. But recently the song has been getting
more press, for another political reason.
In June of 2015, in front of hundreds of people and cameras,
Donald Trump announced himself as the newest Republican Presidential Candidate.
As he took the stage, “Rockin’ in the Free World” played in the background. It
seemed to be a minimal detail, which escaped the attention of many people… but
not Neil Young. Almost immediately, Young had representatives contact the Trump
campaign to remove the song from its playlist, claiming that they were not
authorized to use the song. Young’s frustration is understandable; a song
written to critique a republican candidate, however long ago, was now being
used to add fire to another republican campaign. Not to mention the message of
the song: the government (republican-led at the time) not caring about America’s
poor. One could easily understand why a multi-billionaire appropriating such a song
would frustrate its writer, especially considering that Young is a well-known
liberal and has been a longtime supporter of Bernie Sanders.
It’s interesting to see exactly how many songs are either
directly related to political ideology, or have strong undertones of political
ideology. This list names many of them, some of which you may be
familiar with. And that’s not even close to all of them. There are certainly
some songs on this list that I’ve sat in the car and sung along to, completely
unaware of the political message. Some songwriters are really good at
concealing true meaning behind metaphors and rhymes, and maybe that’s actually
kind of the point. It makes it more of a subliminal message.
So, if anyone has actually managed to get to the end of this
ridiculously long blog post, I’m curious to know your thoughts on this. Have
you ever come across a song with a political message that you strongly agreed
or disagreed with? Or have you ever not realized the political message of a
song until much later? Can you think of any modern day examples of this? I’d be
curious to take a look at them.
I think a really good political song is Fight the Power by Public Enemy. Or like when the whole world was obsessed with Pumped Up Kicks then someone was like hey guys..this song is about a school shooter. Weird how something can get popular without people realizing its message.
ReplyDeleteI mean, most songs have some sort of message, right? Obviously not all do, but a lot of songs do have some sort of underlying message in their own way. Pumped Up Kicks is a great example, though, of people not realizing the message at first and just singing along because its catchy. It's also interesting how people react to songs because of events in the media. That Ke$ha song Die Young or whatever was pulled from the radio after the Newtown, CT shootings. I get it, I guess, but it's just interesting to me that people react to music in that sort of way.
ReplyDeleteAlthough songs like "Fight the Power," "Pumped Up Kicks," and especially "Formation" are definitely political in nature, I think about the proliferation of the female empowerment anthems that have come out. We sure do love us some Adele and Britney Spears and Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera and Ke$ha and Beyonce and ... I think I make a clear point here. I don't hate on these performers. I think that some of them are actually great. But think for a moment how the studios have MARKETED a complete ideology by placing artists into roles like these.
ReplyDeleteYeah, piggybacking off of Rusty, it's interesting (if not disheartening) to trace the commercialization of subcultural and countercultural ideologies. This pattern can be read as a strategy by dominant groups to control alternative voices. We've talked in class about political hip hop being (mostly) pushed into the underground.
ReplyDeleteI'll point out a song I like that's on the list: Sepultura's Refuse/Resist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=SRsepultura%20refuse%2Fresist&v=6ODNxy3YOPU
The singer on the song's inspiration: "I was in a subway in New York and going from Manhattan to Roadrunner Records. There was a Black Panther in front of me - a big black guy with an afro - and he had a black leather jacket. And in his leather jacket, there was this whole speech written about Black Panther, black power, all this crazy Black Panther s--t. And the very last part of this jacket, it just said, 'Refuse and Resist.' So I took it right from the guy's jacket and made it into a song."