Does it bother you when an artist gets political? Either onstage, in their music or in the media?

Rage Against the Machine is an example of a band that wears their politics on their sleeve... other bands, like Pearl Jam, are politically active although it doesn't always reflect in their music.

Rockstar- I wouldn't agree with your assesment at all. With the exception of The Dixie Chicks - who's fanbase are very patriotic Republicans... most bands that do this sort of thing have no fallout over it. With bands like RATM and SOAD..it's actually part of the draw.
I personally don't mind...it's their stage and they are welcome to their opinions, just as long as they can take the criticism that comes along with that.

Lets not forget Bono from u2.
Yeah it bothers me, I dont buy tickets for your opinion on life.
I want to hear you make music about it. Or I like the way it drives your music and the end result thereof.
Just shut up and sing. All your bullshit politics werent on the CD dont put them on stage!
~Steve

as long as it's not in every fuc*ing song

not at all. i believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions about politics and similar subjects and they can freely project how they feel about it. it won't affect me. i mean i don't mind having debates with people about it...but everyone has the right to speak their mind about what they prefer in politics, whether onstage, in their music, or in the media.

Most of the time it does. Political topics in song is one thing, but when you're on stage live you have a curfew to play so many songs, and wasting it with ranting is not what your fans are paying for. Do you realize that you could have played one whole song in that 4 minutes you just spent talking about how much you hate The President?

Not usually HOWEVER...

I live in city with a HIGH population of military personally (including my husband)
We went to Ozz Fest two summers ago.
System Of A Down is known for being political. Apparently, they didn't like the fact that the majority of the people paying to see their show was military, and the lead singer turned his back to us for the ENTIRE show.

well apart from RATM you have Bob Dylan who's a fantastiic Lyrisit. Listen to Hurricane

yeah, same thing that happened to green day...its just dumb when otherwise good bands try to get political. its just not a good decision. most of the time they lose some of their fans, and half the time they dont even know what theyre talking about. thats why theyre musicians and not politicians..it drives me crazy

no, i agree...bands that were always political i dont think its a problem, or bands that keep their views general and not so specific. bands like SOAD and bad religion...i mean its not like one day, after a few years, they just woke up and were like "let start getting political"...i mean it just was always like that. i was only referring specifically to green day. they were around for ten whole years, making good music, and then on "american idiot" they went all-out political and it kinda drove some people away. their views didnt always make sense to me. it just seemed like they were bashing bush just for the sake of bashing bush, and no other reason. also, i know a ton of people who stopped listening to the dixie chicks after that fiasco over some anti-bush thing they said. maybe its just me, i dont know

It doesn't bother me.

Art has been a means of political expression for a very long time and is often an effective way of changing the cultural consciousness.

It does bother me when celebrities that have never suffered anything greater than over abundance start championing the poor like they have a clue.

I guess the bottom line is that I'm okay with the expression of political views through art, but not okay with artists acting like their popularity gives them some special insight or status for expressing their political views outside the context of their art.

Interesting question

Yes it bugs the crap outta me, fair enough in the media its okay i can turn of the t.v, but when i,ve spent money to see someone in concert i want to see them perform, not rant about their beliefs, i know that they,re making a statement for what they stand for, but pleeeeeeeeeease just gimme the music.

No .... I just quit buying their stuff if they have a view point I don't agree with. Freedom of Choice and where to spend my money.

Everyone is entitled to their views, however, if I pay money to go see someone in concert, I do not want to hear their political views then. I paid to see and hear the music. That is not the time or place for them to get political.

I hate it when that becomes their whole image. It cheapens the art of the music. I've mentioned something similar to this in the past. When you get political, you start selling the message as much as, if not more than, the music itself. That drives me nuts. It's okay when you do it tastefully, but nobody needs to hear a soap-box rant with background guitars.
My favorite saying about it goes: George Orwell could have written an essay on the Soviet Union, but he wrote Animal Farm instead.

I don't mind it. But if they are willing to put their political stance out there in the public, then I won't listen to them if I disagree with them politically.

Yeah, it does. If it's a message in the song, it doesn't bother me at all. But if, in the middle or in between songs, they are ranting and raving about stuff, it annoys me. Like Bono yelling stuff on Rattle and Hum.

Am I buggin ya? I don't mean to bug ya! LOL Yeah, Bono, you're buggin me.

It's not even the message that bothers me, it's just someone yelling in between the songs, especially on a recording. Once you've heard the yelling part several times it gets annoying. Then you find yourself singing along, then yelling along. LOL.

I don't have as much of a problem with political activism as I do with the constant preaching. Sometimes it's painfully apparent that certain groups exploit their fame solely for the purpose of spreading their message. I don't like hearing it no matter what side of the fence their on. I find the Dixie Chicks to be a really interesting example. They had the absolute right to their opinion. Looking back upon it, perhaps they were right. In their case, it had more to do with how they went about their criticism as opposed to what they said. They issued their rant on foreign soil which made it seem sort of cowardly. Timing played a part too in that had they done the same thing two years later, the media probably wouldn't have made as big an issue out of it.

One group that I don't mind hearing the message from is Bad Religion. Hard to explain, but it just seems like they have a better understanding of all the facts without the Ivy League conceit of a Tom Morello.

I like the way Sylvia put it, those are my sentiments too.

I hate Rage, to me they are hypocrits. they say you shouldnt follow authority and not conform, that is unless its the Democratic party talking, than it is ok.

if an artist gets political in their work, it turns me right off of it. i dont care what they do outside of their work, but they need to realize that if they want to include it in their work they are going to alienate fans.

