Gaza: Why have music artists not been more vocal?

Since the US-Israel genocide of Palestinians went into full swing after October 2023, the response of the music world has been anemic. For generations, musicians have frequently taken the role as a voice of conscience but regarding Palestine there has been, as Nate Bear of Do Not Panic puts it, a “deafening silence” [https://www.donotpanic.news/p/the-deafening-silence-of-rockstars]. Bear singles out the likes of Jack White and Bruce Springsteen as hypocrites but stresses the silence is generalized and that the hall of shame should include the big name acts who go to Israel to perform.

The “notable exceptions” Bear mentions are “Paramore lead singer Haley Williams, Paul Weller, Massive Attack, Idles, Wolf Alice and Fontaines DC.” And there were the participants of the Together for Palestine concert which Eno organized in 2025, as well as the No Music for Genocide initiative [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Music_For_Genocide]. A spirit of protest can be found outside the “mainstream, arena-sized bands” with which Bear is concerned. The folkie Christy Moore released a powerful song called “Palestine” while the lesser known American songwriter David Rovics based an entire album around Gaza. More recently, Roger Waters has refashioned “Comfortably Numb” to be about Gaza [https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/07/29/vmlb-j29.html].

Considering the scale of the crime and the complicity of western governments, musicians who consider themselves serious artists engaged with the world have largely been missing in action. Beyond the genocide itself, one would think the government repression that’s seen outrageous prison sentences meted out to non-violent protesters in the US and UK might weigh heavy on their thoughts. What does their impotence have to say about the state of popular music today? Have the masses’ artists been wholly replaced with establishment shills like something out of Peter Watkins’ “Privilege”?

Other artists who have been outspoken about Gaza-- Dave Matthews, Imagine Dragons, Olivia Rodrigo.

Worst ever festival line up?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/23/police-end-investigation-bob-vylan-glastonbury-chants

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/11/kneecap-rapper-terrorism-trial-high-court-throws-out-cps-appeal

Campus protests have sure been muted since the violent Biden crackdowns

Looking at the top 10 artists on Spotify:

Bruno Mars- Was actually playing a concert in Israel on 10/7.
Justin Bieber- Posted (then deleted) support for Israel
The Weeknd- Sent 2 million dollars in food aid to Gaza.
Rihanna- Posted "Free Palestine"
Shakira- Said "We are all Israeli" in 2011.
Taylor Swift- Bravely silent.
Michael Jackson- Loves all children.
Bad Bunny- Pretty much silent.
Ariana Grande- Donated to Gaza relief through her Brighter Days Foundation.
Lady Gaga- Silent. Played Israel in the past.

Kneecap must be the band most persecuted for its stand on Palestine. It’s an inverted world we’re in when these guys are the ones labelled “terrorists.” Roger Waters has endured a campaign of defamation and harassment that predates 2023 but he was never charged with anything.

The Weeknd’s donation to food aid is admirable but Israel has Gaza under siege and wasn’t letting humanitarian aid through. The famine conditions in Gaza were imposed on it and the best way to supply any kind of relief would presumably be to stop the genocide. (https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165702). Similarly, children-focused charities may be well-meaning but are up against a military campaign of targeting children (https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/israel-continues-commit-genocide-and-other-atrocity-crimes-deliberately).

Morrissey and Radiohead are other musicians who have been criticized for playing Israel.

I'm not surprised about musicians not being more vocal, I am, however, more disappointed in the silence of music critics/writers - you'd think, for example, that something like what happened to Kneecap would make them raise their voice but nope, you'd think, I dunno, it might even merit a passing mention on Popcast or whatnot but nope

Not pop music, but this dude was certainly put through the wringer over a fairly modest gesture of support. (And MSO further trashed its reputation amongst many classical listeners.)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-10/jayson-gillham-melbourne-symphony-orchestra-mso-verdict/106898876

Didn't Björk have a bit to say?

For generations, musicians have frequently taken the role as a voice of conscience but regarding Palestine there has been, as Nate Bear of Do Not Panic puts it, a “deafening silence”

Kinda disagree with this tbh, it's boomer mythology that artists are brave truth-sayers but in practice it's always a small minority that's willing to stick their necks out. I don't think if you looked at the top20 best sellers during the Iraq war you'd get much better results than what President Keyes posted; hell, I don't know you even would if you checked out the top20 best sellers during Vietnam!

