For decades, singers and songwriters have been finding in governments and democracy issues some material to write. From Bob Dylan to Neil Young, Rage Against The Machine to U2, punk rock bands to Dixie Chicks, they’ve been denouncing all that’s not going round in this world.
In the past years, the “illegal” election of Georges W. Bush in 2000 has been very inspiring. Pearl Jam’s “Riot Act” is a reaction to that, particularly the song “Bushleaguer”, the first real implication of the band with political issues, that gives them today the label of “engaged artists” (though in the past they fought against Ticketmaster to keep concert tickets prices low). They are now trying to raise awareness and push people – especially the young – to vote, and lead singer Eddie Vedder doesn’t hide his political choices anymore.
War(s) in Iraq (or Vietnam) have been proven to be good fuel too (without any word game). Even the Black Eyed Peas and their single “Where is the love ?” tried to make MTV-friendly protestation. You find at least one song on every rock album today that is dedicated to Bush and his little business in the Middle East, and all the lives that are lost there.
Well, all the fuss these artists have created was not of everyone’s taste, especially not Clear Channel, a big corporation that owns over a thousand radio stations in the USA (60% of rock-format stations). After the attacks of 9/11, they put a list together of more than 150 “questionable songs”, emailed it to the stations, with the not-so-subtle hint that these were songs to be steered of. The list, referred to as “black list”, seemed to include songs that contained words that were taboo at the time (included “Walk like an Egyptian” by the Bangles, or Tom Petty “Learning to fly”…) as well as pro-peace messages, like Bruce Springsteen’s “War” and John Lennon’s “Imagine”, as if being in favor of peace was a political point of view that was “questionable”. That included also ALL Rage Against The Machine songs (famous for their radical political beliefs). Their website used to have a message board, hosted by a company called Infopop, for fans to post their feelings or thoughts on any topic. On the day of the terrorist attacks, Infopop claimed that the Secret Services called them because of threats on the message board. In order to avoid further trouble from the government, Infopop stopped hosting the Rage message board, and the cyber meeting place came to a halt…
How far can it go ? There is not much distance from making a list of banned songs and banned artists to drawing up lists of banned books or banned journalists… and that is not a democratic country, but something that has more to do with dictatorship, and if I remember well, that’s exactly what America’s government is claiming to fight against, and one of them was hanged not long ago…
So, is speech really free in the USA ? Land of the free, home of the brave ? What we think is a model of democracy, progress, personal achievement ? If we take a closer look, we can see clearly that there is a line of “politically correct” not to cross. If you take a stand against Establishment, expect the storm your seeds created. Nobody likes to be criticized, and denouncing the mistakes that your country makes is something even less appreciated, something you are not supposed to stand against, and consequently, as an artist, you’re basically bound to sing about love and little birds, and the blue sky… without bombs…
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