I did not write this, but it is still a nice article to post here! From the NION National website (notinourname.net)
Protest song is back - with a vengeance
"There's always been protest songs against presidents, but they have never been near to the level of venom you're seeing now."
Christopher Blagg
The Christian Science Monitor
June 4, 2004
The term protest music often conjures up images of unkempt folkies strumming guitars and warbling their dissent in Greenwich Village coffeehouses.
All that has changed.
Folk music no longer dominates the genre. Today, rebellious political rhetoric can be found in hip-hop, punk, country, metal, alt-rock, and everything in between. Not only has protest music diversified, it seems to be rapidly on the rise.
Some of the new songs, unsurprisingly, address the war on Iraq. But whereas protest songs during the Vietnam era were broadly antiwar in their message, the new batch of political tunes aren't narrowly focused on the recent war. It's more personal than that. Most of the music is targeted at the actions and policies of one man: George W. Bush.
And it's often incendiary stuff.
"For better or worse, Bush has stirred up a lot of vitriol in the music community," says David Browne, head music critic for Entertainment Weekly. "There's always been protest songs against presidents, but they have never been near to the level of venom you're seeing now."
That isn't to say no songs are championing the administration's foreign policy - country music has produced hits such as Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (The Angry American)." But they're being drowned out by the sheer volume of musicians working to oust the Oval Office's current occupant.
The musicians range from punk rockers to pop acts to older artists like Patti Smith and Rickie Lee Jones. In all, Mr. Browne reckons protest songs seem to have been more numerous in the past year and a half than in the late '60s. "There just wasn't that concentration of songs during the Vietnam War," he says.
Leading the charge in the current round of Bush-whacking is Fat Mike, frontman for the veteran punk rock group NOFX. Mike created the current Billboard-charting compilation entitled "Rock Against Bush," a collection of sneeringly rebellious punk rock songs including ones from mainstream acts like Sum 41, OffSpring, and the Ataris. Twenty-six bands offered songs for the compilation, and many more joined the tour that followed.
The idea for the album emerged from the controversy over the Florida vote count in the previous presidential election. The outcome still rankles Fat Mike, who believes the result was unjust.
"After the 2000 election I was pretty upset," says Mike. "I needed to come up with a way I could use my celebrity to expose the fraud of the election."
Mike also soon founded the provocative website punkvoter.com, which aimed to harness the youth vote.
"Punk rockers have been against government policy from the start, but it's never been specific," asserts Mike. "This is the first time we've been focused on one thing - getting Bush out of office."
Toby Veg, organizer and cofounder of punkvoter.com is amazed at the genre's outpouring of bile aimed at the president. "In one sense, the Bush administration has been great for punk music. I mean, how do you reconcile a genre based on anarchy? It really speaks to exactly how much punk musicians dislike Bush," says Veg.
It's not just the punk rockers who are turning to the microphone to assail the president. The Beastie Boys, legends of hip-hop, are releasing their long-awaited new recording, "To the 5 Boroughs," on June 15, and its lyrics are loaded with jabs at Bush. The personal nature of the current protest music is something of a modern phenomenon.
Alternative-rock heartthrobs and MTV darlings Incubus have offered up perhaps the most strident attack on the president with their latest single "Megalomaniac." The controversial video, which has now been relegated to the marginal hours by MTV, depicts a "Leave It To Beaver" family drinking crude oil instead of milk, and a smarmy, baby-kissing Bush look-alike, all shown in a graphic style eerily reminiscent of Nazi war propaganda.
You'd think that the hip-hop, punk, and hard rock bands would hand out the most spirited shots at the embattled president, but that has been left to the smooth, jazz-tinged tunes of singer Rickie Lee Jones. The songwriter felt that the music community was initially too quiet after the Patriot Act was passed.
"Everybody was afraid to speak out against him [Bush]," says Jones in a recent telephone call. "It was a very dangerous time. The atmosphere was very reminiscent of fascist Germany.... I've never been an activist, but I wanted to start doing something."