That is, tbc, no excuse and artists absolutely should speak out about Gaza.

I know he is bad and hated but when I first heard of Dave Matthews way back in the early 90s (at the time still playing college bars and frat houses to future Trump voters) never thought I’d see the day when he was based while Radiohead issues mealy mouthed ‘both sides’ drivel

a few thoughts…

i associate a lot of music related activism with being centered around raising money or awareness — thinking obv of like live aid, farm aid, telethons, we are the world and the like. there was a sense that musicians had the ability and thus the responsibility to use their celebrity to shine a light on faraway famine, or stage huge concerts to raise money thru the TV for AIDS etc. our world doesn’t function like that anymore — we don’t need celebs to expose the horrors of gaza to us, things like mutual aid have replaced the need for nationwide fundraisers and on and on. the hole that was once filled by these big concentrated group efforts of musician activism doesn’t really exist anymore

now, it feels true to me that the protest song has died out. there is no “fortunate son” or “born in the USA” for gaza. maybe i’m being too 1:1 here but i do think a lot of american protest music related to war is thru the lens of concern for the american soldier. obv in the case of gaza that doesn’t come into play; our tax dollars are helping fund the war but this notion that the american boy is being misused and treated like trash was a strong animating concept for activist rock musicians arguably even into the bush era, and that kinda storytelling framework is not present here. and then of course the need for protest songs in general to exist has been greatly reduced in a world of protest notes on instagram story. so that’s a major tool at the disposal of the musician activist that has not exactly been removed from
the bag — anyone can still write a protest song — but again the social imperative for these things to exist does not really feel like it’s there anymore

tbh i would expand this discussion beyond just gaza. there is no “american idiot” or young jeezy ‘the recession’ of the trump era nor many attempts at such. ICE has not inspired a grand wave of musician activism. not be too reductive about it, but celebs wear pins on their lapels on red carpets and then post the photos to IG and everyone knows where they stand, they get to check a protest box, the comments on the photos are supportive and not mean, there’s lots of likes, and everyone involved from celeb to fan sleeps better at night... this is the era we live in. or they repost the same infographics and viral clips on their IG stories as a dozen of your actual friends, rendering the musician’s platform indistinct from everyone else’s in america, and thus inessential

i think it's just extremely generational like the issue is more broadly

a lot of younger stars are speaking up in the same way they would on any other issue and the big disconnect is with older vocal progressives like springsteen keeping quiet

i associate a lot of music related activism with being centered around raising money or awareness — thinking obv of like live aid, farm aid, telethons, we are the world and the like. there was a sense that musicians had the ability and thus the responsibility to use their celebrity to shine a light on faraway famine, or stage huge concerts to raise money thru the TV for AIDS etc. our world doesn’t function like that anymore — we don’t need celebs to expose the horrors of gaza to us, things like mutual aid have replaced the need for nationwide fundraisers and on and on. the hole that was once filled by these big concentrated group efforts of musician activism doesn’t really exist anymore

I'd call this charity, not activism; the kind of thing mainstream musicians have always signed up for because there is no political cost to doing so, it is a straightforward Good Deed that alienates no one. And you can definitely associate the golden age of Live Aid and etc with a diminished sense of militancy and politization amongst musicians and fans alike.

There have been some fundraiser type events for Gaza of course but there would never be a big concentrated effort that resembles Live Aid simply because most of the big orgs you'd need to get onside would be violently opposed to such an initiative. The issue where I think you could have this kind of effort is Ukraine - but also, as you've pointed out, the monoculture ain't what it used to be do it wouldn't be anywhere near as huge as Live Aid.

You’re focusing entirely on famous people. There are plenty of music artists who have been and continue to be very pro-Palestine. I think the difference is who becomes famous and how, rather than specifics around Gaza.