I was a huge sum-41 up until their last alblum when they got political.

i guess if an artist takes a stand on my side in their songs, im not as turned off, but i think things like music dosent need that kind of stuff. Most musicians arnt the most educated people, espeically on economics or world policies, yet they have their opinions which is fine, but than they try to convince people to think they same way they do through their craft. I dont agree with that. Its like believing whatever the media says.

im a huge goo goo dolls fan, but i dont agree on their stance on guns. but they dont write songs about it. instead they have links on their website and stuff. to me, that is cool, they want to help a cause yet are not turning people off of their music.

if i pay good money to hear some one sing then that's what i want to hear.

if i wanted to hear a speech about how bad the president was or whatever the case may be then i would go to a rally.

It's one thing to express your beliefs.

It's quite another to cram your beliefs down my throat.

If lyrics are political and make me think, that's fantastic. But I don't want to attend a lecture. I want to hear good music....

I hated the Foo Fighters before, but once I found out they supported and played a benefit gig for an anti-AIDS group, my estimation slid right down even more. Bunch of fecking ignorant scumbags.

Also: Bono mate, you are not God, you're not even a rock god, so stop pretending that you are on both counts. You're a mediocre, tedious cnut.

I can appreciate it. I think if you know what you're talking about and you've got your platform you might as well use it. I can totally respect that. What if Bob Dylan or the Beatles didn't want to mix their politics into their music? Some great tunes came out of it. I think it's great that Bono, for instance, is proactive about wanting to feed starving people. I don't get at all why people think that's such a bad thing.

Where it gets in the way is when you're live show is more about your politics than your music. I saw the Beastie Boys a while back and it was ridiculous. I swear it was like an activist rally, and it was too much and took away from the experience quite a bit. Say your piece at a show, sure, I totally support spreading a message and taking a couple minutes to do so, but you shouldn't forget that you're doing a concert for people who came to see your music, not your politics. The Beastie Boys apparently forgot that and it did bother me whether or not I agreed with what they were saying.

I dont mind it at all!! Rage against the Machine is a great band and all of their music is politcal....so if you have Zack on stage preaching about something....you kind of have to expect that kind of thing!! But if you have someone else who only sings political muisc 50% of the time....I see people point of view on them saying, "Shut up and play!!"

Yeah, it gets pretty annoying to me. Especially since about 90% of my favorite artists share political beliefs that differ from mine. They have every right to say what they say, I'm all for freedom of speech. But the Bush-bashing is a tired topic, and even though I absolutely love music and the meaning behind the songs, I really don't care what the political opinion is of a bunch of band members. Unfortunately, these rock stars think that because they sell so many albums, that their opinion is more important or valid than anyone else's. Same goes for the Hollywood celebrities. I've come to expect political rants through song by the likes of RATM and SOAD, but I was disappointed when NIN, Foo Fighters, and Linkin Park jumped on the left-wing bandwagon. I thought Eddie Vedder was a bit out of line when PJ came to Houston and bashed a cardboard cut-out of George W. with a baseball bat. Was that really necessary? What point does that prove...that he wants to kill our president? Again, these bands have every right to express themselves, but usually I wish they would just play the music.

Isn't music supposed to be a distraction from the everyday life annoyances such as politics?

You don't see the Senate Majority leader pontificate about how the Beatles should have used more synthesizers, you shouldn't see some drugged up, groupie-bonking musician pontificate about whether a flat tax is fair or not. Let's keep things compartmentalized so I can enjoy both in their due time.

But it doesn't bother me, because I just switch it off and find some other tune or other band.

I think it's a cheapshot, especially when bands like RATM, SOAD, and NIN (recently) completely blow the situation out of proportion and sway their fans by scaring the living **** out of them and even flat out lying. I mean I was at the first RATM reunion show and Zach was calling out for the assassination for every American president from Truman and on, I was like "Truman's already dead, you fucktard.." It just creates way more bandwagon political supporters who really actually don't know what they're talking about, but would support anything their heroes do.

It depends on how it's done and if it affects the sound. If the lyrics were political mumbo jumbo without anything clever or new to say, but it was delivered with good vocals and the music was good, I wouldn't care at all, I've probably heard worse lyrics, at least they were trying. But if it sounded like garbage to back up a political rant (there was a Crass album where the music was atrocious on purpose so that you would focus on the lyrics, that's BS) then I wouldn't listen to it, you might as well just do spoken word performances.

But if you can deliver your message cleverly/humourously/skillfully then it's never a problem, the views Jesse Michaels expresses in Operation Ivy's music are actually a great additive, they make the songs mean more to me besides sounding great, the same thing with the already mentioned Bad Religion, an excellent band that makes the message part of the music and deliver it with very effective lyrics so it doesn't sound forced and everyone's happy. Then something like "Police Truck" by the Dead Kennedys brings up a serious issue in a funny way, as funny as it can be anyways, similar with their songs "Holiday In Cambodia" and "California Uber Alles" where it's just a general statement of displeasure done in good humour.

So basically if the political-ness is:
A) Easy to ignore when you're not in the mood
B) Effectively used as part of the song
or C) Done in an interesting non-boring way

Then it's fine.

I wish most bands would just shut the hell up and play music. If I want someone's opinion on a subject I'll ask for it.

I find it interesting to see what different bands views are on politics sometimes, as long as they don't engulf their entire music career on preaching their beliefs. They are free to express their opinions.

I answered a similar question to this one in great gory detail in the "News And Events" section the other day, so I won't repeat meself here.

Bottom line?

"Rock and Roll is music for the neck down."- Keith Richards

it doesnt usually bother me unless they do it at a concert because people go to concerts to hear music not to hear a political lecture
i think that its fine if they show their political veiws in songs and in interveiws because that is their right