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.”

  • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
    102·
    2 hours ago

    Here’s an example of a band being political for the likes, but not living it: Rise Against. I used to have more respect for them, but they’ve been painfully fucking silent on Palestine and the US oligarchy, AI, etc.

    • dkppunk@piefed.socialEnglish
      8·
      2 hours ago

      Unfortunately, punk music does have nazi fans, hence the song Nazi Punks Fuck Off

      I knew some dudes who were big into punk and hardcore in the early ‘00s. They seemed decent at first, so I hung out with them for about a month before I figured out they were racist neo nazi shitstains. I dropped that group of friends so fucking fast.

  • sploder@lemmy.world
    331·
    5 hours ago

    Laughs in System of a Down

    Prison song, BYOB (bring your own bombs), BOOM, Deer Dance, PLUCK, Holy Mountains, Protect the Land … a few of which were used to directly raise funds to support victims of an Armenian genocide …

    • Sordid_Seraphim@lemmy.zip
      5·
      1 hour ago

      The best part is literally all of them are still relevant. Maybe that’s the worst part. Sad Statue we are mote divided than ever, Cigaro our environmental regulators are removing safeguards for the environment, BYOB we still send poor people to die out in meaningless conflicts by bribing them with education, Prison Song incarceration rates are even higher, etc.

      • noideawhatiwant@sh.itjust.works
        4·
        1 hour ago

        i was listening to BOOM this morning and i was…they’re talking about now…this is happening now too! “The bottom line is money, nobody gives a fuck!”

  • saimen@feddit.org
    1·
    2 hours ago

    I blame the 90s. I guess because of the sudden end of the cold war everything was more or less euphoric and apolitical for a while and people got used to it.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
    32·
    7 hours ago

    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.

    • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
      4·
      3 hours ago

      Oh I’ll happily do it. I grew up in a hockey family. My brothers all learned how to fight early and I learned through uhh… my own experiences with bullies. I hit one kid so hard, he told me how he was disoriented as fuck and we ended up becoming friends.

    • Mr.Chewy@lemmy.world
      91·
      7 hours ago

      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

  • CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world
    38·
    8 hours ago

    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.

    • Sp00kyB00k@lemmy.world
      5·
      2 hours ago

      Well he wasn’t in the epstein files and he was an odd one. But as far as I know, no proof of the kid diddling has happened.

    • Slashme@lemmy.world
      29·
      8 hours 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.

    • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.worldEnglish
      623·
      8 hours ago

      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.

      • FatVegan@leminal.space
        20·
        6 hours ago

        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.

  • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
    66·
    11 hours ago

    This is not even a strawman. I seen people on reddit argue “art is supposed to just be fun, not push any ideologies.”

  • binarytobis@lemmy.world
    191·
    9 hours ago

    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.

  • terranoid@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    102·
    13 hours ago

    Rage Against the Machine but not like in a political way or anything, just like, noises and anger and centrism

  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
    5·
    8 hours ago

    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.

    • Slashme@lemmy.world
      3·
      7 hours ago

      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.