I do have to lol at the comment about mutual aid replacing large organized fundraising…

I do have to lol at the comment about mutual aid replacing large organized fundraising…

you're willfully misreading me as you tend to do. in the context of this thread, what i mean is that one of the functions people like famous musicians used to serve was to i.e. funnel their fans to donate money to hurricane relief thru SMS campaigns. daniel_rf may "call this charity, not activism" but one of the most famous pop cultural moments of an entire generation was when kanye west, on a televised celebrity charity drive, said that george bush doesn't care about black people, which was, in his way, an act of activism. anyway, this kind of thing -- celebrity activist-charity drives -- has largely fallen by the wayside culturally and yes i think has in a real way been replaced by mutual aid donation links passed around thru social media. now in a lot of instances those links are to organizations that are functioning like charities, but it is all more in the spirit of mutual aid than the donating to corporate charities of yore. musicians will often post these kind of links too, but the chain of command has changed now, they're just following other people they see online. their leadership role in these kind of charity campaigns has largely fallen by the wayside. and yes i am talking about extremely famous musicians bcuz that's what the OP was about

think it's just extremely generational like the issue is more broadly

a lot of younger stars are speaking up in the same way they would on any other issue and the big disconnect is with older vocal progressives like springsteen keeping quiet

― ufo, Friday, August 7, 2026 5:19 AM (eleven hours ago)

i do think this is probably true. signcrushesmotorist/dead calm donated all his recent merch proceeds to charity and posted a detailed accounting breakdown of it all. jane remover just threatened to leave some festival bill over an IDF implicated band or something (don't really know the details). if you follow young artists on social media you def see pro-gaza sentiment / activism being treated as non negotiable (there was just a whole controversy w/ natanya over her manager having IDF connections or something, again don't really know the details)

not that aid donation is a bad thing, but it's a very passive voice type of activism that's not acknowledging Israeli atrocities but only Palestinian suffering, and they maybe recognize that even when someone like Ms Rachel is getting called a Hamas agent, they choose their own career and blending into the slurry of mild dissent to actually speaking out with more force. it's probably also true that the enemy being a famine, or South Africa (their policies a shameful reminder of how much America has historically sucked as well) made for a better target with less blowback, in the eyes of people who think they have a lot to lose. idk.

I’m not misreading you. Though your post actually addressed the source of my lol when you acknowledged that in many instances the donation links were to actual charities.

I will also not start a semantic argument about what mutual aid actually means.

it's a very passive voice type of activism that's not acknowledging Israeli atrocities but only Palestinian suffering

good point, hadn't really thought of it that way before. also, maybe donating relief is less of a political act than BDS or something because donors can just shake their heads and be all "what a tragedy" without having to acknowledge bigger truths or take a stand or upset their applecart or whatever.

daniel_rf may "call this charity, not activism" but one of the most famous pop cultural moments of an entire generation was when kanye west, on a televised celebrity charity drive, said that george bush doesn't care about black people, which was, in his way, an act of activism.

Don't really get this rebuttal - Kanye went offscript and said something that wasn't what the televised celebrity charity drive wanted him to. The charity drive was the backdrop for his activism, it wasn't activism itself.

charity and activism are very blurred together for famous people including musicians, as largely encouraged by society for some time now. brian eno put together a star studded charity concert for gaza at wembley arena in sept 2025, so it's not like this kinda thing just totally ceased to exist, but it's stating the obvious to draw a comparison between the scale and cultural/financial impacts of early charity concert events vs that one. and again, in relation to the type of musician activism that the OP is talking about (pretty-to-very famous rock and pop stars), i don't think that class of people has necessarily recovered the perch their collective voice held in the public sphere when technology was at a point that famous people needed to take an active role in helping funnel the public's attention and money to certain causes. putting on a concert to raise money for AIDS was absolutely activism in its time and there was a heavy societal expectation that artists would engage in activism thru such means. and i think that expectation was true for musicians up and down the spectrum of fame, and still is true to this day, there's plenty of club nights or concerts in new york that donate all or portions of proceeds to gaza, and in certain spaces there is definitely an expectation that your party or concert will include some mutual aid or charitable component. but all of this, like every aspect of life, now lives alongside a social media apparatus that has reduced the necessity for certain structural aspects of society (celebrity activist charitable drives, concerts, television specials etc) that once felt necessary

Perhaps stating the obvious, but I think any reduction in this kind of thing is in large part just a downstream consequence of the democratisation/collapse (depending on how one looks at the issue) of the channels by which information, belief and entertainment are all disseminated. Asking why there isn’t a “we are the world” for Gaza strikes me as a bit like asking why so many people aren’t reading books as much as they used to

To spell that out tediously, most people’s first response to that second question would not be “it’d because writers used to be good and now they’re not”

Just out of curiosity, did many artists speak out about Bosnia in the 90s? Like did idk Mary J Blige, Pearl Jam, 2pac and Take That have much to say? Did they donate merch sales?