Jones makes no bones about her views about the president on her new compact disc "Evening of My Best Day." Despite its soft atmospherics, the opening tune off the track, "Ugly Man," may be the sharpest attack on a president to date, while the up-tempo bounce of "Tell Somebody (Repeal the Patriot Act Now)" is similarly self-explanatory in its rebellious intentions. Jones wants to be clear that what she is protesting is not the Iraq war, but the actions of George W. Bush. Asserts Jones, "Call it what it is! It's not a war, it's George Bush - the man wielding the weapon is the problem."
The goal for all these musicians is to create change, but how effective can a song actually be? The audience is primarily young, disillusioned non- voters. Fat Mike says the Rock Against Bush concerts are a far more effective tool. Audiences are greeted with a barrage of public speakers in between sets, and those who buy the compilation also receive a free DVD that offers more detailed information and advocacy tips.
Volume II of the Rock Against Bush compilation will come out Aug. 10 and includes such mainstream pop acts as No Doubt, The Foo Fighters, Green Day, and Yellowcard.
Whether this new burst of protest activity from the music community will have an effect on the coming election remains to be seen, but Fat Mike seems confident nonetheless.
He says punkvoter.com is getting 14 million hits per month and 500,000 unique users a month. Asserts Mike, "On Nov. 4 there will be between 200,000 to 500,000 kids showing up to vote for the first time because of Rock Against Bush and punkvoter.com." ___________+++===---<<\/\/\/\/\/ Seperation Line \/\/\/\/\/>>---===+++___________ PRESIDENT BUSH F**KS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ONCE AGAIN! April 18th, 2004:: WELL! I haven't read it all yet, but it looks like there is a bill either out, or being voted on in congress, that makes it so that "every young person" must spend at least two years in some military field. Here is an exerpt from a .gov stite, on the beginning of the Bill:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Universal National Service Act of 2003 (Introduced in House)
HR 163 IH
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 163
To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well there you go. Hopefully this won't go into activation, or that the people will get it abolished.
Well, I bid you all good day. Good luck to all activists out there. In times like these, I must say, "May whatever divine power you believe in, help you now". I'll write more in time. Good times to you. -FoRSAkeN_oNe- ___________+++===---<<\/\/\/\/\/ Seperation Line \/\/\/\/\/>>---===+++___________ Have Internet Schooling? Big Brother May be Watching You. Well... my cousin is going to get online schooling... but the bad thing... they are going to give him a Web Cam too, and the eMac already has a microphone built in. NOW, it doesn't sound bad... BUT, the school has technology which they can use to monitor your computer and/or do stuff to it. Like, if they see you going to an "unauthorized" site, then they'll click the "Back" button, or quit the Explorer. SO... yeah know what they could do whenever they wanted? They could activate the Web Cam and Microphone, and basically watch the room anytime. It is VERY much like a "Telescreen" from the book, "Nineteen Eighty Four"... accept the fact that they can't yell at you. I am sure they can TYPE messages to you though... by opening Word or something, then wake up your computer, and Voala, it is THEN, just like a Telescreen. *Activating Sarcastic Tones*! HOORAY FOR BEING WATCHED!!!! *De-activating Sarcastic Tones*!
Don't ask me why I just thought of this, when I have known for over a year now that my school (and probably others since my school is cheap... we don't have buses anymore) has that technology, why I haven't brought this up sooner. I guess I didn't see it as a threat yet. I wish I could say I had some official source of this information, since I could be vomiting up information, regardless if it is false or not... but I am sure ANYONE could find a source anyway. IF YOU FIND A SOURCE, PLEASE E-MAIL ME (teenroomboy@yahoo.com). But hey... the news programs or papers, don't really use an official source anyway - they interview people and say stuff, then we are all supposed to believe it as a source. Nothing is technically a source, unless it is written down... but whatever.
Well, I bid you all good day. Good luck to all activists out there. In times like these, I must say, "May whatever divine power you believe in, help you now". I'll write more in time. Good times to you. -FoRSAkeN_oNe- ___________+++===---<<\/\/\/\/\/ Seperation Line \/\/\/\/\/>>---===+++___________ READ THE BOOK: "NINE TEEN EIGHTY-FOUR" BY GEORGE ORWELL!!!! Last time I put news on my site (November the 28th) I was only in the second part of the book, "Nine Teen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell. But on Wednesday (12/17/03) I finished reading it, and what I must say is: wow... just, wow. I accidentally read the last two sentances of that book before (the one that read something like, "He then realized he won the battle within him. He loved Big Brother."), but when I actually got to that part of the book, inside my head I was screaming "NO!!!".
