Where is the politics in music now?

[IanN]

After getting nostalgic about seeing Suede in October 92, the britpop thread made me think

Where is the politics now? Britpop was arguably silly nostalgia in an economically good time. After the early 90s recession,  pre Iraq. Most music is pretty vacuous at the best or worst of times, but in the late 70s early 80s we had some excellent music from bands who were Really Quite Cross about the economic and political situation. The Jam, the Clash, Billy Bragg have all stood the test of time. (You may disgree about Billy Bragg  ). The britpop generation had Pulp and Carter 

I am completely out of touch, granted,  but I don't see much evidence that current music is responding to current politics, massive youth unemployment and so on.  Is it there?

Kudos to One Direction for advocating lobbying Mr Osborne on tax evasion, though.

[bikenrrd]

Cheap designer drugs.

[tiermat]

Mainstream music, no, there isn't really anyone that can make it into the charts with music with a social conscience, mainly due to the market being flooded with shite about date rape, drugs, gansta life etc etc.

There are bands out there that do still put out social conscience music, most play live, many don't get airplay and even less (if any at all) get into the charts.

The closest I can think of is Smoove and Turrell, but their socio-political messages are hidden.

The big time for the likes of Bragg, Pulp, The Godfathers etc is well and truly gone.

This makes me sad.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I think a lot of rap is commentary on social situations (personally don't agree with the message).

[Cudzoziemiec]

Kudos to One Direction for advocating lobbying Mr Osborne on tax evasion, though.

But One Direction don't have any fans over the age of 11 (as far as I can make out).

[IanN]

But One Direction don't have any fans over the age of 11 (as far as I can make out).

At which age I was listening to the Specials. These primary school children should get a grip 

This makes me sad.

It's worrying. Or maybe social media fulfils that role now. Doubt it though

[Steph]

Plenty of politicaL music out there. It's called 'folk' and includes people like Show of Hands. They ambushed Little Willie Hague a while ago with their song about the bankers, "Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed"

[clarion]

mc nxtgen has just recorded a rap about Jeremy Hunt.  Jessie J got 'Price Tag', criticising consumerism, into the charts.  There's plenty of political music about, just we older folk aren't as plugged into it as we were in the 1980s.

[Cudzoziemiec]

None of them quite have the mainstream success of the Jam or the Clash though. Perhaps that's a result of the music scene(s?) being more fragmented nowadays?

[clarion]

Price Tag went straight to number one in this country, hit number one in nineteen countries, and got to 23 in the US Billboard charts.  Did The Jam do that?

[tiermat]

Price Tag went straight to number one in this country, hit number one in nineteen countries, and got to 23 in the US Billboard charts.  Did The Jam do that?

One hit wonder?

Going slightly off topic for a mo, I have a lot of time for Miss J, as her music is, generally, not just a lazy rip off, and it is, in my view, empowering to today's younger generation.

[Jaded]

Price Tag went straight to number one in this country, hit number one in nineteen countries, and got to 23 in the US Billboard charts.  Did The Jam do that?

You only need to sell 50 copies to get to number one nowadays.

[Biggsy]

Lily Allen is one popular artist doing a small pee - a bit of politics with a small pee.  Politics with a big pee doesn't really exist any more, does it?  "They're all the same" and all that.

But hip hop is where the hard stuff is, as has been the case for more than 20 years.

[Rhys W]

Price Tag went straight to number one in this country, hit number one in nineteen countries, and got to 23 in the US Billboard charts.

So, a lot of people bought it. Hmm. Looks like that criticism of consumerism really hit home.

[clarion]

And Paul Weller is a millionaire and National Treasure.  Your point is?

[Peter]

I think it was a joke - as in, you show your approval of an anti-consumerism message by consuming it. 

[clarion]

Yeah.  You can be committed and sell hardly any records (like Roy Bailey, Robb Johnson and many other great musicians), or you can be a bit more mainstream and have more impact, even if the message is watered down.  Tough one.

[Peter]

Still a joke, though!

[Ruth]

You should re-release your album, Peter 

[Deano]

Asian Dub Foundation are still as angry as ever, though they seem to be big in, erm, Brazil.

Mainstream music was rarely that political anyway, was it?

[tiermat]

Mainstream music was rarely that political anyway, was it?

I was working along those lines, but political music not being as mainstream now as it was during the '70's and '80's.

This, however may be rose-tinted glasses.

If have a look here: http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/uk-chart-history.shtml

Look at the charts for different years, and indeed, for decades as a whole and you will see that the only song that got within the top 20 that was a political song is "Ghost Town".

Having worked my way through some "modern" music I have thought a bit more about this topic and, yes, the content is out there, just harder to find.  Hard-Fi are still out there (I think) and one of their biggest fans is a certain Mr B Bragg.  ADF were big in the UK in the '90's, but as Deano says they seem to have lost their following (though I may be from the wrong background to comment on that) in the UK, but have a big following elsewhere.  There are others (Green Day, Block Party, Chris Cornell to name but three) but the commercial success of their "message" songs don't come anywhere near as close to the success of their, or other's "bland pop".  It reminds me of a saying someone passed on to me.  "To be truely popular you need to be truely mediocre"

[Exit Stage Left]

There are fewer opportunities to wear your heart on your sleeve these days. Listening to music used to be a collective activity. There was also a visual element, the sleeves were a potential form of display, showing your allegiances.
Listening to music is now a largely personal activity, which acts as a barrier to the outside world, and downloads don't have sleeves. Maybe MP3 players are political, a manifestation of individualism. So the politics may be in the hardware and the distribution systems.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

When you think about the political system in the UK it's hard to see what options protesters think there are.  Tory, Liberal and Labour all birds of a tattered feather, UKIP a bunch of crooked loons and no one takes the Green party very seriously as we think they will take away our toys.  What's to sing about?

Fantastic opportunity open to the Scots tho', to get away from the 'parcel of rogues' governing Britain.   

[pcolbeck]

There are still quite a lot of US bands with a political message. Bruce Springsteen for one (I still cant believe that the Republicans misheard Born in the USA so badly). Then there is Tom Morello (ex Rage against the Machine and Audioslave) and Steve Earle.

[Exit Stage Left]

There are still quite a lot of US bands with a political message. Bruce Springsteen for one (I still cant believe that the Republicans misheard Born in the USA so badly). Then there is Tom Morello (ex Rage against the Machine and Audioslave) and Steve Earle.

I suppose one of those artists is less than 50 years old, if only for a couple of months.