T Hanssen

How much politics do you like in your music?

Do you want your live music experience free of political messages in the between song banter or do you want a full on protest music? Can you listen to an artist that you disagree with politically if there are no politics in his/her music? Can you think of instances where artists you usually enjoy incorporate political motives to poor artistic ends?

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TruersoundPermalink Reply by Truersound on October 27, 2009 at 6:22pm
Agree that country music is about real things, real people, real problems. Also the reason I love it.

I also think most people's problem with politics in music has more to do with them taking their own politics too seriously. If you can't listen to Hag's Okie From Muskogee or Neil's Ohio without being offended then I feel bad for you. As I said in the first reply, I would hate to live in a world where one could only listen to music within their own political safe zones.
Brendan McCloudPermalink Reply by Brendan McCloud on October 29, 2009 at 12:08pm
Hi Again,

I looked most of those up and I liked them all. I don't really see them as conservative songs. They strike me as being songs about rural or working class people being screwed over by the system. I don't see that as a left or right issue.

The ones about losing property are well within the Woody Guthrie tradition such as "Dust Bowl Ballads." I can appreciate farmers, since I come from a long line of families of farmers and my dad really did lose his house once back in the 50's.

The ones about guns and justice I can understand, (one of my favorite songs is "Living with the Law" by Chris Whitley) even if I don't agree with taking the law into your own hands or using a gun to settle differences.

Hank puts a twist in it that makes it hard to disagree with the sentiment, if not the fact. Back in the 80's I liked Bruce Cockburn's "If I had a rocket Launcher" for the same reason. (Now there's a big gun for you.) People rooted for the subway vigilante for the same reasons.

The desire to want to shoot the hell out of the oppressors or bad guys and to root for the "good" outlaws goes deep in our culture. Actually taking a gun and shooting the hell out of them usually leads to standoffs and the outlaw, bad or good, being shot to hell.

Hank also did a version of “I Fought the Law and the Law Won.” I'll take the songs every time over shooting or being shot up.

My grandfather and uncle were hunters and we had one thanksgiving where the pheasant they hunted that morning was our Thanksgiving dinner. I believe in the right to bear arms as in having a rifle handy for hunting and for self protection but I never saw the need for a deer hunter to own an assault rifle.

My dad never kept guns in his house or hunted and the reason was this; He was shot in the head by his 15 year old nephew in the late 40's after surviving world war II without a scratch. It was an accident because the boy was just playing with a .38 pistol in a bar and jokingly aimed at him and asked if anybody thought he could shoot his uncle off the barstool. He put a little too much pressure on the trigger and...

It occurs to me this would make one hell of a song and I may write it, but the real life results were that my dad almost died, had to have brain surgery and like the old, bad joke actually had a steel plate in his head.

So as someone who grew up in a gun culture and has seen both sides of the reality I support those who keep them for legitimate purposes but have problems with how easy it is for the "bad" outlaws or unwitting kids to get street weapons.

I don't know what the answer is to keeping guns out of the hands of bad people and still preserve the rights of people who have legitimate uses to keep them.

I don't keep guns for a number of reasons including my Dad. We live rurally and a lot of people keep them for legitimate reasons but I had my hands full explaining to my city raised wife why the sound of gunfire in the country is different than in the city. We lived next door for a while to raccoon hunters who liked to go out with flashlights and shoot them in the dead of night. More explaining, but also some aggravation.

I'll end with this. Not everybody raised in down home culture has the same world view, for any number of reasons, but the reasons down home folks have certain values are much different than those of the politicians or others who play on them.

I come from country and small town people and I have a deep appreciation of my heritage but I differ somewhat in my ways and beliefs than a lot of folks I was raised with. Call it country liberalism or just a certain life experience that results in some different views but I can also appreciate the rights of those who feel differently to sing or speak about it, especially when those views are based on their own real life experience.

To me the "alt" in alt country is what lets us have different points of view and to write and perform music that would never make it in the mainstream country music world.

By the way, I truly appreciate this thread and the opportunity to discuss the kind of real life points of view that power so much of the music we love.
Steve CooperPermalink Reply by Steve Cooper on October 27, 2009 at 2:55pm
So much of the politics we receive in song is from the left. The presumption is that we all simply MUST agree with the singer's politics or there's something wrong with us. This gets tedious rather quickly.

