Article Response: Pop And Politics

Personally I think it's almost impossible for politics and pop to mix well, at least in the usual "message upfront" way. I always like to think there's a politics of sound that overrides any lyrical content. I still think Dylan is useless in this way, I don't care about the lyrics so you're stuck with a bad singer and his irritating-as-fuck harmonica. A good example to where this model eventually leads to, can be found in "The Boy Looked at Johnny" where at the end of the book, Burchill and Parsons hail Tom Robinson as the future of music. Needless to say: a load of rubbish. Maybe ideally you would like to find a mix between the two (sound + lyrics) as in Public Enemy and Eric B & Rakim, but it's very hard to find this mix, esp. outside of hip-hop. Primal Scream made the right decision: the noise upfront, keep the lyrics vague, and the artwork does the rest. Somehow "exterminate the telepaths" makes sense in that context...to me at least ;)

stereolab, dexys midnight runners, housemartins..... mccarthy, bikini kill/le tigre, huggy bear, bratmobile patti smith.....

need i say more...

Good stuff. It's very close to what I'd aim to do in pop, I think. FWIW I'd want people to know where I stood on things to such an extent that I wouldn't have to play preacher, but simultaneously I'd surprise people, often. I think of myself playing that role on Elidor, actually.