Ask me now, I understand the words that Alice said

[vovat]

I spent pretty much all of yesterday on the Internet. I'm very lazy, in case you haven't realized that. Recently, I've started reading my livejournal friends' own friends' lists. Strangers' journals often come off as boring or hard to follow, but I've come across some interesting entries that way. I'm usually scared to leave comments on the journals of people I don't know, even when I have something relevant to say. As I've said before, I welcome strangers' comments on my own journal, but I don't really know whether other people feel the same way.

Recently, I came across a comment from Alice Cooper denouncing anti-Bush rock concerts, as well as mixing rock with politics in general. He said, "I call it treason against rock 'n' roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics...If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons." He's apparently not alone in this opinion, as evidenced by a post that was made to alt.music.tmbg a few weeks ago, regarding John Flansburgh's "trashing of the President" in the They Might Be Giants e-mail newsletter. Now, I'd say there's some merit in saying that you shouldn't use rock stars as viable sources for political information. You also shouldn't use my journal to decide who to vote for, but that doesn't mean I'm going to refrain to sharing my own political views here. Alice and Eric's comments imply that musicians have LESS right to discuss politics than anyone else does, and I can't agree with that. Do Flansy, Bruce Springsteen, and {gag} Dave Matthews not have the same right to free speech that you and I do? The whole bit about rock as "the antithesis of politics" strikes me as a ridiculous viewpoint anyway. I'm generally opposed to the idea that musical genres should be linked to attitudes. You can play or listen to, say, punk rock without being a punk, or gangsta rap without being a gangsta, and these genres are much narrower than the incredibly broad "rock and roll." Saying rock is anti-politics is sort of akin to saying it's the Devil's music (What about Christian rock, Jack Chick's opinion notwithstanding), or that it's rude music used by kids to annoy their parents (What about soft rock?).

Of course, being overtly political, or even controversial in general, in music can be a dangerous thing. I'm sure fans have been driven away by bands coming out in favor of viewpoints they oppose. I can certainly enjoy music that expresses an opinion I disagree with, but there's a difference between ideas I just don't agree with and ones that make me downright angry. On the other hand, as Eminem says, "We need a little controversy," and I'll bet controversial political opinions on the parts of bands have sometimes attracted new fans. Take the Dixie Chicks' comments about being embarrassed to come from the same state as Bush, for instance. I've heard of Dixie Chicks fans losing respect for the group because of this, but also of people who don't care for their music GAINING respect for them. So it works both ways, and it's something musicians (or any celebrities, I suppose) should think about before doing. I think they have just as much right to hold and express strong political views as any of the rest of us, though.

Incidentally, I don't remember where I first saw the Alice Cooper quote, but when I did a Google search to find it again, the first two results were conservative websites. Of those, the first one had a link to an article with the headline "Linda Ronstadt: I don't like singing for Christians," but with the actual quote from Ronstadt only applying to fundamentalists, not Christians in general, and just saying that singing for them is "a real conflict" for her. (Yes, they lie about the quote in an article that ACTUALLY CONTAINS THE QUOTE, or at least part of it, which seems to me to demonstrate how stupid they expect their readers to be.) The second one crashed my browser.

Comments

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Dude, you shouldn't be afraid to comment on the journals of strangers. From now on, you shall do it. Do it, do it.

I wonder why everyone is getting on the case of the musicians about their political feelings. I, for one, wish that Arnold Schwarzeneggar would never have gotten political, and that's a bigger deal than someone throwing a concert for a cause, says I.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I've occasionally heard pretty much the opposite argument, i.e., that it's better for a celebrity to actually run for office than to just talk about their own political views. While I don't agree that it's necessarily better, I wouldn't mind seeing some GOOD celebrities in politics. I mean, come on! Arnold Schwarzenegger? Ronald Reagan? We can do better!

I get the feeling that, at least with some people, they don't mind musicians expressing political views as such, but that they mind musicians expressing political views that are different from their own. They might not admit it, but when you see a comment against musicians getting involved in politics in the same message as a pro-Bush comment, it comes off as hypocritical and suspicious.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I sometimes do that, too, although I don't typically feel weird about commenting. Although, I do kinda find it funny when there're Non-Friends-Only Journals where the person all starts going "OMG HOW DARE YOU ADD ME OR COMMENT HERE YOU ARE STALKING ME!!!!"

I'm a little innately distrustful of Political Musicians, just because kinda like Alice says, a lot of them are kinda dumb. I tend to dislike Overtly Political Music, just because there's not a whole lot that can be said in a 3 minute pop song about that sort of thing -- "Oh, wow, war is, wait... it's bad? Oh, man, oops, I've been turned around all this time!" -- the format seems more suited to emotional "truths" than actual Factual Ones, since those typically need a bit more background. (Sorta like why Andy's a bit iffy over "Dear God".)

But I do get a little annoyed by the "Shut up and play!" camp, too. It's almost like they want them to not be _allowed_ to do that sorta thing, and that's a bit... no. No matter how distasteful I personally find it, they should be able to do it, even if they probably shouldn't.

(What cracks me up is when people get pissed and freak out when someone known for their politics will do that live, and it's all like "WHAT! BONO WAS TALKING ABOUT POLITICS! I AM SHOCKED AND APPALLED!!!")

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if you really don't want strangers commenting on your journal, there are easy ways to avoid it. It's not like it's hard for someone to just come across someone's journal without really looking for it.

One thing I wanted to mention in the entry but didn't get around to doing (I almost always leave something out in these long, rant-style entries, either out of forgetfulness or not being able to come up with a good transition) is that I see a difference between being musicians political in their actual SONGS, and when they simply mention that kind of stuff in interviews and between-song concert banter. That's one reason why I don't entirely understand the people who are complaining about TMBG getting political, when they really don't do it much in their actual songs. Even the song they did for the Move On compilation (which I don't have, but I'd like to get at some point) is apparently not really a Bush-bashing thing, but rather a cover of a promotional song for the Harrison/Tyler ticket. I've seen comments from the Johns to the effect that they generally avoid controversy in songs. (I think I once saw that mentioned in conjunction with "Kiss Me, Son Of God," with an implication that that one song WAS controversial, but I don't really see that, except maybe if you're looking at it from an evangelistic "OMG, they said 'Son of God' without saying 'Praise Him!'" perspective. Maybe I misunderstand what Linnell is actually getting at in that song, though.)

I think one problem with saying that people who get their information on politics from musicians are morons is that, yeah, it's true, but it raises the question as to how often it actually happens. I guess it might occasionally, but to use your example, have you heard of anyone listening to "Dear God" and immediately becoming atheists? Really, as I suggested in the entry, you're pretty stupid if you're getting all of your political information from only one source, no matter WHAT it is.

I guess I can agree with Alice in another sense as well, in that, when I listen to music, I often don't really want to be preached to. In fact, I probably listen to more music that doesn't really have an underlying message (or at least not an obvious one) than I do music that does.