Let’s rant and roll
Now, more than ever, we need music with a message
BY Lisa Whittington-Hill
Photography by Shannon Stapleton
In the months leading up to the us presidential election, a small article appeared on the satirical news website The Onion asking: “Where Are You, When We Need You Most, Rage Against the Machine?” The agitprop band is best known for getting kicked off Saturday Night Live for flying the flag upside down on stage and staging a chaotic concert in Los Angeles outside the 2000 Democratic National Convention. Rage Against the Machine called it quits just a year later, but is widely regarded as a politically radical band that combined music and activism in a way that is sadly lacking in today’s breed of apolitical popstars.
But Rage Against the Machine’s message lives on in the work of Tom Morello, the band’s guitarist, and his 20-date Rock Against Bush tour. “I wanted to do my part during this very crucial juncture in American history to help fight the power,” Morello said in an August interview with Billboard.com. “[I wanted] to make sure that the truth gets out about this administration before the election.”
He echoed the sentiments of musicians throughout history, who have used their medium as a political soapbox, and a means of exacting social change. They have proven that music and politics do mix. Today’s political music isn’t just about counterculture, and adopting a political message isn’t merely about selling records. Music doesn’t exist as soundtrack to the movement, it is the movement.
And while the rant ’n’ roll attitude surrounding the US election is probably one of the most recent examples of musicians with a message, there are plenty of new bands that have incorporated overt political ideas in everything from their music to their merchandise and how it’s marketed. They have integrated music and activism, and taken on the ideas and causes they support as a way of life, rather than merely a publicity tool—think Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s support of Oxfam, Radiohead’s anti-globalization message or Bono’s Drop the Debt debate.
But for every politically minded artist, there is a political poseur like P. Diddy who, not to be left out of the pre-election efforts, launched his non-partisan Citizen Change campaign, with its “Vote or Die” slogan. The slickly packaged effort—designed to make voting “sexy” and encourage people to “party at the polls”—was less about educating young voters about the issues and more about keeping Puffy current with the kids.
August’s MTV Video Music Awards devoted plenty of screen time to Diddy’s campaign, Outkast closed the show with a political convention-themed performance (lots of red, white and blue), and the daughters of both presidential candidates suddenly became musical icons, though none of them sing.
There were a few exceptions—Beastie Boy Ad Rock’s anti-Bush pin and Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna’s “Stop Bush” dress—but, sadly, with a five-second time delay and an audience more interested in Usher’s six-pack abs, the show focused more on bling than Bush. Held on the eve of the Republican National Convention in New York and two months before the election, the message was slick, empty and contrived (just the way MTV execs wanted it). Seems it’s OK to encourage young people to vote, just as long as you don’t mention the issues.
But the corporate media aren’t alone in preferring music without a message. Many bands like it this way too, though they’re happy to play along with artists who really care. To do his part, Fat Mike, frontman for NOFX and owner of the music label Fat Wreck Chords, put together the two-volume compilation, Rock Against Bush. The discs featured a range of acts, from indie-darlings Sleater-Kinney to the major-label band No Doubt. “About a year ago I decided to use my influence to get bands together to speak out about the president. I think it’s our responsibility as citizens and musicians to do so,” said Mike in an April interview with MTV before the release of the first volume. The CD went on to top Billboard charts and sold 20,000 copies in the first week.
Critics of the compilation say submitting a song for use on an anti-Bush compilation doesn’t necessarily represent an informed political act, nor does it enhance a band’s political street cred (surely the reason some bands signed on). The pretend-punk band Good Charlotte was to donate a track to the compilation but pulled out, some say, after deciding that participation in the compilation would be a bad career move.
Many artists would rather adopt the attitude of pop princess/serial bride Britney Spears, who said, “Honestly, I think we should just trust our president and every decision that he makes,” rather than speak out, motivated by a fear of alienating fans and losing records sales revenues. When radio play is an important part of the equation, artists tend to play it safe for fear of not getting airtime. After September 11, criticism of the Bush administration was tolerated neither by those making the radio playlists, nor those listening.
For music fans, buying the compilation can be more an expression of consumerism than a political act. More than one teenage buyer surely shelled out cash for Rock Against Bush just to get the unreleased Sum 41 track. Many couldn’t care less about George W., though they may have time for his twin daughters. What if you support Bush, but like Rancid, are you still allowed to buy the CD? And then there will be those fans who cast a vote for John Kerry simply because the members of blink-182 say they should.
