Music and Politics
Last August an online friend posted a question. She asked if there was any Western popular music that wasn't about love or partying.
My response was that there were lots of Western pop songs that dealt with broader subjects, e.g.:
See What I'm Saying by Powder
Greatest Love of All (this is the Whitney Houston version)
You Are The Voice by John Farnham
Saltwater by Julian Lennon
Wind of Change by The Scorpions
We Don't Need Another Hero by Tina Turner
Moonlight Shadow by Mike Oldfield
The Living Years by Mike & The Mechanics
Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins
Runaway Train by Soul Asylum
Somthing Inside So Strong by Labi Siffre
Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Steview Wonder
99 Red Balloons by Nena
Land of Confusion by Genesis
Burning Heart by Survivor
Private Dancer by Tina Turner
Bad Day by REM
Jesus He Knows Me by Genesis
Wreck of the Old 97 (Seekers version)
Don't Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats
After that I realised that there songs like:
Go West by The Pet Shop Boys
Seven Seconds by Youssou N'Dour featuring Neneh Cherry
Today I looked up an old song:
The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and The Range
and realised it would have been appropriate.
Looking at that list, the above songs, there's nothing modern in there. Is modern pop devoid of social commentary?[1] Or is it just that I'm not listening to new music as much as I used that I don't notice it?
[1] I'm not counting rap or hip hop because I find them too tuneless to count as music. Yes, I know, I'm old.
My response was that there were lots of Western pop songs that dealt with broader subjects, e.g.:
See What I'm Saying by Powder
Greatest Love of All (this is the Whitney Houston version)
You Are The Voice by John Farnham
Saltwater by Julian Lennon
Wind of Change by The Scorpions
We Don't Need Another Hero by Tina Turner
Moonlight Shadow by Mike Oldfield
The Living Years by Mike & The Mechanics
Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins
Runaway Train by Soul Asylum
Somthing Inside So Strong by Labi Siffre
Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Steview Wonder
99 Red Balloons by Nena
Land of Confusion by Genesis
Burning Heart by Survivor
Private Dancer by Tina Turner
Bad Day by REM
Jesus He Knows Me by Genesis
Wreck of the Old 97 (Seekers version)
Don't Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats
After that I realised that there songs like:
Go West by The Pet Shop Boys
Seven Seconds by Youssou N'Dour featuring Neneh Cherry
Today I looked up an old song:
The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and The Range
and realised it would have been appropriate.
Looking at that list, the above songs, there's nothing modern in there. Is modern pop devoid of social commentary?[1] Or is it just that I'm not listening to new music as much as I used that I don't notice it?
[1] I'm not counting rap or hip hop because I find them too tuneless to count as music. Yes, I know, I'm old.