The Intertwining Nature of Music and Politics
Music and activism have always been connected. Whether a song inherently has a political message, or it is simply chosen as a uniting song by activists, you can rarely attend any type of rally or march without hearing music.
By criticizing musicians for speaking out on topics that they feel passionate about, or by telling them to “focus on the music instead”, we are demeaning their ability to be passionate about more than one
thing, and we are also blatantly disregarding the platform that they have that allows them to reach a
large amount of people with their message.
While we tend to criticize musicians for participating in activism during their downtime, we don’t seem to mind at all when political messages are woven into their music. In my opinion, this is because it is far easier to ignore more intense messages when hefty bass-lines and high-pitched guitar solos are added to the mix. For many listeners, it is easy to chalk up the message of a song to being “just music”; in many cases, you can listen to the musicality of the song on a superficial level, that is, without much attention paid to the lyrics.
Because of this, musicians like Bono have received backlash for being too “preachy”, when in reality, U2’s music has contained heavily political messages for years. We’ve been conditioned to believe that nearly everything Bono says and does is unnecessarily sanctimonious.
But it’s not just Bono.
Rage Against the Machine, a band with a blatant, fiercely political name, is often ignored for their politics and activism. Many don’t bother to move beyond the superficial layer of their songs, referring to them as “radical anarchists”, and therefore are ignorant to what the band stands for.
In no way am I telling you that you should agree with your favorite musician’s politics simply because they are your favorite; I am, however, suggesting that the world needs to be a lot less judgmental towards musicians who choose to share their political views with their loyal listeners. After all, they’ve already been doing so, you just haven’t noticed.
Many musicians, however, have received a lot of backlash for the activism that they choose to be a part of, and are more often than not, told to “know their place” or “focus on the music”, or something else along these lines. And for what? Because they chose to take a stand for what they believe in?
That’s awfully hypocritical, if you ask me.
That’s awfully hypocritical, if you ask me.
By criticizing musicians for speaking out on topics that they feel passionate about, or by telling them to “focus on the music instead”, we are demeaning their ability to be passionate about more than one
thing, and we are also blatantly disregarding the platform that they have that allows them to reach a
large amount of people with their message.
While we tend to criticize musicians for participating in activism during their downtime, we don’t seem to mind at all when political messages are woven into their music. In my opinion, this is because it is far easier to ignore more intense messages when hefty bass-lines and high-pitched guitar solos are added to the mix. For many listeners, it is easy to chalk up the message of a song to being “just music”; in many cases, you can listen to the musicality of the song on a superficial level, that is, without much attention paid to the lyrics.
Because of this, musicians like Bono have received backlash for being too “preachy”, when in reality, U2’s music has contained heavily political messages for years. We’ve been conditioned to believe that nearly everything Bono says and does is unnecessarily sanctimonious.
But it’s not just Bono.
Rage Against the Machine, a band with a blatant, fiercely political name, is often ignored for their politics and activism. Many don’t bother to move beyond the superficial layer of their songs, referring to them as “radical anarchists”, and therefore are ignorant to what the band stands for.
In no way am I telling you that you should agree with your favorite musician’s politics simply because they are your favorite; I am, however, suggesting that the world needs to be a lot less judgmental towards musicians who choose to share their political views with their loyal listeners. After all, they’ve already been doing so, you just haven’t noticed.
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