When I think of music and society, I think of protest music, or that is what I am most familiar with. John Lennon is one of my favorite peace advocates. His song "Imagine" is probably his most well known songs. The song calls for peace and kindness for all people and between all people. I even have a pair of special edition John Lennon converse all-stars. I also thinkof the protest CD that was released in 2004 entitled "Rock Against Bush." When I first heard about this project I thought it was an anti war call for peace kind of thing. Several of my favorite bands contributed to the volume, including The Offspring, Flogging Molly, and Sugarcult. However, it ended up being a Bush "bash." I'm no Bush fan, but I do think that the president deserves some degree of respect. I did some research on the volume for this blog and I found out that it was inspired by The Rock Against Racism tour in the 1970's. Rock Against Racism (RAR) was founded after Eric Clapton and David Bowie made some racist remarks. RAR performers included Carol Grimes and one of my favorite bands of all time, The Clash.
Then there is the government's censorship of music. According to Wikipedia, Isreal banned music by Wagner and Beethoven. They were banned because of their association with the Nazi Germany era. Although both composers were dead before the Nazi movements.
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I have read, (or maybe it was from a documentary?) that Wagner was in the intellectual circles when eugenics was coming of age, which is all about race purity and all that, something Hitler later ascribed to as his reasoning behind the holocaust and his obsession to keep the Aryan race pure. I'm not sure about the Beethoven connection though.
ReplyDeleteI play music, and re-did the protest song that was made famous at Woodstock by Country Joe and the Fish (1..2..3.. what are we fighting for) but changed the words "Vietnam" to "Afghanistan" and stuff, to make it more current. Now I've been tempted to change it to "Iran" but hopefully we'll stay out of that mess and I won't have to. You can give it a listen on my youtube if you want, (not the greatest sound quality though) thanks ;>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNMqWa4YRkI
Are you friends with anna owens? From your blog, it seems like you should be.
ReplyDeleteTaking the protest side of society and music and your John Lennon reference automatically made me think of the bed-in, and their album "Two Virgins".
I'm glad I'm not the only one left who still considers George Bush a person, even though he is kind of a screw up. (Did I just say that?)
I remember "Rock against Bush"! Wow, that brings me back to high school. I bought that c.d. and I thought that my dad was going to freak out. I agree with you that it was just a little bit too much. I want those Converse all star shoes!
ReplyDeleteMy idea of music and society or music and politics automatically brings me to protest music. I am also a fan of Lennon and the Beattles and "Imagine" is definitely a favorite in my family. As far as that Bush Bash CD, even though I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad to see him LEAVE, I must admit that that might have been a bit over the top but who am I to say what someone can say about another person. I mean, rappers make bash or dis cds all the time and their are stupid organizations that even make songs and devote websites to racism and outright stupidity. In this case, music would be a more peacefull approach to letting your frustrations out.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you said that the President deserves some degree of respect. It's obviously not an easy job to have with the whole world watching you. That being said, I think we should be really, really grateful for the society that we live in. You mentioned censorship of music in Israel, think of how limited our education and opportunites in America would be if we didn't have the right to freely express and critize all types of music. I'm a strong believer in having pride for our country, why critize so harshly a country that works its butt off in order to give its people the safest and most comfortable lifestyle in the world? We really are blessed. You have a very thought provoking entry! :)
ReplyDeleteI also have to commend the respect you portrayed to our countries former president. Reading this blog has opened my eyes to the true amount of freedom we have in America and that we shouldnt take it for granted.
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