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quote:Originally posted by Will 'it work' Wright:
FLYBOY you keep mentioning modrern day acts that are political, but I find a lack of names in your postings. I would be most grateful for some bands and artists currently taking a 'political' stance. Its not that I don't believe they exist, but I've been put/put myself on the otherside of the fence in this thread.
Sorry - part of the reason I haven't been naming many names is that, as I tried to say in my earlier post, I'm wary of dividing bands or artists into two groups, those who are 'political' and those who aren't.
I think it's a lot easier to look at individual records, and say that there is political content contained therein. For example: 'Independent Woman Part 1' by Destiny's Child is a politically charged record. That doesn't mean that its politics aren't deeply flawed (eg, it pretty much sees finanical/material autonomy and security as the be-all and end-all of female independence), not does it make Destiny's Child a 'political' band. In addition, I wouldn't praise the political merits of a black, female R&B/pop group without expecting derision from certain circles - but I think that derision is in itself says something about the (political) assumptions of those circles...
Consistently politically charged hip-hop artists include, in my opinion: Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Outkast, Saul Williams, The Coup, Jeru The Damaja, Gang Starr... A lot of Wu-Tang stuff has a political edge. Public Enemy are still going (if not going strong). This is all really scratching the surface, and I've not even included people like Nas, Jay-Z - even Puff Daddy could arguably be called political, although as I mentioned in my earlier post, this kind of (male) black power via capitalism isn't particularly radical...
You could also argue that by their very existence in such a stinkingly locker room environment, any female MC is political - so just in the mainstream, add Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, Rah Digga, Eve and even (contentious!) Lil' Kim. (Again, mostly about emancipation through material gain, but still preaching a fairly confrontational kind of female power). Moving away from 'mainstream' hip-hop, you have people as diverse as Sarah Jones, Princess Superstar, and (okay, not really hip-hop, but almost) Peaches - again, this isn't immediately obviously political, 'cos the Peaches album is basically all about sex. It's made political because of the cultural context...
Moving on.
Radiohead, one of the most critically acclaimed mainstream bands of the moment, are actually quite fiercely politically. There's a lot of implied, sometimes direct, political comment in their songs, but aside from that, they plug books like No Logo and Captive State in interviews, and their official website is basically one big exercise in diverting interest in the band to political causes (down to links being deliberately misleading, taking you to external sites rather than giving you useless gossip on the band...).
Other 'indie' bands... Well, Godspeed You Black Emperor! think they're political, apparently. There's a strong case to be made for The Magnetic Fields being political. Lets' not mention the Manic Street Preachers, but again, they certainly try to be political, just not very well these days. But they had their moments, a lot of them later on than the heyday of EMF/Carter, etc.
Ooh, tell you what, probably the best of the Britpop bands are Pulp: now they are very political. A large number of their songs are about the disenfranchised/marginalised in society in general, and there's also more specific stuff, from slumming rich kids ('Common People') to refugee internment camps ('Weeds'), to the hypocrisy of New Labour ('Cocaine Socialism'), to stuff about gender roles etc ('I'm A Man').
Then you have the somewhat godlike Le Tigre and other 'post-riot grrl'/'third wave feminist' bands (slightly wanky terms, I know) - The Butchies, anyone signed to Mr Lady, Haus has already mentioned Sleater-Kinney and Ani Difranco... I mean, the same thing could be said to apply here as with female MCs, indie rock being such a hostile environment for female artists (much more so than mainstream pop, for example).
I'll leave you with a slogan that is on a bright orange sticker stuck to the top of my computer monitor:
quote:We propose that what is experimental in art is inextricable from what is revolutionary politically. |
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