Where have all the political bands gone?

the suburbs?

Political Bands

If I had a political case to make I'd grab my laptop and start blogging.

Music used to be a powerful, dangerous-feeling, "coded" way to communicate to the masses. Look at those old interviews with Bob Dylan from the late sixties. The establishment media was baffled by him, a little frightened of him, often sucking up to him ...

Now we have the internet, which allows easy and instant communication with large groups of people. Also, I don't think there's anything funny about pl&u, I think it's beautiful, but I also think political theory has moved past "tune in, turn on, drop out." People now understand that change is complicated and difficult, and that they can work directly on the system in order to make change happen. That no revolution is required. Also, we've been educated on what political instability looks like--and it's not something most Americans are hungry for.

Music is mostly entertainment now. And honestly, I've never listened to "Ohio" for any other purpose.

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RE:

Where have all the political bands gone?

I know a lot of bands have a couple of songs and people like Patti Smith and Neil Young are still doing their thing but where is today's Phil Ochs or Jello Biafra?

I don't believe that music can change anything, I'm just surprised at the lack of politically based anger in music...

I do like it but to a point. If it's just trying to push push push on every song or it feels like it's crammed down your throat. Then no it gets really old. Seriously we have enough of that on T.V. However if a band talks about something political in a subtle way where it makes you think or might slightly challenge your values and make you reflect on why you stand on an issue that you do, then I like it. I'm not a politics kind of guy but something they make great songs. I mean come on Edwin Starr sand "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing." Thats a political song that is an excellent message and a timeless classic.

Well, the political bands got angrier, because they did not listen to the voices of Jello Biafra.

Now, they are angry and full of rage. That is why you find political bands who in Thrash Metal and extreme metal.

However, punk is not dead yet and as long punk exists there will be political bands.

There are many genres nowadays that teaches people to give up such as some Gothic Bands. Some teach that we cannot do anything or change the world. Let's just give up and kill ourselves.

W: Listen how angry the political bands became:

Nuclear Assault - Third World Genocide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s6BhtqC5Fk

Tantara - Human Mutation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta_7wt0SikQ

Human race, dying phase

See them cry from outer space

Group of eight, trick the faith?

Kyoto do make debate

Money call, roll the dice

Name the place, you get a price

Rigging oil, power plant

Saving nature no we can't

Toxic

Waste, undenyable action

Mother

Earth gets destroyed without knowing

Spilling

Oil can't go far without killing...

...Nature

Human don't care about nature

Violence is near

USA, gone its way

Land of oppurtunity

Dying boy, make his will

Iraq war they never win

Nuclear war, hitting hard

Iran pulling things too far

No return, human burn

Newborn children cannot turn

Toxic

Waste, undenyable action

Mother

Earth gets destroyed without knowing

Spilling

Oil can't go far without killing...

...Nature

Human don't care about nature

But soon I think they will...

Human act destroys the pact

For money

Mutalized, controlled by eyes

We see you

Human act destroys the pact

For nothing

Mutalized controlled by eyes

We see

You

NOW

A: Wishful Thinking - Hiroshima

R: Peace, Love, and Understanding reflect the true nature of the human being and turn the human being from an animal into a human being. War, hatred, and dispute is violation against human nature.

WAR: Becoming a martyr?

Music represents war against war in the first place.

W. Soldiers who live to protect and keep us free

A. People who the soldier makes able to despise war

R. How many political bands do you really want?

WAR: Honestly I understand where you're coming from, but why in the name of the gods, would you want MORE political bands? There are plenty around right now and personally I enjoy music as non-political as possible. I don't listen to music so I can hear someone else s twisted point of view, if I wanted that I'd watch the news. But really, if you want a political band hit up the 400,000 of them on Youtube and help them get noticed.

Also, SOAD is a very political group of people, though I do enjoy a few of their songs.

There's a lot of songs that have political messages, they're just not mainstream and they never really have been.

And Music can change EVERYTHING.

