Politics and Music

Politics and music don’t really mix very well as history has shown us time and time again.

I guess this is hardly surprising when you look at the average age of the typically radical musician. The older ones tend to know better than isolate half of their potential audience and tend to keep their views to themselves.

Growing up with the Beatles I was spared the political rhetoric that Lennon began to indulge in once he’d become infected by the dangerous, seemingly radical Ono malady.

His album Sometime in New York City particularly ruffled a few critical feathers (though no doubt it would be far better received today so much have things have seemingly changed).

Nevertheless I tended to side with my (possibly working class) hero.

At least I did until I grew up a little and began to form my own opinions.

By that time the seeming contradictions of Lennon singing ’Imagine no possessions’ whilst his viciously entrepreneurial champagne socialist wife was busy amassing a considerable fortune at his expense became less troublesome to me.

Lennon after all was still a young man himself and he was merely expressing an ideal - an ideal that was obviously beyond him also.

Imagine still remains a great song, and it still also remains an unobtainable ideal.

I loved Jackson Browne until I unknowingly attended his concert/worldview monologues a few years back. (It was advertised as a concert) Not that I didn’t agree with some of his points, I just don’t consider him or most musicians, actors, talk show hosts, and audio enthusiasts a reliable source of information to base my views upon.

I generally prefer not to mix politics with music, and I will say it seems insane to punish Russian artists, particularly dead ones 🙄, for the acts of their dictatorial government.

As expected, this topic has opened the door to self serving expressions of personal political biases. So, back to the OP:

The answer is, you can have both suggestions.  Acknowledge the political message in the music (any art) and remember that the message is an expression of the composer’s world view; no one else’s.

To ignore that fact is to have an incomplete view of the music. We, as listeners, can be educated; or, we can disagree with the message and still appreciate the artistic merit of the music. Seems inconceivable, for instance, to refuse to listen to Wagner and ignore its musical greatness, because we disagree with his twisted political views.

@kb673 Yep, that was an early impression on a young mind, always equated that with the 'rule of man', the rule of law is delusion. Observe the present Supreme Court as they ignore Stare Decisis for evidence of this.

If one makes choice to present political views in their music, they also need to accept the consequence of that decision. The vast majority of listeners likely cannot divorce their own political views from those presented in this music, I don't see a problem with this. The political message is integral to the artistic intention, I don't see how one can separate the message from the music. I presume many have this issue with all sorts of messages contained within music. Many here can't relate and/or accept entire genres of music based on various messages. Take rap or hip hop for instance, many write it off as an inferior form of music. I don't presume to know why any single individual has this perception, but I'd suggest for at least some race is an issue, for others it may simply be a problem with the messages being sent.

For myself, its difficult to relate to messages and stories  in any music that has virtually nothing in common with my life experiences. I can be curious or even empathic, but I mostly prefer music with messages I can relate to. Why should political messages be any different! Add in the provocative intent of the political message and this becomes even more difficult.