My job absorbed whatever free time I might normally have had during the Bush era, so I wondered what I might have missed in music during that time, because I likely would have agreed with it and been happy to hear it. At about 75 minutes long, this film provides a brief but entertaining sample of mostly anti-Bush protest music during that time. Performers represented include Paris, NOFX, Rage Against The Machine, and Anti-Flag, among several others.
The performers speak and sing for themselves, and that alone is worth the price of admission. I found the music enjoyable both for its sound and its lyrical content. What limits me to 7/10 for this film is that I found the flow of the film rapid, but a bit wandering. Maybe 15-30 minutes more would have rounded it out. Usually I want films to be shorter, but there's a rich subject area here, even just limiting it to anti-Bush. I wonder if the future might hold an extended cut in store, or a sequel.
One of the points the film makes has to do with concentration of media power. While it's true that this necessarily limits the variety and kind of voices that are heard, I disagree that this is a major reason that today's protest music is less iconic. I think the more important trend has to do with fragmentation that happened over the same interval. With a cable universe of hundreds of channels, and a virtually limitless internet landscape for young people to inhabit, there's no longer really a cultural "USA", or even a "left" and a "right", but several smaller groupings on that spectrum, and some completely off that dimension entirely. Radio is becoming much less important as a tool for new music. I wish that had been explored more.
I also think that the protest music of the 60s was a special thing, derived from religious singing, and other group singing. It was a participatory thing, and didn't require the original artist to be present. The protest songs of today are largely a one-way communication from the artist to the audience. The audience is fired up, and may sing along even to the entire song, but it's not quite the same dynamic.
I ALSO think that today's protest music doesn't inspire much action. I didn't see much action like that in the film. The music voices discontent with how things are and reveals hopes for the future, but doesn't really say what we're going to do about it. How are we going to get from A to B?
If the film was intended to be about a particular idea being protested, I think the historical context should have been defined more. The recent Bush reign certainly provides enough fuel for protest, starting from its questionable legitimacy, to its illegal war in Iraq, to illegal wiretaps of its own citizens, to the gross negligence that resulted in the worldwide economic meltdown. Some of this is covered in other films, but it seems that more of it needed to be here as well, to place the music in its environment. We see some of the strong emotion that was going on at the time, but it's somehow muted without a great deal of time devoted to the individual stories that bring it out.
(Most of the rest of this post is me blathering on about what I'd have liked included ... you may wish to stop reading now)
If the film was intended to be a broad look at protest music generally in the previous ten years, it could have included more variety. Even just staying on the left, the film largely ignores the current civil rights movement whose songs might include (all currently viewable on Youtube) Melange Lavonne - Gay Bash, Lily Allen - F--- You, Jen Foster - I Didn't Just Kiss Her, Josh Zuckerman - Got Love, Ozomatli - Gay Vatos In Love, Tom Goss & Matt Alber - This Is Who We Are, Court Yard Hounds - Ain't No Son. And although it's Dutch, it's impossible to exclude Terrence Van Cleave - Two Fathers.
Then if you want to include protest songs from the right, well, I can't stomach that much crazy, but it's there, everything from Westboro Baptist Church to the Tea Party to Toby Keith. It might have been useful for comparison. The right has co-opted some of the lyrical themes of the left. How does that change the meaning of protest music?
If you watch through the end credits, one group mentions that after Bush, they'll take on religion. Along those lines, like-minded viewers may be interested in First Aid Kit - Hard Believer, Pennywise - My God, Tim Minchin - Pope Song, A Perfect Circle - Judith, Jay Spears - Smak Dem Christians Down. There's likely a growing audience for a film on this subject.
Last, in the Internet age, no protest music film is complete without the elephant in the room: Dan Bull - Home Taping Is Killing Music, MC Lars - Download This Song, Weird Al Yankovic - Don't Download This Song. It would be interesting to explore how the sharing of protest music affects its influence, and how artists and labels and listeners feel about that.
The performers speak and sing for themselves, and that alone is worth the price of admission. I found the music enjoyable both for its sound and its lyrical content. What limits me to 7/10 for this film is that I found the flow of the film rapid, but a bit wandering. Maybe 15-30 minutes more would have rounded it out. Usually I want films to be shorter, but there's a rich subject area here, even just limiting it to anti-Bush. I wonder if the future might hold an extended cut in store, or a sequel.
One of the points the film makes has to do with concentration of media power. While it's true that this necessarily limits the variety and kind of voices that are heard, I disagree that this is a major reason that today's protest music is less iconic. I think the more important trend has to do with fragmentation that happened over the same interval. With a cable universe of hundreds of channels, and a virtually limitless internet landscape for young people to inhabit, there's no longer really a cultural "USA", or even a "left" and a "right", but several smaller groupings on that spectrum, and some completely off that dimension entirely. Radio is becoming much less important as a tool for new music. I wish that had been explored more.
I also think that the protest music of the 60s was a special thing, derived from religious singing, and other group singing. It was a participatory thing, and didn't require the original artist to be present. The protest songs of today are largely a one-way communication from the artist to the audience. The audience is fired up, and may sing along even to the entire song, but it's not quite the same dynamic.
I ALSO think that today's protest music doesn't inspire much action. I didn't see much action like that in the film. The music voices discontent with how things are and reveals hopes for the future, but doesn't really say what we're going to do about it. How are we going to get from A to B?
If the film was intended to be about a particular idea being protested, I think the historical context should have been defined more. The recent Bush reign certainly provides enough fuel for protest, starting from its questionable legitimacy, to its illegal war in Iraq, to illegal wiretaps of its own citizens, to the gross negligence that resulted in the worldwide economic meltdown. Some of this is covered in other films, but it seems that more of it needed to be here as well, to place the music in its environment. We see some of the strong emotion that was going on at the time, but it's somehow muted without a great deal of time devoted to the individual stories that bring it out.
(Most of the rest of this post is me blathering on about what I'd have liked included ... you may wish to stop reading now)
If the film was intended to be a broad look at protest music generally in the previous ten years, it could have included more variety. Even just staying on the left, the film largely ignores the current civil rights movement whose songs might include (all currently viewable on Youtube) Melange Lavonne - Gay Bash, Lily Allen - F--- You, Jen Foster - I Didn't Just Kiss Her, Josh Zuckerman - Got Love, Ozomatli - Gay Vatos In Love, Tom Goss & Matt Alber - This Is Who We Are, Court Yard Hounds - Ain't No Son. And although it's Dutch, it's impossible to exclude Terrence Van Cleave - Two Fathers.
Then if you want to include protest songs from the right, well, I can't stomach that much crazy, but it's there, everything from Westboro Baptist Church to the Tea Party to Toby Keith. It might have been useful for comparison. The right has co-opted some of the lyrical themes of the left. How does that change the meaning of protest music?
If you watch through the end credits, one group mentions that after Bush, they'll take on religion. Along those lines, like-minded viewers may be interested in First Aid Kit - Hard Believer, Pennywise - My God, Tim Minchin - Pope Song, A Perfect Circle - Judith, Jay Spears - Smak Dem Christians Down. There's likely a growing audience for a film on this subject.
Last, in the Internet age, no protest music film is complete without the elephant in the room: Dan Bull - Home Taping Is Killing Music, MC Lars - Download This Song, Weird Al Yankovic - Don't Download This Song. It would be interesting to explore how the sharing of protest music affects its influence, and how artists and labels and listeners feel about that.