They're singing the songs, but is anybody listening?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20071230-9999-mz1a30music.html
By George Varga
UNION-TRIBUNE POP MUSIC CRITIC
December 30, 2007
In music, as in politics, timing is everything.
In early 2003, just six weeks after performing the national anthem
here to kick off Super Bowl XXXVII, the Dixie Chicks became national
pariahs after its lead singer, Natalie Maines, told a London concert
audience the Texas trio was "ashamed" to be from the same state as
President Bush.
Result: derision, death threats, charges of sedition and worse. The
group's music was virtually banished overnight from country radio and
its album sales plunged.
In 2006, the same year the Dixie Chicks released an album that won
multiple Grammy Awards despite being almost uniformly ignored by
country radio, Neil Young put out "Living With War." Young's album
featured such brash songs as "Shock and Awe" and "Let's Impeach the
President" (sample lyric: Let's impeach the president / For lying and
leading our country into war / Abusing all the power that we gave him
/ And shipping our money out the door).
Result: cheers from some fans and grousing from some conservatives.
But, ultimately, a loud silence greeted these musical broadsides from
Young, whose 1970 protest song "Ohio" remains one of the most
visceral anti-war anthems of modern times.
In the past few years there have been anti-war songs by everyone from
Pink, Pearl Jam, Molotov and Eminem to Nanci Griffith, R.E.M., jazz
great Charlie Haden and even country-music icon Merle Haggard.
(That's the same Merle Haggard whose 1970 song "The Fightin' Side of
Me" ripped into hippies and anti-war protesters with zingers like: If
you don't love it, leave it / Let this song I'm singin' be a warnin'
/ If you're runnin' down my country, man / You're walkin' on the
fightin' side of me.)
Bruce Springsteen's new album, "Magic," features songs that vividly
chronicle the grim human cost of the war in Iraq. He timed its
release to coincide with the ongoing presidential primaries. Other
artists who have weighed in on the state of this divided nation
include Bright Eyes, Trans Am, Calle 13 and such veterans as Steve
Earle, John Fogerty, Toby Keith and ex-San Diegan Tom Waits.
An even broader array of artists – Shakira, Enrique Iglesias,
Madonna, Linkin Park, Keith Urban and dozens more – teamed up to
perform in eight cities around the world this summer as part of Live
Earth, a series of international concerts designed to raise awareness
of global warming. And a growing number of musicians – among them U2,
Green Day, The John Butler Trio and Jay-Z – have sung out on behalf
of the victims of Hurricane Katrina and against the bumbling
government response.
Clearly, they aren't shirking the opportunity to weigh in on timely
issues, pro and con, here and abroad, be it ex-Fugees mainstay Wyclef
Jean working on behalf of his Haitian homeland or Lenny Kravitz and
Iraq's Kazem El-Sahir collaborating on the song "We Want Peace."
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the era when a song – any song – helps unite
large numbers of people to rally on behalf of a common cause seems to
have passed. In this digital age of information overload and
corporate monopolies, ring-tones and widgets, it is easier than ever
to be heard by millions but far more difficult to make a lasting impact.
True, some 4 million-plus YouTube viewers have watched the video for
the R&B-flavored "I Got a Crush ... on Obama" by the lip-syncing
Obama Girl (in actuality, a busty model and actress named Amber Lee
Ettinger). But it's hard to believe she'll have any more impact on
the presidential election than Barbra Streisand throwing her support
behind Hillary Clinton or Oprah Winfrey stumping for Obama.
Perhaps we've simply reached a point of oversaturation, or we're just
taking a breather before next year's onslaught. Or, maybe, while the
causes being espoused now are just as compelling, the music that
results is not.
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George Varga: (619) 293-2253; george.varga@uniontrib.com
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