Ayoon wa Azan (The Art Factor)
Jihad Al Khazen Al-Hayat 2004/10/13
Since the second debate between Bush and Kerry has ended with a tie between the two, then the ability of Hollywood and the musicians in influencing the course of the American Presidential elections is gaining additional interest, with the existence of an 'artistic' majority that supports the Democratic candidate. The world of American art was always inclined towards the moderate left, and thus closer to the Democrats than to the Republicans.
Colleague Suzanna Tarboush made me notice the importance of the art factor in the electoral campaign, and provided me with a lot of information on the subject. I thank her for giving me the idea of tackling the American presidential elections from a new angle.
Kerry himself belonged to a band at one point, and there is considerable interest in the 1961 recording of John Kerry & The Electras, in which Kerry played bass guitar. Only 500 copies of the album were pressed, and after the former guitarist ran as a candidate for the U.S. presidential elections, the album is currently sold for up to $2,500 each.
In the popular music field, there has long been a tradition of protest; blues and jazz helped articulate the grievances of the black population. The Vietnam War was associated with anti-war songs such as Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" and John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band's "Give Peace a Chance."
With reference to the war on Iraq, one of the first musicians to declare his opposition to the Bush-Blair policy juggernaut was the British singer George Michael in his single and video "Shoot the Dog", made two years ago. The cartoon video showed Blair as Bush's poodle dog and portrayed Michael himself in a leopard skin thong trying to seduce Blair's wife Cherie. Blair was depicted as the captain of a ship in the shape of Britain sailing closer and closer to America while still being moored to Europe. Michael disregarded warnings that his video, and press interviews in which he denounced Bush and Blair and warned against a war on Iraq, could prove to be professional suicide.
Neil Young, the legendary singer whose career spans four decades, is an example of a singer who has become ever more outspoken in his criticisms of Bush. Young recently told BBC Radio that "religious fundamentalists are running the country," comparable in their religious fanaticism to Osama Bin Laden.
Young is Canadian by birth, but has lived in California for many years and considers the U.S. his adopted home. He stated his fear from the control of fundamentalists over the Bush administration by saying: "On a religious level they're over the top, the religious fanatics and fundamentalists in the government. There'll be a revolution; it'll be a revolution of civilians voting these people out." While the musician has 'mastered' the Republican-bashing for years, his stance from Dubya deserves a quick review, as it reflects the discontent of artists with the President and his policy. After the attacks of 9/11, Young sang a moving version of the John Lennon song "Imagine" on a TV telethon to raise money for the families of the victims. His subsequent album included the rousing song "Let's Roll!" which was inspired by what one passenger was reported to have said (this now seems to have been a myth) when passengers took on one of the aircraft hijacked on 9/11 which led to the aircraft crashing in a field. But in the past three years, Young has become appalled by the policies of the Bush administration as it pursues its so-called "war on terror". His disillusionment was reflected on his CD "Greendale", a concept album released last year about three generations of the same family living in a small American town and all trying to work out what has gone wrong with the world. Their minds are plagued with worries about war, corrupt politicians, the environment, global warming, drugs and big business. A film was recently released of "Greendale," in which people act to the soundtrack of the CD. One of the tracks refers to "religious wars" and Young says: "There are religious wars gong on. We're in it." Moreover, Young accused the corporations that control pop music venues, newspapers, and radio stations, of being in an alliance with the U.S. government to prevent anti-war views from being heard.
Neil's comments are very accurate, as a Copenhagen-based freedom of musical expression and anti-music censorship organization called Freemuse, published a few months ago many studies on music censorship in the U.S. and other countries. One of the chapters was entitled "Shoot the Singer;" in another chapter entitled "Crash into me baby: America's implicit music censorship since 11 September," Eric Nuzum wrote that the most troubling and widespread censorship against anti-war musicians was against the Dixie Chicks, which I talked about in my yesterday's column.
Nuzum also described how immediately after 9/11, certain songs were banned by Clear Channel radio which advised presenters to use "restraint" when selecting songs for airplay, such as "Great Balls of Fire," "Only the Good Die Young," and "It's the End of the World as we know it." More than 150 songs were described by senior vice-president of programming as "lyrically questionable."
At a concert on April 1st 2003, the singer of the rock group Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder, placed a mask of W. on a microphone stand, then knocked it to the ground and repeatedly jumped on it. Some fans cheered others booed and left, demanding a refund.
Madonna was more careful, as she edited and then pulled her video for "American Life" which had strong anti-war imagery, including Madonna tossing alive grenade to a Dubya look-alike. Madonna said she did this because "Due to the volatile state of the world and out of sensitivity and respect for the armed forces, who I support and pray for, I do not want to risk offending anyone who might misinterpret the meaning of the video."
Incidents of music censorship in the U.S. remain limited; the most important factor in the current confrontation is that the supporters of Baby Bush cannot dare oppose or contradict the public opinion; the powerful among them might try to economically punish the musicians, in a way that does not show to the public. On the other hand, artists are more and more opposing Bush and the policy of war; this is why all attempts to contain them have failed so far, and there are musical campaigns against the war campaigns, which I will discuss tomorrow.
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