Also, political songs don't tend to age well. The very last song I want to hear Dylan sing is "Masters of War." "And I'll stand over your grave til I'm sure that you're dead" indeed. Maybe if I was younger.
Patrick ShieldsPermalink Reply by Patrick Shields on October 27, 2009 at 4:04pm
considering the state of today's music business, I'm not surprised at the lack of political content in the music.
After all, why lose half your audience?
Old SoulPermalink Reply by Old Soul on October 27, 2009 at 4:34pm
An important issue here is whether or not the artist's political stance is integral to the music itself. I have no problem with a committed artist such as Steve Earle, Billy Bragg, or Jackson Browne--or even Bruce Springsteen to an extent--expressing himself both in song and in speech, because he's putting his professional credibility on the line with the songs themselves. (By the way, I apologize for using the masculine pronoun exclusively, but all four artists listed happen to be men.)

I do have reservations about performers whose music is essentially apolitical--which seems to be increasingly the case in the Americana universe--talking politics in a concert setting. If an artist really has something important to say to an audience, it should be in the music as well. Anything less looks like a cynical attempt to avoid controversy for the sake of radio play and CD sales.
Lost HillsPermalink Reply by Lost Hills on October 27, 2009 at 4:53pm
Music devoid of political content can be heard in elevators everywhere, and that's where it should remain. Real artists grapple with real human concerns.
Jim WerkmeisterPermalink Reply by Jim Werkmeister on October 29, 2009 at 9:09am
Well put.
DavidPermalink Reply by David on October 28, 2009 at 6:14am
Prefer music about life in general over a specific politcal message. Tell me a story, don't lecture me.
denton fabricsPermalink Reply by denton fabrics on October 28, 2009 at 6:32am
From what I've heard, the vast majority of artists are well to the left of center. I am well to the left of center. Early Dylan, Steve Earle, Nightwatchman, bring it on.
RudyjeepPermalink Reply by Rudyjeep on October 28, 2009 at 8:01am
It's funny....I don't see anyone here saying music should be apolitical. I don't care if it slants left or right as long as it's a great song. And there are some songs that make you question your politics, your values and your life. That's the impact of music. (I've even sung "Long Haired Country Boy" and "Fool for the City" with equal gusto) But again, most artists -especially Bruce Springsteen - end up sounding dumb when they try to talk politics to the same type of crowds that cheer when Billy Joel sings "Captain Jack" and look lovingly in each others eyes when REM play "The One I love". Henry Rollins writes interesting pieces and does spoken word shows on well thought out topics. A thirty second speech in between songs doesn't make it and can be misconstrued.
mojobonePermalink Reply by mojobone on October 28, 2009 at 9:10pm
To me politics comes as natural as breathing. If you're an artist, it's because you feel things more deeply than others; it'd be damnably difficult to portray an emotion in song without ever having felt one, after all. Artists tend to be sharp observers as well, and somewhat compulsive about recording their thoughts and feelings. If artists are more affected by events, add to this that government affects nearly everything, and you begin to see that we can't help being involved. For me, personally, Joe Hill casts a particularly long shadow; when I say my Daddy was a teamster, I mean he plowed behind a mule prior to the second world war and drove a truck for Standard Oil after. Many of my recent ancestors were miners and factory workers when they weren't farming. How much politics are in the music I listen to? About as much as I can stand. How much in what I play? You tell me. If it's there, it's probably usually subconscious, but when I sing Nine-Pound Hammer, it's personal-I'll tell you why, but only in person. Mom always said politics and religion aren't fit topics for polite conversation; Daddy said there's a time to stop being polite. So I'm okay with talking politics in interviews and whatnot, but usually only if asked. If a song was written about or in reaction to particular events, current or otherwise, I'll probably mention it briefly while introducing a song if it'll help the song get over. Otherwise, I'm inclined to let the more political material speak for itself-if it doesn't, I haven't done my job. I don't reckon the payin' customers came to hear a speech or a sermon, and while I have been a preacher, I'm no politician, so I choose to shut up AND sing out.
Christopher LockettPermalink Reply by Christopher Lockett on October 29, 2009 at 1:26am
Politics is a very real part of life. There is no shortage of deliberately non-political songwriting and performers out there. Meh.

Not writing about or speaking about political issues and the people and forces involved in that process between songs means, to me anyway, that you're roped off a part of life as off-limits. And that's just a damned shame. Seems to me that the difference between "Yeah, say it!" and "Holy hell, shut it!" isn't so much whether or not I agree with the artist's politics, but how well they express what they're saying. We've all heard people we agree with bore us to tears and utter cringe-worthy remarks.

Folksingers have a political tradition that I'm comfortable with. It isn't for every audience, every song and some nights, doesn't have to be there at all, but to rule it out entirely, naw. Not talking about politics and religion is how we got into the mess of the last 8 years. The Constitution was trashed when we weren't looking at the real threat to America. And if it feels right in the room, yeah, I'm going to say that in concert.

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Created by No Depression Feb 17, 2009 at 9:06pm. Last updated by Kyla Fairchild Jul 6, 2011.