I started on this train of thought by way of music. That’s how things usually start with me, to be honest. So, this is my conclusion. Maybe. I might have something to add after actually sleeping, whenever that actually happens.

Now, as I’ve said, I grew up on 60s music and culture, in the late 80s/90s.  Maybe I had a skewed view of things, but in my world, everyone was singing about peace and love and social justice. It was amazing. This was the stuff that had been popular. People talked about this stuff!

And then I learned about “modern” pop music. This was during the height of the boy band craze, mind you. Songs about dating and being heartbroken and dating someone else. I sat back and wondered, what happened to caring about important things? There had always been this type of songs, of course, but that was all there was anymore. Music is a powerful medium. Use it to reach out to people, to make a change. That’s what John Lennon did. The Beatles started out singing about ordinary love and ended up with John on the FBI watch list.

To this day, in the pop music culture, there’s nothing that remotely resembles a political stance. When did we lose our voice?

I took a step back from this question. I’ve never really been into the popular music; I’ve had my moments with Ace of Base and Spice Girls, and maybe TLC was the closest that came to being controversial subject matter. I remember when Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” became a hit. We skated to it at the roller rink. How many people were aware that they were anarchists, what that song was about? I didn’t even know at the time (hell, I didn’t know what anarchists were), but at least the core message stuck with me. I’m not sure most of my classmates could tell you, then or now, what that song was about. Their other stuff is amazing and full of political subjects, but of course it was the “least” political, the one that could easily be misinterpreted, that became the hit.

Somehow, through all of this, I started listening to music that meant something again. Only, the funny thing is, I didn’t recognize it at first. I liked the (International) Noise Conspiracy, Dropkick Murphys, and the Candyskins, but for the music, not the words. “Capitalism Stole My Virginity” was just a fun phrase. Unions? Give me bagpipes! At some point, my awareness of social issues blossomed, and around the same time I recognized the music for what it was. It’s amusing, really. The music didn’t make me aware, for some reason. Yet, it was what I had been yearning for.

Now, most of what I listen to is political in some way or another. I’m not just talking T(I)NC, Rise Against,  and Propagandhi (I admittedly didn’t get into them until much later, and really only because I wanted to explore John K. Samson’s work before the Weakerthans). I mean Patrick Wolf and his gender bending androgenous masterpieces. Placebo’s ballad of, not just resisting the cops, but turning the tables on them. The Dears with every single perfect song. “Me and Mia” and “Ana’s Song (Open Fire)” talking about the other side of eating disorders, the side that nobody else seems to talk about.

I’m noticing themes in songs I’ve loved for years. I never realized that Angry Salad’s “How Does It Feel to Kill” is about war (specifically Vietnam). James’ “Laid” was a fun song, but how did I manage to ignore such powerful lines like “Dressed me up in women’s clothes/Messed around with gender roles/Lined my eyes and call me pretty”? Even more recently, Kaiser Chief’s “I Predict a Riot”, about police brutality?

Now, I’m not saying that everything I listen to is political. I don’t think hellogoodbye has any merit on a political spectrum, and probably not Moxy Früvous either. Logan Whitehurst & the Junior Science Club definitely doesn’t. But I have a healthy balance.

And at the same time that I sit here and think, “How could I have possibly listened to these songs without realizing the meanings?” I know of people who, this day, listen to the most obvious of these, Rise Against and Dropkick Murphys and Sage Francis, without getting the message. What does it take to get the message through?

So the music isn’t lacking the political themes. You just have to look for it. Outside of pop music. I’m pretty sure that my mother, who lived through the Monkees heydey, can’t name any of their songs that are about political issues. They weren’t the “hits”.

There’s a whole underground music scene that’s full of politics. It’s a thriving community in Chicago. It just hasn’t made it out to the general public. Gaia forbid they actually think.

MusicLas reglas ????????online poker por el juego a Lowball no son tan diferente de las reglas de los otros juegos sin una. used to mean something. It was how stories and news were passed around, before most people were able/allowed to read and write. There were minstrels and bards, the storytellers. Today’s punks are just their reincarnations.

I don’t know, I was trying to explore my own relationship with music, why it’s constantly evolving to mean something even more to me all the time, and of course my thoughts got away with me. But there we go.