Been thinking a bit about this, popular music (the ones that hit top 100 charts or whatever) never has lyrics that point out real problems or point to culprits and how they’re fucking our shit, which is very easy to find in punk rock and some variations, as well as rap.
Of course, part of the problem are the record labels themselves, which often hold artists “hostage” in order to profit off them. Bigger ones will obviously prefer to avoid having such lyrics become popular.
Still, there seems to be absolute zero songs in certain genres that even come within 10 meters of talking/singing/teaching/bringing awareness about situations that affect a LOT of listeners, even from far away, and would be extremely helpful in spreading some knowledge.
Granted, doing so is easier said than done, a catchy tune that calls out big oil’s many attempts to burn the world, or big pharma’s frequent price gouging, aren’t things “any idiot” can come up with. But that nobody outside “angry” genres seems to be doing it is what saddens me.
But that nobody outside “angry” genres seems to be doing it is what saddens me.
There’s a lot of “non-angry” (ie no thick distorted guitars and screamed vocals) music that has strong political themes and social commentary going on. A lot of folk, blues, EBM, EDM, reagge, dub is about the struggles of the working class, people of color etc, has anti-capitalist, anti-war and anti-globalisation message.
Leslie fish
Asian Dub Foundation
Later VNV Nation (early works are stylistically more “angry”, but thematically similar)
Covenant
Chip Taylor
Shamen
And many moreDude, you are overthinking this. Like, you spent longer thinking about the alleged pacification of masses by agenda driven producers than said producers spent thinking about the songs in question.
There is no agenda and/or purpose behind this. You just made the mistake to assume your views on one of the most subjective topics possible (music) are fitting for music in general. That’s not the case.
You might like a little rebellion, commentary, what have you in your music. You might like to express the issues that move you via music. Many others don’t.
The charts are, what people are actually listening to, so don’t mistake the charts for something that’s only pushed by labels or something. It takes listeners and labels to push something into the charts.
That doesn’t say that there are never songs of the critical variety in the charts or anything. It’s just rarer.
Rage Against the Machine and Public Enemy come immediately to mind.
Edit: I guess those would fall into, what you call, “angry genres”. Not sure if that matters when it comes to spreading information. Popular is popular regardless of tone, and what is popular changes pretty regularly.
Alternatively, most people don’t want to hear about such things in music because it’s an escape for them. When I’m listening to music its because I want to zone out and forget the world. Often because I’m stressed or overwhelmed. I can relax to the music and drift off.
Every other part of the world is enraged about social issues. Social media, news, TV and movies, advertising, politics, idle chit chat, even the products you buy when they have banners and shit on them. Art can be used to heighten social issues but it’s also used just as frequently to hide away from them and give yourself a reprieve from the storm.
King Gizzard? Like, okay, they aren’t Superbowl popular (yet), and they aren’t exactly pop-music from a genre standpoint (though they’ve had albums that dip into that), but they’re growing rapidly. They’re also indie, so they don’t have the issues that come with being on a label, but damn, they’re growing pretty rapidly despite not having that kinda backing.
I think it’s because the top 100 or whatever chart you’re looking at is meaningless these days. It used to be a fair representation of what people were listening to, I remember people taping the top 40 off the radio on a Sunday to listen to through the week, everyone was on the same page regarding new single releases.
Now we’re atomized, I don’t even know what the #1 single is on any given week and I don’t care. I’ve got 30,000 tracks on my home server. There’s no new artist who can speak for a generation like Dylan or Woody Guthrie could in their day.
Not to mention those charts are easily manipulated nowadays. The criteria changes depending on who they want to put at the top.
It’s a byproduct of diminishing sales of singles. You couldn’t rig the charts in the 70’s or 80’s without spending a small fortune.
While there may very well be a conspiracist element to this, I suspect that it’s simpler than that. For a lot of people music is meant to be their escape from reality, so having reality interject ruins the experience - as such any songs that try to capture that simply don’t get as popular, so end up in alternative genres
That is it for me. Music, like PC games and Movies/TV Shows, are my escape from reality and I don’t want to have that tainted and ruined by real world, politics or the like.
Yeah, popular music - by definition - is going to have a broad appeal, and pointing out major problems with our society is always going to be at least a bit divisive, especially when the issue is split in party lines
System of a Down, Flobots, Rise Against & Rage Against the Machine aren’t popular music?