But this criticism isn’t new. When the Beasties Boys launched the Tibetan Freedom concert in 1996, many fans came for the music and stayed for the cause. Over its five-year run, the concert, organized to raise awareness of human rights abuses and Tibet’s struggle to break free of Chinese rule, proved to be the largest music benefit show since Live Aid, raised more than $2 million and drew big-name acts like Beck and Bjork.
Even some outright activist bands fear being labelled “political.” Thom Yorke, lead singer for the British band Radiohead, has denied that Radiohead is a political band, instead saying, “I don’t think we are political at all, I think I’m hyper aware of the soapbox thing…. The only reason, I think, that we go anywhere near it is because these are the things surrounding your life.”
And try as Yorke might to distance the band from the description, everything Radiohead does says otherwise. During interviews and live performances, Yorke has rallied against the mainstream media and multinational corporations, and even encouraged his fans to read Noam Chomsky. While producing their fourth album, Kid A, bandmembers were reading Naomi Klein’s anti-globalization bible No Logo, which affected the way they approached promotion when the album was released in October 2000. There were no videos for Kid A (which was almost called No Logo). While touring, the band played unsponsored concerts in an unbranded tent and referenced No Logo frequently. Since then, Yorke has campaigned to eradicate third world debt and participated in rallies opposing the war in Iraq. When touring last year in support of its sixth album, Hail to the Thief (a reference to Bush’s theft of the last US election), the band informally boycotted venues owned by media monopoly Clear Channel, which owns more than 1,200 stations across the US.
“This apparent lack of new peace anthems has more to do with consolidation in the radio business than with any lack of creativity or anti-war sentiment on the part of performing artists. Despite the stranglehold companies like Clear Channel have on the nation’s radio playlists, musicians are singing out against the war. You just won’t hear their music on the air,” said Utne Associate Editor Leif Utne in a March 2003 article on the death of protest music.
Artists who dared to favour free speech over patriotism found controversy, and the examples are numerous—from the uproar when fans left a Denver Pearl Jam concert after accusing lead singer Eddie Vedder of “impaling” a mask of president George Bush on his microphone stand, to the backlash surrounding songstress Linda Ronstadt’s decision to dedicate a Las Vegas concert to controversial filmmaker Michael Moore.
This can make it a confusing time for music and politics and those trying to combine the two. Vedder is socially aware—he campaigned for Ralph Nader in 2000 and, with his band, fought a widely criticized battle with Ticketmaster over affordable ticket prices. But he is often criticized for his explicit left-leaning views by fans who want their pop without the politics.
“If you say anything—if you talk about these issues in a positive fashion—somehow they will find it reprehensible,” said Vedder in an August Rolling Stone interview. “It’s predictable, and it’s survivable. This is a long tradition, nothing new—artists speaking out, reflecting society and its view, expressing them in art or around a tour of that art.”
Canadians have had more success integrating the medium and the message. Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies publicly supported the NDP and leader Jack Layton, organizing a fundraising concert for Layton in Toronto. And just as young voters south of the border can rock the vote, we have Rush the Vote (and it doesn’t involve Geddy Lee). The organization works to raise political awareness among Canadian youth through events such as a summit held in Toronto in September 2003, right before the Ontario provincial election. The event featured Saukrates and Canadian Idol winner Ryan Malcolm, no stranger himself to how important it is to get people to vote.
Though American musicians may seem more politically active, our nation’s music station beats them hands down, because when it comes to promoting the link between music and politics MuchMusic VJs get it. The station gives viewers something other than a glimpse inside Missy Elliot’s fridge, regularly producing issue-based programs on sexual imagery in music videos or sending musician Sam Roberts to check out sweatshop labour in Mexico. In the run-up to the federal election, the channel invited leaders from all the parties to the Much environment to speak to young viewers on their own turf. The station and its VJs take their power and influence seriously. In the hours after September 11, outspoken VJ George Stroumboulopoulos urged viewers to change the channel, telling them to turn on the news to watch the events that were unfolding in New York. That’s the thing about politics and punk. Sometimes you’ve just got to know when to turn down the music.