My favorite 'protest' musicians/bands are Saul Williams, Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero, Faithless, and Flobots, which really aren't necessarily political based- it's more societal.

Folk songs were very popular--I think the message is lost in all the poison drugs and bank robbery..

Political Songs..may have been replaced by some of the WWE fanfare..

Alot of the California scene music lives in fantasy story-telling..the words are very un-real..though they gather a realistic approach to being Rock&Rollers..

Possibly the early songs that needed the CODED-lyrics of a revolution--have been just used up..

It seems from my environment of music--that playing for a popular idea is all tied to Hollywood..

The storyline in the songs look to "get a foot inside a door"..

While early R&R was very Ego-generated..

Today the songs are all "bank rolled"..oriented.

I think that my generation and those after us had a pretty complacent upbringing in most parts of the Western world. I have never had to fight for anything to any great degree, whereas in my dad's generation and before, the world was falling apart. I think the world's begun to go down a bit of a disastrous course again, though, sad to say. I don't think a lot of people my age and younger will have any idea how to cope.

W:

No love for Billy Bragg? Here's O Freedom, from his recent album Mr. Love and Justice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S54bNI2WRgE

A:

Pete Seeger's Which Side Are You On? came first to mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g

Also Billy Bragg/Wilco's righteously angry cover of All You Fascists, lyrics by Woody Guthrie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pDRIJC31tU

R:

Where are the strong? And who are the trusted? See my above answer for why I think there are precious few of both left.

WAR: What is it good for?: Absolutely nothing, says this conscientious objector.

Great Question

It's definitely a different society and media broadcasters are much more controlling in a more indirect way that the 60's. Therefore we don't hear or even think to hear anymore. Maybe because there is way more to hear, and that fills the gaps that were wide open in the 60's.

A Comment made above indicates that we don't see the dying in the wars we are in now.

We all have our little internet toys and social sites, OPPPs, but this vents our subconscious anti trust into little letters typed to the cyber dance. Grab your partner, round and round. The songs are there, They just need found.

w;

Arrogant Worms (satire)

Steve Earle

Bruce Springsteen

Malcolm Middleton

Drive by Truckers

do some

Anti flag

dedicated to it.

Jason Isbell "sirens of the ditch"

Richard Thompson "Sweet Warrior"

albums dedicated to it.

Brett Dennen

There ain’t no reason things are this way.

Its how they always been and they intend to stay.

I can't explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.

Preachers on the podium speakin’ of saints in seance,

Prophets on the sidewalk beggin’ for change,

Old ladies laughing from the fire escape, cursing my name.

I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same,

A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,

You can spend your whole life workin’ for something

Just to have it taken away.

People walk around pushing back their debts,

Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets,

Talking ‘bout nothing, not thinking ‘bout death,

Every little heartbeat, every little breath.

People walk a tight rope on a razors edge

Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons.

It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen

Or a thought or a word or a sentence.

There Ain't no reason things are this way.

It's how they always been and they intend to stay

I don’t know why I say the things I say, but I say them anyway.

But love will come set me free

Love will come set me free,I do believe

Love will come set me free, I know it will

Love will come set me free, yes.

Prison walls still standing tall,

Some things never change at all.

Keep on buildin’ prisons, gonna fill them all,

Keep on buildin’ bombs, gonna drop them all.

Working your fingers bear to the bone,

Breaking your back, make you sell your soul.

Like a lung that’s filled with coal, suffocatin’ slow.

The wind blows wild and I may move,

The politicians lie and I am not fooled.

You don't need no reason or a three piece suit to argue the truth.

The air on my skin and the world under my toes,

Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes,

Chaos and commotion wherever I go, love I try to follow.

Love will come set me free

Love will come set me free, I do believe

Love will come set me free, I know it will

Love will come set me free, yes.

There ain't no reason things are this way

It’s how they always been and they intend to stay

I can't explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.

a;

I really love a lot of them; Random pick: Eve of Destruction

--- absolutely nothin