That book was such a political drama at what could become, that it makes one paranoid of government. I know for me, I now despise government, and think humans need to find a way to have some sort of rule (no murder, no robbing, no rapping, ect. The moral rules would be the only ones) that they completely rule over. Every law enforced by the people. The book even points out, that throughout history, ALL governments have become currupt, a revolution happened, then eventually, they, too, got currupt.
I look at the present time, and I have actually heard some of the lines from that book said by politicians, "War is Peace", "Ignorance is Strength" and the other load of BS saying that the rulling party of Oceana had in that book. There are even a shrinking number of rights, less dissent due to it being nearly outlawed, and scrutinized by most citizens it seems. Doctors have even invented a machine to "read your thoughts, and display them on a screen, so that it may be possible to see how a mental dissorder works, and maybe even starts". (Yes, I saw it on NBC late night news). I worry that the government could already have this in thier hands now, and could be working on a way to essentially make a "Thought Police" - like that of the book "Nine teen Eighty-four" but more efficeant since they could actually READ and DISPLAY thoughts, unlike the Thought Police in the book (but of course the ruling party in the book would have killed for that technology). (Yes, I am aware I discussed this in the last piece of news, but the rest of this news piece is mostly new).
We even have a scapegoat for the wars we are presently conducting - "The war on Terrorism" and Osama Bin Laden. Well... like Oceana, Eastasia, and Eurasia in the book, and how they continue to war, and will continue to... the leaders here in the U.S. can claim that they are searching for Osama Bin Laden and Terrorists. Why would I bring this up? Well, I am sure we can all remember last year, when some Army troops actually had Osama Bin Laden cornered, and then they radiod thier commanding officers, and asked "What do we do now?". So, my conclusion: as long as we have an excuse for war - The War on Terrorism - the government (and anyone who wants to tag along) can say "there may be terrorists in THIS country" and then attack them. This could either be a systematic take over (still somewhat doubtable), or the most probably one (it may even be alongside a systematic takeover) that throughout history, when governments wage war, they then produce more laws, and demand more patriotism. So, with these wars, we get those conservative people, and a raising number of people following thier leaders with a mindless "patriotism", because they believe "you must support your country and maybe even die for it in the time of war".
Needless to say, the comparrison between that book and the present day isn't over yet. In London (coincidentally the same place that the book takes place) there is already a massive outdoors camera system. People in London cannot leave thier homes without seeing cameras.
The theory that JFK was assassinated by the government (because the day before he was assassinated, he didn't sign a document, which would have given the government more powers; and the document was much like the Patriot Act) also raises another possible comparisson. In the book, politicians would kill whoever challenged their power. Well, for centuries as well, governments have gotten cops to release a person into the crowd (like a drunk) of a protest, so that that person would cause some sort of bad thing (he/she is encouraged to do it), like throwing rocks into building windows, and therefor making it seem like a riot is happening from the protest. The cops then move in with thier riot gear, break up the protest, and then you have another act of suppression.
These comparrisons scare me. It seems as though if this stuff were to begin, people would be fooled - but I hope they would be conscious enough to stop it. Check out these links for a discussion on these subjects (an Anarchy subject, and the "Who Killed JFK?" subject): ___________+++===---<<\/\/\/\/\/ Seperation Line \/\/\/\/\/>>---===+++___________ TERRIBLE NEWS, THAT BRINGS US CLOSER STILL, TO AN ORWELLIAN SOCIETY LIKE THAT IN GEORGE ORWELL'S BOOK: "1984"! (11/28/2003) I was just watching the Eleven o'clock NBC news program, when I hear "scientists have escentialy invented a machine that can read your thoughts, and display them on a screen". At this point, I turned my head quickly, and watched in shock. I then realized as they finished that article: "oh my god. The government could now invent a sort of 'Thought Police'"... still in shock, I realized that it is VERY possible that the Bush Administration may take this technology, and research a way to get it to read the minds of everyone in the country - in the world if they can - and the way they would get the public to go along with it, would be to say: "This machine will help us win the war on terror. With this machine, we can search for thoughts a terrorist would have, and then would be able to stop the individual / individuals. We can even see the thought strans". It is possible to do this VIA sattelites... or... a quicker way...