u2 did (there was even a song!) in their very u2 way

the big difference of course with gaza is that support for israel was for a very long time ingrained in the us liberal establishment, and while that's rapidly changing it's still a major point of controversy, so there'd still be a lot of pressure on artists not to speak up and people who should know better just going 'it's all too complicated, i don't want to get involved in anything so controversial'

which is why it's so generational

Just out of curiosity, did many artists speak out about Bosnia in the 90s? Like did idk Mary J Blige, Pearl Jam, 2pac and Take That have much to say? Did they donate merch sales?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Help_Album

Oh that looks like an interesting record! I asked because I genuinely didn’t know, it wasn’t to be snarky or anything. Are Kneecap similar to Suede and Radiohead in the 90s? I feel like the 90s bands were bigger but they never had a movie.

kneecap are the rare act better known for their politics than their music

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Help_Album

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Saturday, 8 August 2026 bookmarkflaglink

There are treasures to be found.

"Shipbuilding" Suede 3:13

I think the nature of the conflict explains the (lack of) response. Soldiers from the West/US aren't dying in substantial numbers, so this can't be attacked from that perspective, and then the nature of the Israeli state means you might need to apply a level of nuance when you get asked about your position to say, boycott.

Just to widen this a bit - as I don't know enough about the musical response in enough detail - but filmmakers, artists have also responded badly too.

The Chinese and Serbian governments also didn’t have an equivalent of AIPAC.

i don't think it's really about the lack of american soldiers dying, it's just that there was a fairly broad pro-israel political consensus in the west (and especially in the usa) extending even to self-identified progressives & liberals, but that was already shifting a little with the general public (especially younger generations) before the current conflict, which has accelerated that trend

like steven van zandt, despite having been heavily involved artists united against apartheid, was denouncing bds on twitter a decade ago saying that it was 'complicated' and that israel was 'one of our only friends in the middle east'. completely incoherent politically but that sort of thinking is still very ingrained in some

Yes - I feel like a pretty succinct microcosm of this is (and/versus was) the general standing of the Anti-Defamation League on the centre-left - which is far as I can tell was “broadly positive” until a few years ago

I will say I thought it was interesting to compare the music industry’s boycott of South Africa in the mid 80s with what’s happening now. It’s hard to imagine a project like this being made in the music business around this issue: https://auralretentive.com/2021/08/28/revisiting-the-sun-city-album-1985/

I know there was considerable sympathy for apartheid South Africa amongst Western govts in the 80's but was it as potent/widespread as the Israel lobby?

not to the same degree and certainly not within the centre-left establishment by that point

I know there was considerable sympathy for apartheid South Africa amongst Western govts in the 80's

Obviously there was in the UK under Thatcher but was there much sympathy elsewhere?

The U.S. Senate overrode Reagan's veto of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. Many Republicans joined Dems, including....Mitch McConnell.

(I'm not responding to you, Tom D, just adding context)

The Queen famously fell out with Thatcher over South Africa.

It would be pretty hard to claim McConnell isn't a racist given his life's work, but he did marry Elaine Chao so I guess he's at least not *that* kind of racist?

These efforts only gained him seven more votes than the total that opposed the bill in August. All 21 votes to sustain the veto were cast by Republicans, but the key to the outcome today was that 31 Republicans, including many conservative allies of Mr. Reagan, were not persuaded by his arguments.

A good example was Mitch McConnell, a first-term Republican from Kentucky, who said he was casting his first vote against the President on a foreign policy issue with ''great reluctance.'' But on this question, the lawmaker said: ''I think he is ill-advised. I think he is wrong. We have waited long enough for him to come on board.''

Mitch is nothing if not canny, he probably just realized there were subtler ways to maintain a racial hierarchy than apartheid.

I know most of ILM wrote him off as corny a long time ago, but Alabaster dePlume comes to mind as a musician who has been extremely vocal about Palestine, e.g.: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/dear-children-of-our-children-i-knew-epilogue

As with almost everything that DePlume has put forth in recent years, the connection of all these works to Palestine is deep. The Cremisan EP itself was recorded in Palestine. Dear Children incorporates field recordings and samples of children playing and of normal life in the West Bank, and its cover art depicts wheatpaste posters of a drawing made by a 13-year-old boy from Gaza (used with permission). The inscription on the cover art says, in Arabic, “Dedicated to the mother of the martyr/witness Obaida Ahmed al-Qiram. May you rest in peace. From your student, the artist, Hasan Jawad Abudayyeh.”

