Party For Your Right To Fight
November 8th 2006 03:35
Greetings disco citizens,
Bono's in town. I'm excited. I've been a U2 fan since well before my voice broke and I have a very hazy memory that I started playing air guitar to Where The Streets Have No Name in 1987. A lot of the music that motivated me to have compassion and energy for causes came out of what I call the Alternative 80s. Bands like Midnight Oil, REM, Billy Bragg, The Smiths, Public Enemy and contemporary groups like Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers, Powderfinger, Shihad, Fugazi and of course U2. Either directly or indirectly they present(ed) a worldview that takes in more than the vast majority of acts. A lot of people wanted to save things or have empathy with causes, but this gave way to the phenomenon of 'compassion fatigue'. The subsequent malaise where people ceased to care. It continues to this day.
Chuggers (or 'charity muggers') who canvass donors cold turkey in the streets are, to some degree, an emblem of the urgency that charities have felt in stepping up their profiles, but you see more people walking on by than you do folks signing up. Charity, as one music industry figure once opined, "is not cool". Unless of course it's obvious. Wave Aid proved that, but it's easily forgotten or someone else's business. Token gestures for a popular cause, in the end, mean very little. It's hard to find groups or artists who are convicted of anything to actually find it in their music and put it on the line, reach out to an audience starved of substance and vigour. It has been said before, music and politics don't mix, but it's hedonism and escapism that are preferred. If you take notice of the Top 40 any given week there's an intellectual void a mile wide. Then we encounter someone like Bono. He makes it all seem possible, but also necessary. It is his duty. That sort of responsibility and dedication is rare anywhere. If others won't, he will.
Here are the list of people and causes U2 have touched upon or been involved in without grinding the axe into a blunt instrument: The IRA and unrest in Northern Ireland, refugees in America, nuclear holocaust, Martin Luther King Jnr, famine in Ethiopia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's 'disappeared', Aung San Suu Kyi, Apartheid in South Africa, the role of the media in shaping and manipulating the masses, Warchild and Amnesty. That's a fairly impressive list. It's not like we're short of things to sing about, but generally people don't like to boogie to political speeches. Unfortunately the political climate around the world right now is fairly conducive to a little bit of analysis. If the media won't address it, then it should be fair game for musicians. Every revolution needs an anthem and when it's done well, it's engaging and spellbinding. Given the choice between silence and destruction, I'll take the noise any day.
Cheers
Michael.
Bono's in town. I'm excited. I've been a U2 fan since well before my voice broke and I have a very hazy memory that I started playing air guitar to Where The Streets Have No Name in 1987. A lot of the music that motivated me to have compassion and energy for causes came out of what I call the Alternative 80s. Bands like Midnight Oil, REM, Billy Bragg, The Smiths, Public Enemy and contemporary groups like Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers, Powderfinger, Shihad, Fugazi and of course U2. Either directly or indirectly they present(ed) a worldview that takes in more than the vast majority of acts. A lot of people wanted to save things or have empathy with causes, but this gave way to the phenomenon of 'compassion fatigue'. The subsequent malaise where people ceased to care. It continues to this day.
Chuggers (or 'charity muggers') who canvass donors cold turkey in the streets are, to some degree, an emblem of the urgency that charities have felt in stepping up their profiles, but you see more people walking on by than you do folks signing up. Charity, as one music industry figure once opined, "is not cool". Unless of course it's obvious. Wave Aid proved that, but it's easily forgotten or someone else's business. Token gestures for a popular cause, in the end, mean very little. It's hard to find groups or artists who are convicted of anything to actually find it in their music and put it on the line, reach out to an audience starved of substance and vigour. It has been said before, music and politics don't mix, but it's hedonism and escapism that are preferred. If you take notice of the Top 40 any given week there's an intellectual void a mile wide. Then we encounter someone like Bono. He makes it all seem possible, but also necessary. It is his duty. That sort of responsibility and dedication is rare anywhere. If others won't, he will.
Here are the list of people and causes U2 have touched upon or been involved in without grinding the axe into a blunt instrument: The IRA and unrest in Northern Ireland, refugees in America, nuclear holocaust, Martin Luther King Jnr, famine in Ethiopia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's 'disappeared', Aung San Suu Kyi, Apartheid in South Africa, the role of the media in shaping and manipulating the masses, Warchild and Amnesty. That's a fairly impressive list. It's not like we're short of things to sing about, but generally people don't like to boogie to political speeches. Unfortunately the political climate around the world right now is fairly conducive to a little bit of analysis. If the media won't address it, then it should be fair game for musicians. Every revolution needs an anthem and when it's done well, it's engaging and spellbinding. Given the choice between silence and destruction, I'll take the noise any day.
Cheers
Michael.
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