Since we already have computer chips you can get implanted into the arm, which allow Satelites to track you wherever you are; and Satelites that can magnify a view of the earth so much that they can see a street... they could modify those chips with technology that the thought reading machine would have, and the information would be sent to a government computer, of what you are thinking. Then, VIA the chip's capability to send information to Satelites to tell where you are, they would be able to find you, and therfor, be "Thought Police".
Luckily, this technology would take maybe 5 or so years to develop (based on the technological advances, and the speed we have), but it is still a GREAT threat to freedom. If this ever occurs... go to: http://www.aclu.org/. Then, use thier link in thier article about the technology, and why to stop it (they'll probably have it), or anyway you can find on that site (because I am sure it is there; I have done it before) to e-mail, Fax, Send a letter to, or all of those, to Politicians to urge them to stop. Then, of course, take to the streets, and protest.
Well, for more information on this new technology, go to: http://www.nbc4columbus.com/index.html. Once there, go find the story (I would have put the link directly onto this, if the link was made yet on the NBCcolumbus news site). It is about "Technology that can 'read' your thoughts to help find why Mental Disorders happen".
Well, click the link below to go to the NBCcolumbus news site. ___________+++===---<<\/\/\/\/\/ Seperation Line \/\/\/\/\/>>---===+++___________ GET THE NEW ANTI-FLAG CD!!!! ___________+++===---<<\/\/\/\/\/ Seperation Line \/\/\/\/\/>>---===+++___________ Vote for Bush and die... well... not really... murder IS illegal... but I hope your horrid GUILT will devour you inside like acid you dumb fucking Bush Voter. ANYWAY, if you DON'T vote for Bush, then I hope you get whatever the hell you want, plus more, for the REST OF YOUR LIFE AND ETERNITY!!!! Ok, now onto some serious news. Click one of the links above for information, (and hopefully inspiring stuff that'll make you take to the streets and scream "ANYONE BUT BUSH FOR 2004!!!!)! Anyway, of course, for more news, go to Infowars.com... and remember, FOX news dislikes the truth! ___________+++===---<<\/\/\/\/\/ Seperation Line \/\/\/\/\/>>---===+++___________ Well, this is going to be grammatically incorrect, but I typed it up in an instant message anyway. This isn't SPECIFICALLY news, accept for one part, and this entry is probably immature, but I must say it, and spread the news that the anti-war movement seems to be growing!
=) I am happy for the first time in a while today. i was in a terrible mood today. remembering all of my past times with the opposite gender, with the emotion like: >.<. BUT, then I saw a thing on the news, (and yeah, it was FOX News, so they took the side of who's in power like always,) but they said that the anti-war movements are growing. and that brought a smile, and happy tears to my face. so glad to know people actually DO have sense! lol, then in the background of the reporter, there was someone with an upsidedown flag too! =D some of the people in the protest that occured today spraypainted anarchy symbols on the fences of the white house, hehehe. so, I am happy again!
Well, for new news of a political nature, to go the guardrian, or infowars, like always. ___________+++===---<<\/\/\/\/\/ Seperation Line \/\/\/\/\/>>---===+++___________ This site will not be finished soon, but I will be finished in time. But, if you think about it, it will never be finished. I will be posting things for some time, and whever something else comes up, it will be posted as well. This is the site where issues of the world are talked about. This site also discusses the distress issues of America. This site is a good site for punkers, and those who wear upside down flags, and wants things in the U.S., and all around the world fixed. Also, if you would like to send me hate mail, or mail saying good things about my site, then send it to my e-mail address: teenroomboy@yahoo.com, because I am aware at the fact, that some of you may be angered, or very happy. Besides, any hate mail I will display on my site on a page, "HAte MAil", and will add my response too! I hope my site is enjoyable, and informative enough for you all.
Sincerely, FoRSAkeN oNe
|