That's his third Palestine-focused release.

otm

Other artists who have been outspoken about Gaza-- Dave Matthews, Imagine Dragons, Olivia Rodrigo.

Muslimgauze! I think he was something of an outlier though. Also he died in 1999.

It’s unbelievable to me how speaking up against genocide has been transformed into a right vs left fight. I have no respect for celebrities that are afraid to speak up as to not offend a certain fanbase or the owner of the corporation hiring them. You’re not speaking up against the jewish religion, you are speaking up against genocide ffs. History will not be kind to them.

If we can’t all agree that you shouldn’t pick sides on a genocide and we can’t call war crimes for what they are we have failed as humans.

Humanity probably failed around the time we genocided the Neanderthals.

It’s unbelievable to me how speaking up against genocide has been transformed into a right vs left fight.

That's how corporate media in the US particularly frame and trivialize every discussion. It's patently ridiculous to call genocide/human rights/international law a political issue. Try to imagine the same apologist arguments having been made about the Holocaust—that it's a political issue, or that both sides have their arguments, or that identity politics should determine whether or not to support it.

Another hiccup in the pinkwashing argument is that the genocide is an American-Israeli operation with the US charge being led by christian nationalists who also are hostile to human rights for gays. That "first they came for x..." stuff is worth remembering.

there's deffo a ton of antisemitism in the online mix

The idea that genocide protesters are antisemitic and online antisemitism may be separate discussions. Racist meatheads have thrived on the internet probably since its beginning, but I don't believe those are the people out protesting, feeling the police response, and being denounced. The bigger racism story in this should be that of apartheid Israel but it appears to be beneath notice over here. Israeli newspapers and politicians make blatantly racist and genocidal statements while public support for ethnically cleansing Gaza is high. There's online hate too as I recall that when the final assault started there were social media videos of Israelis mocking grieving Palestinians and IDF posting videos of themselves gleefully destroying homes. There's a definite wellspring of hate which goes unmentioned while our elites make the protesters of genocide out to be the racists.

Would anti Israel sentiment be more of a niche leftist cause without anti semitism

not that I’m saying there isn’t the occasional Republican put off by genocide on its own

i think anti-israel sentiment would obviously have less uptake on the right without antisemitism but it wouldn't really change things on the broad centre-left where it's already well beyond the niche leftist cause it used to be

Would anti Israel sentiment be more of a niche leftist cause without anti semitism

If I understand the question, the short answer would be “no.” Again, genocide isn’t a political issue and opposition to it shouldn’t be called “anti-Israel” or “anti-American” any more than post-WWII disarmament and partition would be called “anti-German.” Those against this genocide can’t be called “niche” or “leftist” unless that circle includes the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Palestine, South Africa which brought a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice along with other countries which moved to join the case (Turkey, Egypt, the Maldives, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Cuba, Bolivia, Ireland, Belize, Brazil, and Belgium, and others which have voiced support for the case), the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory which made a finding of genocide, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, human rights monitors, striking unions, mass demonstrations, and the many journalists and health workers targeted and killed in Gaza.

lol “if I understand the question” is doing a lotttttt of work there

There's antisemitism on the US right (and the left ofc) but if you want to explain the current political moment, antisemitism is a small tributary stream, the giant river is neoconservatives losing all credibility with the voting public.

many on the right are antisemitic and pro israel where the left tends to be committed antiracists and anti israel, guess you could make the whatabout argument why are people so interested in the jews when other bad things are happening in the world too no one cares about sudan etc, btw macklemore in his speech that started all this was like i care about sudan etc too which he is a dork lol, its def true that people are disproportionately interested in the jews which is antisemitism and is part of the context of the whole thing i mean who knows maybe there wouldnt even be an israel if people werent so interested in the jews, but ultimately when your government is shoveling weapons into a genocide people are getting arrested and fired for saying that its bad and israel and its defenders recklessly calling principled opposition antisemitism thereby rendering the term less meaningful by the day whatre you gonna do you know

^^^^^

Leaving the US aside, most of the world has been pretty onboard with the Palestinian cause for decades. The only countries, other than US dependents, opposed to an independent Palestine are Argentina and Hungary, and Hungary would probably vote differently today. One of the most famously pro-Palestine countries, Ireland, has never had a left-wing government. The idea that the centre and centre-right is strongly pro-Israel is probably not much than 20 years old.

