Slyngstad | Bluesky
Transcript
A three-panel political comic by Slyngstad highlighting the long history of political activism in music. In the foreground of all three panels, two audience members are seen talking in profile.
Panel 1:
On Stage: A modern musician holding a microphone calls out, “FREE PALESTINE!”
Foreground: One audience member complains, “UGH, WHEN DID MUSICIANS START TO BE SO POLITICAL?”
Panel 2:
On Stage: Freddie Mercury performing at the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert, with the “Live Aid” global logo in the background.
Foreground: The second audience member replies, “START?”
Panel 3:
On Stage: Folk singer Woody Guthrie playing an acoustic guitar with his iconic slogan written across it: “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS”.
Foreground: The second audience member continues, “MAYBE YOU JUST WEREN’T LISTENING.”
you know what I miss that we used to do a lot of?
punching the fuck out of racist sexist piece of shit nazis.
that should make a comeback.
We’re trying here: A friend of mine got unconsentually kissed and by a guy with a… reputation, to say the least, who’s been trying to get into her pants for a while. So my roommate/her boyfriend and I of course got pissed off and were like “so when do we smack the little shit?” (FAR from his first time)
However, victims themselves aren’t aware of what happened to them. She’s already starting to forget as a trauma response and very easily got gaslit by him later that it wasn’t that big/deep - til her boyfriend/my roommate reminded her that yes it fucking is.
The situation is kinda on hold, and there’s of course a lot of details that make it more complicated and such, but nothing’s been done because the state of the victims here are so used to such shit that when it boils over, it seems like less of a big deal than it is.
I’m in Europe, but haven’t always been and can very certainly say that where I come from, the bitch would be smacked around by the victim itself and likely socially isolated for a while, no need for help - instead of no social consequence, victim unaware of what happened to them despite having a trauma response they subjectively typically have and unsmacked
Shit’s out of whack and more often than not (about this specifically, but in general as well) feel like I’m the crazy one for seeing almost rape and saying “that bad” TT
Michael Jackson is arguably the most famous musician ever, or at least VERY close and a lot of his music is explicitly political, “they don’t really care about us” comes to mind, I think “man in the mirror” also qualifies, I know other stuff he’s done definitely does too I’m just not a big MJ head, I know the guy is problematic but it’s obtuse to claim musicians are just getting political now when arguably the biggest musician of all time was very political in his own right decades ago.
Agreed about They don’t really care about us, but Man in the Mirror is more personal. Black or White has a certain political slant, and Earth Song has a very direct message.
Let’s look at some other musicians who might have a claim to “most famous ever”: Elvis was not really political - if anything he was pro-establishment.
Mozart and Beethoven however were very political. Beethoven scratched out the dedication to Napoleon in the Eroica when Napoleon made himself an emperor. Previously Beethoven had been a major supporter of Napoleon because he was pushing enlightenment ideals. Mozart was less directly political, but The Marriage of Figaro was very subversive at the time (which I know from the movie Amadeus, but apparently that checks out).
The Beatles didn’t start out political, but they became more so over time.
Nobody has ever made the claim that “musicians” are just now getting political. That’s just the comic artist to make the comic.
It’s literally the definition of a strawman argument.
Americans were literally outraged that rage against the machine gas become political. Or we’re not gonna take it by twisted sisters might not be the right wing anthem they thought it was.
some are only political, because it gets them more audience/customers, otherwise they dont really care, or some of them are the opposite politics of thier audience. aka, taylor swift.
Or the Dixie Chicks.
Or my favourite band, Die Ärzte - they realised that being subtle wasn’t good enough, so they had to directly tell a good portion of their audience that they didn’t want Neo-Nazi fans, which they did in an awesome song called “Schrei nach Liebe”, which starts with “Du bist wirklich saudumm” - “You’re really fucking stupid”, and has the lyrics “Deine Gewalt ist nur ein stummer Schrei nach Liebe” - “your violence is just a mute cry for love” and “Weil du Schiss vorm Schmusen hast, bist du ein Faschist” - “Because you’re scared of cuddling, you became a Fascist”.
That’s not limited to musicians.
You’d have to be some kind of American Idiot to miss the messages.
The Message must have been lost on these people Born in the USA it’s a shame that The Revolution Will not be Televised because it might make it more obvious, but That’s Just the Way it is.
It ain’t me I ain’t no fortunate son…
When you’re a Bull on Parade, you don’t care to look for them.
Well, I certainly don’t want to be one of those.
I heard “We Didn’t Start the Fire” today and thought “Well, that was a fucking lie.” It was a very popular song with people who just totally disregarded the sentiment entirely.
This is not even a strawman. I seen people on reddit argue “art is supposed to just be fun, not push any ideologies.”
Ironic, the idea that art should just be for fun is its own ideology
Oh so you saw one of the hundreds of thousands of bots?
Yeah, ask Leni Riefenstahl about it! She knows everything about unpolitical art.
Umm like EVERY 60s song. What do they think fortunate son is about?!!! Fucking dense boomers.
According to the demented fool, Fortunate son is about him, he is the: Millionaires son, born with silver spoon in hand, waiving the flag while the band is playing “Hail to the chief”.
Born in the USA…
That is the best example of a “patriot” song.
It’s like in schools. People either don’t remember or pay attention at all to what the teachers says or what the lessons are. Or if they do remember the lessons, they never apply it.
I know a lot of people who have danced along to “Beds are burning” and have no idea what the song is about, even though it’s not exactly subtle.
“They didn’t listen they did not know how, perhaps they’ll listen now.”
Vincent ❤️
How now, brown cow?
Rage Against the Machine but not like in a political way or anything, just like, noises and anger and centrism
You won’t believe the amount of right wingers who believe RATM are right wing. I assume because they sound angry?
what you’ve described is AI generated music
Nah, that’s rage BY and probably FOR the machine
Songs from Paul Ryan’s workout playlist
He’s singing along,
“Some of those that work forces, are the same that wear crosses”
You can imagine his thoughts on “chosen whites”
Who’s the guy on the right?
Edit: the guy with the acoustic guitar in the last panel I mean.
Woody Guthrie
Thanks. I’d never even heard of him.
not even an hour in before I could recomment
art is political🤘rock on political musicians, 🤘rock on
The problem I see is that Ed is pretty direct about keeping things apolitical.
If Mackelmore had his own “Free Palestine” tour, or if he was opening for someone like RATM, it would be a different story.
Apolitical should literally mean:
I don’t care what you say during your set, it’s your time.
If someone wants to kill 10 people, and another person wants to kill 0 people, what is the apolitical number of people to be killed?
Obviously five.
“apolitical” is a shorthand for “in favor of status quo”
Is there an appropriate time to stand against genocide? I feel like that’s an “always” kind of thing.
Maybe Ed is more chill, like: “Have a little genocide, as a treat.”
apolitical
That’s political 💁♀️
The problem I see is that Israel is pretty direct about keeping things genocidal.
You may have saw the middle example and thought hey there is a band that broke the South Africa Boycott over Apartheid and played there anyway.
In a pre-concert (Live Aid) interview, (Freddie) Mercury stated: "The point of this concert is to wake people up to starvation and famine… We shouldn’t be looking in terms of us and them. It should be all of us. I think when people are starving, ** we are all humans, and we should be looked upon as such.** "
The comments speak for themselves.
![People act like musicians standing up for what they believe in is anything new. #FreePalestine [Slyngstad]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/229b1cbc-f82b-471f-a5b1-7aae0efb6aec.png){kind=link}