Originally from the NYT, but as one needs a subscription to that site, and the article is being picked up all over, here it is from the IHT: NEW YORK- Pop music played a crucial role in America's debate over the Vietnam War. By the late 1960s, radio stations across the country were crackling with blatantly political songs that became mainstream hits. After the National Guard killed four anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio in the spring of 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded "Ohio," a song about the horror of the event, criticizing President Richard Nixon by name. The song was rushed onto the air while sentiment was still high, and became both an anti-war anthem and a huge moneymaker. A comparable song about President George W. Bush's rush to war in Iraq would have no chance today. There are plenty of angry people, many with prime music-buying demographics. But independent radio stations that once would have played edgy, political music have been gobbled up by corporations that control hundreds of stations and have no wish to rock the boat. Corporate ownership has changed what gets played - and who plays it. With a few exceptions, the disc jockeys who once existed to discover provocative new music have long since been put out to pasture. The new generation operates from play lists dictated by Corporate Central - lists that some DJs describe as "wallpaper music." The full article here.
I think that the description of corporate radio in the 1960s as a bastion of protest is nostalgic exaggeration. The big AM stations (remember, FM was as yet largely undiscovered by the populace at large and had not become commercialized) were too busy playing the Monkees, not Phil Ochs. FM radio, which was largely confined to college stations and small niche privateers like the nascent "free form" WXRT in Chicago, did do a much better job of breaking new ground and airing protest music. But unless you lived next to a college or in a big city, you weren't tuning in. And it's not like the FM stations had that big an audience yet. The same was true of FM in the 1980s. It wasn't like the Dead Kennedys or Billy Bragg (or even the Smiths or the Cure, for that matter) were getting tons of airplay during the Reagan years outside of college radio and the occasional isolated holdout like XRT. While I will agree that the concentration in media ownership can be nothing but bad for diversity of viewpoint and also musical styles, the REALLY interesting and political stuff found its way to listeners in the '60s and the '80s the same way it does today - word of mouth on campus and in the coffeehouses, bars and clubs.
I'll paraphrase one of my other posts. If Pakovits and I agree on something, you better pay attention. CORPORATE radio has been and will always be just that. They would play 24 hours of NAZI march themes if it got ratings. Let's not praise old-time corporate radio either. A little thing called payola used to keep stuff OFF the air all the time.
This is a good article about why radio is the way it is: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A57791-2003Jan15?language=printer
> They would play 24 hours of NAZI march themes > if it got ratings. You would think so, but they don't - no matter how many letters I write.
Those were the good old days. The Jefferson Airplane preaching communist revolution. I learned early in life that a good tune can have a totally stupid message, but it's still a good tune. We actually had something to protest back then, the daily death totals in Vietnam and such. A busy month in Vietnam was good enough for the whole of 9/11. Nowadays, the protests are just people who wish things were that bad. These are people whose tide of anger peaks with Rush Limbaugh's 3 hours.
Politically-influenced popular music is a reflection of public opinion, not an influence on it. If there was actually a large number of people who opposed taking out Saddam (and artists with something resembling talent making music that reflected this), there'd be protest music on the radio. But to suggest that protest music isn't being played because of a corporate conspiracy to keep down opposition is loonie. Even during the Vietnam era, no hard-core hawk ever changed their mind about the war because of a Jefferson Airplane song. Alex
Your naivete is almost endearing. Almost. First, popular culture both reflects and influences the surrounding society. It's a two-way street. Second, any political song of any political persuasion is not really directed at people who have already made up their minds irevocably on an issue as this would be a waste of time. It is aimed at the undecided. The closest it comes to being aimed at the already decided is when it seeks to bolster the morale of the side it supports.
Some might argue that 50 cent isn't music, but this is an interesting point from Colin. Perhaps "protest rock" from the 60s, which generally protested things like war and other national events, has been replaced by a new form of protest, but at a more local level.
Indeed. I'd count some of Grand Master Mel and the Furious Five's stuff as "protest". A castle in the sky, one mile high Built to shelter the rich and greedy Rows of eyes, disguised as windows Lookin DOWN on the poor and the needy Miles of people, marchin up the avenue Doin what they gotta do, just to get by I'm livin in the land of plenty and many But I'm damn sure poor and I don't know why.
We need more bands like Rage Against The Machine and System Of A Down... Memo to Zack: Go back where you belong.