Within the US, I’d guess a lot of people who are broadly moderate but not particularly interested in foreign policy see not only the abhorrent behaviour of the Israeli government in Gaza but the model of flagrantly corrupt, populist ethno-nationalism corroding a notional democracy and think ‘no thank you’.

Leaving the US aside

Good luck with that one.

Also, in Europe at least, it's the far right that's most rabidly pro-Israel these days - if you can take them at their word, which you can't, of course.

Within the US, I’d guess a lot of people who are broadly moderate but not particularly interested in foreign policy see not only the abhorrent behaviour of the Israeli government in Gaza but the model of flagrantly corrupt, populist ethno-nationalism corroding a notional democracy and think ‘no thank you’.

― ShariVari, Sunday, September 27, 2026 9:32 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah israel really fucked up by being psychotic enough that americans noticed

Leaving the US aside, most of the world has been pretty onboard with the Palestinian cause for decades. The only countries, other than US dependents, opposed to an independent Palestine are Argentina and Hungary

― ShariVari, Sunday, September 27, 2026 9:32 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this might be true but they clearly didnt care too much

and fwiw americas stated policy has for decades been an independent palestine aka the two state solution, didnt matter much tho

I don’t buy that there are many antisemitic leftists but there are def pro Israel libs

I didn’t say it would *only* be a niche leftist concern without anti semites just *more of one*

That said I’d like to think Theo Von is genuinely principled in his anti genocide stance rather than on some freak racist message boards but *flips coin *

i dont think theo von has object permanence

Having seen Theo Von’s season of Road Rules, I agree with lagoon

I'm probably never going to watch a Theo Von comedy show but apparently his entire shtick of having a podcast/interview show where he just goes "damn that's crazy" is much more successful than his stand-up career. I guess he just riffs about whether he should be able to say the n word, a topic he seemingly returns to regularly

the joe rogan model

Humanity probably failed around the time we genocided the Neanderthals.

― The Deer-Smellers of Haunted Mountain (President Keyes), Saturday, September 26, 2026 10:33 PM bookmarkflaglink

Excuse me

Oh yeah, we kept one alive so it wouldn't be a "real" genocide.

Robert Del Naja arrested again under UK terrorism laws for protesting against the genocide:

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/9/27/massive-attack-singer-arrested-over-pro-palestine-protest-in-uk

Zach Bryan Dons “Free Palestine” Shirt For Concert At Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium

Gotta salute the UK Zionist PR programme that thinks arresting Robert Del Naja and calling for MSF to be banned is a way to win the battle of public perceptions.

locking up Banky for anything that isn't Crimes Against Art would be like getting Capone for tax evasion

Zach Bryan Dons “Free Palestine” Shirt For Concert At Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium

― coffee-themed romance ads (Eazy)

Yeah we already knew about the hypocrisy when openly antisemitic Kanye who literally released a song called Heil Hitler is doing a stadium tour in stadiums that banned Macklemore from performing.

Pretty defiant and cool of Zach Bryan

I'm a fan of Zach Bryan, seen him twice (second time like just last week), but I did not see that coming

honestly salute to him and his bandmates, that is close to a (Dixie) Chicks level of alienating your fans, even though his fanbase probably skews more "liberal" than the Chicks' in the 00s, I'm guessing a large portion of his would still prefer him to be apolitical even after the whole anti-ICE controversy from last year

more context:

Emily Gorcenski
@emily.gorcen.ski
· 9h
Zach Bryan came out saying FREE PALESTINE in the first show at Gillette Stadium since Ed Sheeran and Robert Kraft silenced Macklemore, AND he played a new, still unreleased anti-AI song and some of y’all are still sleeping on the liberatory potential of Americana

The rest of Zach’s shirt was the Pine Tree Flag, which most of you discovered in 2020 from Stop the Steal, but that’s a recent retcon of the flag’s original meaning.

The flag’s origin is in Massachusetts, where it was first used to muster troops to support overthrowing the corrupt king.

One more detail I overlooked until just now: Zach’s walk on song last night?

Bruce Springsteen’s “The Promised Land”.

Who the fuck is Zach Bryan?

