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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (4134)	11/3/2006 4:55:48 PM
From: one_less	Respond to of 10087

What's the difference between protest songs and complaint rock? I'm not sure it matters since neither is too popular. ================================================= Protest songs? We got 'em At the ARIA Awards this week, as his band was inducted into the Hall Of Fame, Midnight Oil's Rob Hirst declared that the protest song was a near dead beast. "Maybe complaint rock is still being written, but ignored by an industry hypnotised by get-famous-fast TV shows." The only one he saw following the Oils tradition was John Butler. Hirst called on musicians to write protest songs and the industry to play them. Setting aside the tired and frankly pointless question of whether musicians (or any artist) should be commenting on politics, is Hirst right? Or has he fallen for the "if I can't see/hear it, it doesn't exist" trick we all are prone to? Overseas there have been crunching activists such as Rage Against The Machine, pointed commentary from Bruce Springsteen and heat and anger from Neil Young while Bright Eyes could not be missed during the most recent American presidential election. If you've been anywhere near UK groups such as There are dozens of hip hop groups and artists, from the poet Saul Williams down to mainstream Eminem, who have taken up arms against prevailing government attitudes. Jeez, even the Dixie Chicks have a couple of complaint songs on their recent album and if you've been near the UK you'll know that activists such as Asian Dub Foundation are potent commentators. Locally, Powderfinger - whose Bernard Fanning on the night gently took issue with Hirst while agreeing with him that there's a place for protest songs - have written a number of songs directly addressing aspects of the Howard government's policies. Elsewhere, Dan Kelly's most recent album picked at a few scabs, TZU raged and the Living End have raged against a few machines too. Maybe Hirst is right that the songs aren't getting played, but then again getting commercial radio in particular to play any new music is a near impossible task. Maybe Hirst just needs a few recommendations to discover modern "complaint rock". Tell Rob and the rest of us who you see providing the modern protest songs.And maybe you can share with us a taste of your favourite lines from your favourite modern protest song. blogs.smh.com.au