music and politics

musicismylife78

This year, Ben Harper, Dixie chicks, pearl jam, Tool, last years system of a down record, and many others have spoken out in song form about the current state of society, about the war and life in general in today's world.

Does anyone else pick up on the real anger, disillusionment, and rage in these records by the bands I listed above?

For example, the entire 2 disc ben harper record is powerful, but the unexpected screamed words during better way are scary and emotional. The entire pearl jam record, the dixie chicks new one speaks almost entirely on loss of innocense, and anger about the war.

However, tools record really scares me. They have always been in my mind a cut above most bands. They seem to fuse buddhist/zen like sayings in songs to basically make fans gain a higher consciousness. However 10,000 days, has none of that. I can't pick up on any zen/buddhist/higher consciousness themes at all, in the lyrics. It scares me, because they are basically saying, this world, the war and all thats going on are so disturbing, that zen/higher consciousness isnt the way to go or something like that. They are just showing the reality of the world, in raw form, without any hope. Its scary.

Ed's gorge rant about how its hard to say "it's okay" also scares the hell out of me frankly. I agree with him, but its scary our world has come to this. Where the people we look to for hope, are in many ways just like us. Scared and upset.

Its upsetting and disturbing how out of control everything seems to be.

SVRDhand13

You can bomb the world to pieces but you can't bomb it into peace.

best signature ever.

and yes after hearing ed talk about how its hard to think its okay i started to really think about the world and how much we're fucked.

Cropduster84

I just wish their was more explicit political messages in music.

I mean yeah metaphors are cool, but some direct hard hitting political lyrics would be nice, especially in this age of an almost painful level of apathy.

'Pearl Jam' is a political record but only a couple of tracks, was expecting more lyrically to be honest.

I mean sure there's prob LOADS of political bands Ive not heard of but there's nothing really hard hitting in the mainstream anymore.

DOSW

Cropduster84 wrote:

I mean yeah metaphors are cool, but some direct hard hitting political lyrics would be nice, especially in this age of an almost painful level of apathy.

I'd say Rage Against the Machine did that better than any other. They were direct but poetic at the same time. Fucking great band. We need them around today.

fragileblake

I don't think anyone can touch people like ani difranco, steve earle and especially Billy Bragg when it comes to writing songs about politics. I'm sure thats what keeps them under the radar of most people

Gary Carter

pennywise and nofx are 2 bands that are very hard hitting when it comes politics.more so pennywise. bring back ratm

bharQ

metsfan531941 wrote:

pennywise and nofx are 2 bands that are very hard hitting when it comes politics.more so pennywise. bring back ratm

hilarious if you look back at nofx's lyrical content 10 years ago lol..

rod_farva

I agree with what you say about 10,000 Days.

the more I think of it, that maynard quote from some interview a few months back pretty much sums it up.

"On our last few albums, there's been more of a metaphysical, attempt-to-open-your-third-eye kind of approach, having faith that people will find a way to expand their conciousness and wake up to the world that they live in," he explains. "For some reason, we felt like we could help 'em with that. And I think over the last few years, I've either gotten older -- or become the grumpy guy who keeps your ball when it bounces in his yard -- but I think I've lost a little faith watching the whole political thing.
"Looking back, I was just a little kid living in Ohio when there were students getting gunned down on campus because they were speaking their minds," he continues, referring to the Kent State massacre of 1970, when U.S. National Guard troops opened fire on a group of college students protesting the Vietnam War. "And it seems like nowadays, people sign a petition online or they send an e-mail. That's about as much as they can do, and it's a little depressing to me. So I've noticed that this album has a lot more sadness on it. We've been joking about it in a way, but this is kind of, like, our blues album. There's still a lot of hope in it, and there's still a lot of positive, fun, silly stuff. But if there's a theme to it, it'd have to be, 'Hey, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. I have witnessed this firsthand -- and therefore, you're on your own."

I think he's just realizing he's overestimated their fans for a long time. Most of them are no cooler or more intelligent than the average american. If you've ever attended a Tool show and looked around, you might say the opposite is true.