When I first read the topic as to which I would be interpreting, I was quite perplexed.
“Politics and popular music”
What does that even mean?
Finding the relationship between the two seemed a daunting task to me at first glance. What kind of relationship assessment was desired? Or better yet, what relationship did anyone see in the two? Is it an analogy, like:
Lily Allen is to Liberal as Toby Keith is to Republican?
I honestly had no clue—until I just Googled “relationship between politics and popular music”.
I’m partially ashamed to admit that I did, in fact, read the Wikipedia page “Music and politics” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_and_politics) but I’m delighted to report that it revealed an earth-shattering discovery; the relationship between music and politics. While it is well known that Wikipedia is, perhaps, not the most reliable way of forming a basis for a credible stance on an argument, it did help me wrap my mind around the fact that there was indeed, a definite relationship between the two. American politics and popular music have a relationship that is so close, the latter can influence the former in a way that transforms the entire system.
Considering the not-so-reliable-source notoriety Wikipedia has obtained, especially throughout schools, it did possess 23 very reliable sources; some including The New York Times as well as numerous excerpts from Worldpress. The Wiki article outlined the suspected political stance for several genres, and what their influence was on American politics. While there are always exceptions to a rule, I still found many truths in the idea. So I did some research for myself and came across a much more cohesive understanding of the topic.
It is well known that most hip-hop/rap music these days lean far towards the left. Racism and equality are major themes, and recently, a sub-genre of hip hop has come into play; “political hip-hop.” Predictably, this portion of the genre focuses mainly on political outspokenness. The website “Hip Hop Democrat” (http://thehiphopdemocrat.com/) states that they are a “…media company committed to educating, informing, and entertaining fans of Hip Hop and its culture and exposing its influence socially, economically, and politically.” The website also has links to blogs about the 2012 democratic candidates, breaking news on almost all of President Obama’s political decision-making, and featured artists (almost all with songs about political change). This method of influence is just another example of how liberal the genre is.
On the other extreme, country music is said to be the epitome of conservatism in music. After searching through countless websites, blogs and articles, I couldn’t find any evidence to the contrary. In the article, “Is Country Music Inherently Conservative?” (http://hnn.us/articles/42602.html) by Peter La Chapelle, there is a statement that perhaps sums up every other article I read; “The notion that country music is, and has always been, politically conservative seems so ingrained in our culture that it passes not just for cliché, but as a truism beyond reproach.” The ultimate evidence to just how far right country music is, was the voluminous references to the Dixie Chicks lead singer, Natalie Maines, after she criticized the former President Bush of his decisions in entering Iraq. During the 2003 controversy, CNN reported that, "Country stations across the United States have pulled the Chicks from playlists following reports that lead singer Natalie Maines said in a concert in London earlier this week that she was 'ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.'" (http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/14/dixie.chicks.reut/) Thus led to a massive boycott of the Dixie Chicks from what-seemed-to-be-faithful fans.
However, this evidence must not have an undesired effect on individual musical preference. Just because these very opposite genres of music have a very predominant voice on where they reside on the political spectrum, one should not choose according to their political beliefs.
i.e. If you listen to country music, it doesn’t mean you are a tea party-loving right-winger. If you listen to rap or hip hop, that does not make you a morally-ambiguous socialist.
Another way of looking at this relationship between music and politics, is the influence music has on actual political elections. Rap artist “P Diddy” led the “Vote or Die” non-profit organization to pull more youth voters out to the polls. I found that this was extremely similar to rock music’s “Rock the Vote” non-profit organization led by Jeff Ayeroff in Los Angeles to "…build the political clout and engagement of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country." (http://www.rockthevote.org/) These are two very notable methods of altering the course of government and proving that the entertainment business has one of the most powerful influential auras over politics known today.
In retrospect, it is the listener’s decision as to what genre of music they will listen to, what political candidate they will vote for, and how much influence they will let both have on them. The entertainment industry holds a huge amount of power over politics, and politics has a dependency on music I will deeply understand from this day on. Nevertheless, it’s still your responsibility to make whatever assumptions you may deem necessary to make. Happy listening—happy voting.
