An Obama Administration might mean no protest music?

[EraOfResponsibility]

Hello Obama, goodbye good music



Commentary
By Tony Sclafani
msnbc.com contributor

When Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on Jan. 20, Lady Gaga’s (pictured above)“Just Dance” sat atop the pop charts. The ode to escapism might not have captured the mood of the whole country (everyone didn’t vote for change, after all), but it definitely reflected the sentiments of most of the musical community.

During the past few years, countless artists have vehemently despised George Bush, while voicing support for Obama. In the U.K., the Guardian noted “You could construct a decent box-set of anti-Bush songs… covering ground from Bright Eyes to Eminem, Pink to Public Enemy, Jay-Z to Elbow.”

All of which begs the question: what’s next? If history is any indicator, expect dance music. Lots of it. Lady Gaga seems to have lobbed the first volley in what might be the biggest dance music blitz since the disco era.

It’s easy to see why. When musicians are dissatisfied with presidential administrations, they write protest songs, march on Washington and mouth off on stage. When they’re happy, they make dance music. And even if some artists don’t follow this pattern, the public’s buying patterns do. So, for the most part, that’s meant Republican administrations have inspired much of the best pop music of the past decades. Maybe they can put that in their next platform.

(Poster's note: How does one explain Rage Against the Machine during the Clinton Administration, hmmm?) :)

[Frank Booth]

1. I can't think of a good protest song that has come out since Bush 1's term.

Frankly, this isn't much of a loss.

[EraOfResponsibility]

2. good point! n/m

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Occam Bandage]

16. Things the Internet does not care about:

1. Your band.
2. Your friend's band.

[lame54]

17. Check out this GREAT song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTW0y6kazWM

"We Can't Make it Here"

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the da$% little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

[LWolf]

19. Here ya go:

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2003/03/my_hero_mr_pres.html

[MadBadger]

25. Well, Ive got two our three Springsteen songs that disagree with you.

[Hard_Work]

26. You're listening to the wrong music, then.

Hiphop has never stopped the protest music. Check out Public Enemy, Paris, KRS-ONE, they have never stopped protesting. Newer artists like Eminem, Jadakiss, the list goes on.

My point is that good protest music is still out there, it just doesn't make it to commercial (corporate) radio anymore.

[snowbear]

3. Hey Era, congrats on getting a DUZY award !

.
.

I saw the DUZY award list over at General Discussion, and there you were! http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5100444

~~

-

[EraOfResponsibility]

4. HAHAHAHA! Oh man

gee, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure :shrug:

[snowbear]

6. It's a good thing!

.
.

You could get book deals and stuff..

Ok.. maybe not book deals..

Just don't let it go to your head.

LOL!

..

[Uzybone]

5. Lazy article from a lazy media (nothing against the OP)

they have their stories pre-written and just force the facts to fit them.

Lady Gagas song came out in early 2008 way before Obama was even the nominee. Dance tracks reigned during the entire 80s...when an even more odious Republican reigned.

[camera obscura]

7. Maybe Lady Gaga was protesting the president when she wrote "Poker Face". He can be unreadable...

The jury is out on whether or not he's bluffin with his muffin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d27Hj8Gg9o

[last_texas_dem]

8. Nah, I think as long as there are issues that musicians think

are worth talking about, there will be protest songs.

I'm not even sure how much difference it makes who is president. The folk boom of the early sixties occurred under a relatively liberal president, after all. And while there were plenty of musicians writing anti-Reagan and anti-G. W. songs, it was rare that any of these songs actually got heavy airplay or were topping the pop charts. It really hasn't been the case that protest music was "mainstream" in that sense since the early '70s.

I do recall some music critic once claiming that "better" music (by their standards, at least) comes during bad economic times. Not quite sure I'm seeing that now, but that's obviously all subjective anyway...

[EraOfResponsibility]

9. Have there been any good protest songs during Dubya's administration though?

I cannot offhand think of any.

[rch35]

10. heres a list of some good ones. only scratching the surface however

"Let's Impeach the President" - Neil Young
"Final Straw" - R.E.M.
"The Day After Tomorrow" - Tom Waits
"When the President Talks to God" - Bright Eyes
"Heard Somebody Say" - Devendra Banhart
"16 Military Wives" - The Decemberists
"From Her Lips to Gods Ears (The Energizer)" - Against Me
"World Wide Suicide" - Pearl Jam
"Loose Lips" - Kimya Dawson
"Intervention" - The Arcade Fire
"2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)" - Radiohead
"Capital G" - Nine Inch Nails
"Leaders of the Free World" - Elbow
"How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" - Bruce Springsteen
"Cunts Are Still Running the World" - Jarvis Cocker
"Bushnomics" - Talib Kweli And Cornel West
"What if We All Stopped Paying Taxes?" - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

[Bicoastal]

11. Has the author looked at the pop charts in the last decade?

Lady Gaga is hardly the signal of a new trend--it's been AGES since a song even remotely political hit #1. It didn't happen during the Bush years, and it won't happen now.

[RepublicanElephant]

12. the grand obstructionist party will contine to provide plenty of outrage for

those musicians talented enough to expresss it.

[Occam Bandage]

14. Yeah, after that endless string of top-40 political hits we've had.

I mean, there was American Idiot back during Bush's 1st term, and then...er...well...

[Name removed]

15. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Forkboy]

18. Angry music suffers under Democrats.

Christ, look at the punk under Clinton compared to the punk under Reagan. Ministry called it a day because they admit they suck under Democratic presidents.

This was my one and only silver lining to Bush. :)

[LWolf]

20. Only if musicians

can only look skin deep. If they look beyond the election of the first black president to his policies, they'll find plenty to write about.

[blindpig]

21. Some are relevant regardless of who is president.

Our father was a union man. Some day
ill be one too. The bosses fired daddy
whats a family gonna do?

Come on all you workers, good news to
you ill tell. Of how the good old union
has come in here to dwell.

Chorus:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

My daddy was a miner and im a miners son and ill
stick with the union 'till every battle's won.

Chorus

They say in harlan county there are no neutrals there.
Youll either be a union man or a thug for J.H. Blair.

Chorus

Oh workers can you stand it? Oh tell me how you can.
Will you be a lousy scab or will you be a man?

Chorus

Dont scab for the bosses. Dont listen to their lies.
Us poor folks havent got a chance unless we organize.

Chorus (2x)

[zulchzulu]

22. Write a protest song about how there are no protest songs

Use three chords. It's easy.

[Chovexani]

23. Wishful thinking.

This is an inherently flawed premise. The kind of artists who make happy dance music are not the kind that make heavy political statements. There were many, many vapid pop artists who jumped on the Obama bandwagon because they liked him personally or because it became fashionable (see: will.I.am among scores of others) but none of those people had ever done anything remotely political in their music before. And they won't now that he's elected.

The kind of artists who make really good, meaningful protest music do so to protest The System rather than individual people who perpetuate it (and anyone who gets elected to POTUS in this day and age becomes part of perpetuating that System, whether they want to or not). Which is why we will never run out of it, sadly.

IOW: people who were just bashing Bush totally missed the goddamn point and are not likely to get it any time soon.

[wyldwolf]

24. Lady Gaga’s "Just Dance" is pure sugary pop goodness

A protest song in that style - Black Eye Peas "Where Is The Love?"

[mitchum]

27. Fine with me; what does protest music accomplish anyway?