Music and politics


A post yesterday about U2 prompted me to listen to them today. And one comment from yesterday got me to thinking. The author wrote dismissively that they should "keep their politics to themselves." (Those may or may not have been the exact words, but that gets to the point.) As I've been listening this afternoon, I've thought: I'm neither a born-again Christian nor a political leftie, but I do love this band. And then I thought further: If I listened only to bands or singer-songwriters whose politics were like mine, I surely wouldn't spin a whole lot of recordings. (For the record, I consider myself a radically pragmatic centrist with occasional libertarian leanings. Got any bands who'd fill that bill?) I care about the music, and not about what the people making that music happen to believe. Am I alone in this? Do others dismiss certain artists because of their politics -- or religion or the kind of car they drive or whatever else?
hodu

Showing 1 response by ogsarg

Whoa! Artists getting political because they lost their talent????

You mean all those no talent bums like Bob dylan, woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, neil Young, and a hundred others? Many of their best songs are political.

If you don't agree with what they're saying, don't listen, but writing about something you believe in is something that many great artists have in common.