Have musicians gotten soft? Why are there no songs to state a position or expose the hidden truth behind political events anymore? Not just war, but the economy, etc? - Jinx
There is a certain counterculture snag to modern anti-war songs. In the sixties, a musician could sing out against the war because it was radical, man, against the establishment, stick it to the Man, man!
Now if you sing against war, you look like a sixties leftover: passé, dated, old news.
Also, most of today’s popular protest music is rap, which is more centered on, for want of a better phrase at 12:30am, quality of life issues.
One of my favorite bands, The Cranberries, still carries a lot of political messages–albeit, some are in songs that were written earlier, but others are from their most recent album. Their “Zombie,” “Time is Ticking Out” (especially), and practically their whole To the Faithful Departed album are very heavily politically and morally centered.
Another of my favorite “issues” songs is “Hard to Make a Stand” by Sheryl Crow. A number of Irish bands I like still do their share of protesting as well–though that is centric to their native Troubles most of the time. But “What’s Left of the Flag” by Flogging Molly and a few songs by The Tossers could work for a more general sentiment.
Anyhows…
Sleater-Kinney. Check out their newest album, One Beat. Political? Hell yes. And senstive and looking at all sides of the issue to boot.
So, yeah, check out Combat Rock and One Beat by them. Good stuff.
This last Christmas season it seemed to me that Jona Lewie’s “Stop the Cavalry” was in heavier rotation than in previous years.
Not to be too cyncical, but until 1973 there was a military draft in the United States, and the country was deeply divided on the justification for our presence in Vietnam. When the draft ended with the U.S. pullout from Vietnam in 1973, so did a lot of the passion for anti-war songs.
Today the U.S. has an all-voluntarily military, and popular support for military action against Iraq in 1990-1991, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in 2001, and Iraq in 2002-2003 has been much higher than support for the U.S. military presence in Vietnam. The speed at which we have been able to accomplish our goals in the first two conflicts, with a minimal loss of life by U.S. forces, has been crucial to popular support.
Outkast’s B.O.B ,may get a lot more relevant very soon.
And Walloon has a point. Songs take time to record and release. If a war doesn’t drag out, it’s hard for anyone to get upset about it, decide to record a song, record a song, release a song and wait for it to get noticed by anyone before the war’s over and done with and it’s yesterday’s news.
Bad Religion is still rather political. So is Pearl Jam. The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Straight faced. Punk is still a goldmine for political music.
Rage Against the Machine, as well. Although I’d say their music is less anti-war as anti-government.
The highly patriotic singer Steve Vaus has claimed that he could have gotten a deal with a major label provided he dropped his patriotic songs and sang strictly love songs, and the usual kind of music. Vaus has been known to perform at civilian “militia” rallies, so take that FWIW. (He claimed that the reason none of the labels wanted to sign him as a patriotic singer is because it would be “too controversial.”)
There are a LOT of songs about economic issues out there, from the 80’s on, as well as songs about race, social disfunction, etc. A very brief swing through my collection yielded the following:
The 80s
Bruce Hornsby - “The Way It Is” (unemployment, racism, civil rights)
Billy Joel - “Allentown,” “Downeaster ‘Alexa’” (the economic decline of the American working class)
Don Henley - “End of the Innocence,” “Dirty Laundry” - (war-mongering by Ronald Reagan, the lack of ethics in the American media)
The 90s onward
Pearl Jam - Jeremy (a scary forshadowing of the consequences of teen alienation)
Everclear - “Father of Mine” (parental abandonment)
Offspring - “Come Out and Play” (teen crime and its consequences)
Rage Against the Machine was also notable, as another poster said, for addressing such topics.
I think musicians today are as impassioned as ever, but their lack of focus merely reflects the state of American society. The Vietnam War was a great prism for peoples’ view. We haven’t had anything so momentous occur since.
I’m sure one problem is that you are probably not going to get a lot of radio play. I’m not sure how much it’s helped Steve Earle’s career. Here’s a Salon mag interview with Earle talking politics & music.
Chumbawumba just released one, a folkie-type song sung over an acoustic guitar. I heard a snag of it on NPR. Can’t say more, though, as the radio came on to wake me and I was still three-quarters fogged.
There is a lot of political punk- Black Flag, Nofx, 'Pistols. But most of it is of the ‘teen angst anarchist’ variety.
Rage Against the Machine is VERY politically motivated. So is System of a Down (just read the liner notes of their first album. It actually makes them look smart.)
I don’t know why, but it seems that there are actually a lot of intellectual-type rockers who are into politics. Like Dave Navarro. But they don’t put it in their music, probably because kids don’t really care enough about war to make it interesting. Vietnam was different- draft, tens of thousands dead, etc.
Who knows, maybe if this is a good bloody war with Iraq, politically-charged music will come back.
And don’t forget that an important objective of popular music is pissing off your parents. It’s kind of silly to try to piss off your parents with songs that will make them nostalgic for their younger years, and it’s hard to say that you’re doing your own thing when you’re following in your parents’ footsteps.
I’m old enough to remember how quickly Neil Young’s “Ohio” was everywhere, in the wake of Kent State. So pardon me if I don’t buy this one.
The main problem is that, unlike in the 1960s, the airwaves are now controlled by Clear Channel and a handful of other big outfits that don’t want to put anything on the airwaves that would get even a significant minority of their listeners to hit the button to change to another station. So issue songs are pretty much gone from the airwaves. (If everybody agrees, it’s not an issue.)
Anyone remember Springsteen’s cover of Edwin Starr’s “War”? (“What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”) It got regular airplay right up to late 1990 when it became clear that we were about to go to war. Then it dropped right off the airwaves, and has rarely been heard since.
Thievery Corporation’s latest album, The Richest Man in Babylon, deals with oppression and the gap between the rich and poor. It even comes with a 25-page booklet of photographs showing scenes of injustice like, for example, a woman and her child lying in a field trying to avoid fire between FARC and the Colombian military, and a Haitian lying on the ground with his wrists bound as US Marines glare at him.
Massive Attack’s upcoming album, 100th Window, will have a number of anti-war songs on it. MA member Robert del Naja protested against the Gulf War and since then has been a leading figure in the British music scene against aggression against Iraq.
Political music is still around, and nowadays instead of being boring folk tunes, it’s got a kick-ass beat. 
UnuMondo