When did music loses it political relevance

[hammer]

In Glasgow and the Highlands for the last week for a conference and then a little vacation and stopped into a bar the other night to hear some live music. Interesting band with guitar, bass, bagpipes/accordion, keyboard and drums that was doing both traditional and R & R. Halfway through their show they did an original tune that was clearly a political statement called “Brexit...No exit”(although with my age and music related hearing loss and the Scottish accent/brogue/burr it could also have been entitled “Breakfast..and no blood pudding.” 


Kidding aside, it struck me that it has been a long time when I last heard a US band of note or even a local one (outside of the hip hop genre) do a tune that included some political commentary either of the upfront type or of a more subtle nature (the last artist I remember who regularly included political commentary in his/her work was Bruce Cockburn and he’s Canadian). Given the political climate in the US at this time and the commentary one often hears as banter at concerts, I’m wondering if I’m just missing this form of music and it is out or that it is just no longer part of the business. And if so. What’s the reason behind it?

[jwright9]

The last show I saw where there was political commentary would have been Spearhead back in 2008.
I believe Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam still mentions his political opinions on stage but I have not seen them in many years.

I definitely know what you are talking about Hammer. I remember in the 90's when it was very common fo have political rants on cd's or on little filler tracks in between songs.

And then there was Rage Against the Machine.

[edwin]

The person who inspired me to become a professional musician was Gil Scott-Heron back in 1982. He was powerful, but in general, the political power of music was on the wane. Finally, decades later, I decided to be more direct about my political involvement (well, not political in the sense of party politics) and now I'm an immigration attorney. Power to the people!

[Tennesseemick]

Son Volt's Union is pure political commentary from the album's opening note to its close. Here's a taste.

Of course Springsteen is still creating music, too.

[cozmik_cowboy]

The person who inspired me to become a professional musician was Gil Scott-Heron back in 1982. He was powerful, but in general, the political power of music was on the wane. Finally, decades later, I decided to be more direct about my political involvement (well, not political in the sense of party politics) and now I'm an immigration attorney. Power to the people!

Right on, Edwin!  Every time I saw 50th-anniversary-of-Apollo-11 stuff this year, my mind just kept saying "Whitey's on the moon".

Peter

[rv_bass]

A couple that come to mind that still provide some political commentary in their lyrics or between tunes now and then during live shows:

Neil Young
Paul McCartney
U2
Jimmy Buffett
Victor Wooten
Sam Bush
Every jazz musician I have seen over the last 10 years (and that’s a lot of them!)

[lbpesq]

Bob Dylan
Randy Newman
John Prine

Bill, tgo

[musashi]

Right on, Edwin, for your career choice.

I have heard more than one musician condemn artists for "getting political".  Well, I think that the job of the artist is to observe and (hopefully thoughtfully) comment on what goes on in the world.  Other people have other jobs, and don't always have the time, after work and family obligations, to pay close attention to what is going on in the culture.  That is, I think, an artist's role, the job description, if you will.

Like Edwin, I, too, was raised on (raised by) Gil Scott-Heron, and his bass player, Robbie Gordon.  I write songs with political content, and hopefully, political relevance.

https://manley1.bandcamp.com/track/blue-people
[Blue People]

https://cuttothechase.bandcamp.com/track/rfd
[RFD]

https://cuttothechase.bandcamp.com/track/l-a-s-burning
[L.A.'s Burning]

[Square Dancer (In A Round House)]

[rv_bass]

I saw this movie tonight, which suggests that political statements through music continues...great movie if you are a jazz fan!

[hammer]

I find,it telling that the large majority (though admittedly not all) of the musicians that people have mentioned are sixty years of age and sometimes considerably older. That either means that that the large majority of us on this forum are pushing the age of retirement and still primarily listening to what we did when we were a lot younger, or a lot fewer younger musicians have infused political commentary into their songwriting (I wasn't necessarily referring to artists who make political statements between songs when they are playing live, but those like Marley, Dylan, Young etc. whose song writing is infused with such reflections.

[rv_bass]

I think the hip hop scene still carries that torch, and since instrumental jazz has no lyrics (unless applied by someone else after the fact), the composers tend to explain the meaning and social/political circumstances that influenced composition when introducing the tune.

I haven’t really kept up with popular music since the early 90s, it all started sounding the same to me at that time.

[keith_h]

I think they are still out there and it has more to do with how the music business has changed. In the past the artists all tended to be channeled through the big record companies who were willing to take chances. I don't think the record companies are as willing to do that today. Also with the advent of the Internet many artist self publish making harder to find their material. While this is anecdotal, living in an area with a number of large universities I still see quite a few acts that try to make statements with their music. The key to running across them is you have to go to places that are frequented by the college kids and not old goats like myself. 

[peoplechipper]

ya nailed it there Keith! the big record companies are all part of even bigger companies now, and seeing the state of the big record industry now, I'm sure none of them are too keen to rock the boat and potentially kill their business, so the only artists on their rosters who are political are the old cranky artists who've always been that way and will always sell records to their cranky old fans...

[bigredbass]

Although there will always be protest / political music around, for the mainstream it went away with disco and 70's rock:  People were sick of Nixon and VietNam, tie-dyes, flannel shirts and granola, and wanted to party . . . . . and they did.  And ironically, disco saved bass playing:  Never before was bass/kick drum thrown that far forward in the mix, and saved us from a sequenced, keyboard bass-only world.

[pauldo]

I don’t think 56 is old and although my wife thinks I am cranky at times.   

Being cynical may appear to the untrained eye as “cranky”, but how can you view the events of today’s world without feeling that many on this planet are nothing short of plain old misguided?


The collective ego is frightening, we need help.


What’s so funny ‘bout peace, love and understanding?