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>anyway, maybe its better we have less armchair activism and
>let real people into politics deal with politics. i doubt
>occupy or whoever need music to get them marching. they do it
>regardless. most rap/music fans just like political music cos
>it makes them feel theyre listening/partaking in something
>important. but revolutionary fervour does not = revolutionary
>action. in fact, all this revolutionary fighting talk i think
>is sometimes just hot air, from people who like the glamour
>and allure of revolution, not the reality, which doesnt
>necessarily involve armed struggle, barricades and guns
>blazing, but groundswell organisations trying to make changes
>happen in their communities.
I get what you're saying here and agree a bit, but I think it's important to remember that many social/political movements (civil rights in America and the fight against apartheid in South Africa, especially, but we can point to many others) were very much bolstered, at times even motivated by, various musical traditions. This isn't just nostalgic mythologizing --- a number of historians have written on this issue. (Popular) music is often an integral feature of efforts to forge collective movements, in part for obvious reasons of social cohesion, but also because of what music can do ideologically that other things (straight political discourse, for instance) can't.
That being said, music's importance to social movements is not necessarily based in any explicit politics being put forward by the music's lyrics. Though some of her stuff was obviously political, Nina Simone made a career out of picking really *smart* tunes to cover that, when placed in the mouth of an outspoken black woman unafraid to take on issues of race, took on obvious double meanings. More generally, the connection of hymns and spirituals to the (early classical) civil rights movement was as much historical as ideological.
In other words, don't discount the importance of music to social movements... *but* I'm pretty cynical about the ability to use *directly* political music to spark collective consciousness or agency. Dylan summarized the '60s in countless songs, but his direct references to either civil rights or Vietnam were less impactful than his broader, more ambiguous depictions of the *mood* of the time, of the sense that things were changing.
-thebigfunk
~ i could still snort you under the table ~
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