He was in High School Musical you probly don't know him

he's pretty popular
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Bryan

He's written about an album's worth of music I like but, damn, he's the Drake of country folk.

I'm a fan of Zach Bryan, seen him twice (second time like just last week), but I did not see that coming

honestly salute to him and his bandmates, that is close to a (Dixie) Chicks level of alienating your fans, even though his fanbase probably skews more "liberal" than the Chicks' in the 00s, I'm guessing a large portion of his would still prefer him to be apolitical even after the whole anti-ICE controversy from last year

― Murgatroid, Saturday, October 3, 2026 8:29 AM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Again though it’s not, because there is a sizeable base of anti semitic as well ass, presumably, principled anti-genocide right wingers who have kept this issue from being straight partisan polarized

Listened to a song. Pretty mid but I appreciate his lyrics, at least they rely on actual images rather than cliches and social media slang. “something in the orange” could certainly have been written by Springsteen.

(very much not my thing but i get why its popular)

*as well as

explain it to me like I'm 10, I don't see how "antisemites and anti-genocide conservatives exist" invalidates my basic point, that his fans might be more welcoming of this message than the DIxie Chicks' fans were of what they said in 2003

I didn't put on a FREE PALESTINE shirt to please everybody. I wore it because some things are bigger than music, fame, and public approval. You're free to disagree with me, but I'm not going to pretend I don't care just to keep everyone comfortable. ❤️🇵🇸

— Zach Bryan (@ZachBryankip) October 3, 2026

Ugh never mind, that’s a fake account.

Chuck D just said Free Palestine at the Power to the People concert Tom Morello put together at Merriweather Post Pavilion near DC

would have expected no less, actually, and it’s obviously a friendly crowd.

zach bryan sticking his thumb in robert krafts eye is pretty funny and great

explain it to me like I'm 10, I don't see how "antisemites and anti-genocide conservatives exist" invalidates my basic point, that his fans might be more welcoming of this message than the DIxie Chicks' fans were of what they said in 2003

― Murgatroid, Saturday, October 3, 2026 9:41 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I think there’s a much larger subset of his core fans who support Palestine than country fans who were against Bush

I don’t buy that there are many antisemitic leftists

but there are def pro Israel libs

Would anti Israel sentiment be more of a niche leftist cause without anti semitism
[...]
I didn’t say it would *only* be a niche leftist concern without anti semites just *more of one*

Thanks for the clarification. That quick list of international bodies who have called out the genocide shows it was never going to be a niche or partisan issue but rather that it’s already generally understood to be a historic tragedy.

To the list should be added the Norwegian Nobel Committee who just awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay who was chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In September 2025, the Commission of Inquiry determined that Israel had committed genocide during the Gaza war. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Pillay stated that the world has an obligation to prevent genocide, including "halting the transfer of weapons and military support used in genocidal acts, ensuring unimpeded humanitarian assistance, stopping the mass displacement and destruction, and using all available diplomatic and legal means to stop the killing". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navi_Pillay

The original question is difficult to parse as being against Israel’s genocide doesn’t mean being “anti-Israel.” Conversely, some of Israel’s biggest supporters are antisemitic. I believe it’s always been that way, from the Balfour Declaration to today’s xtian nationalists who pine for apocalyptic war.

Other artists who have been outspoken about Gaza-- Dave Matthews, Imagine Dragons, Olivia Rodrigo.

There are some examples of comments about the occupation from before 2023. In 2011, the ad hoc band OneWorld released “Freedom for Palestine,” which drew endorsements from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ken Loach, Alice Walker, Massive Attack, Lowkey, Sami Yusuf,Billy Bragg, Coldplay, and others. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_for_Palestine)

Peter Perrett’s terrific 2019 album “Humanworld” has the track “48 Crash” about Ahed Tamimi—a Palestine teenager caught on video slapping IDF soldiers after her cousin was shot in the head—and about his feeling of helplessness in the face of it.

Deke Leonard’s final album had the optimistic “Palestine.” Robert Wyatt’s lyrics referenced Palestine a couple of times.

That quick list of international bodies who have called out the genocide shows it was never going to be a niche or partisan issue but rather that it’s already generally understood to be a historic tragedy.

I’m afraid you may not recognize the extent to which stateside those international bodies are viewed as like cosmopolitan international elites & not widely representative of popular sentiment. Regardless of how “consensus-formed” it may seem to those of us who consider that perspective batshit