Rebels with a Cause: The Endangered Future of the Protest Song
America can look back on a rich tradition of protest songs. Are today's stars simply not up for the challenge to produce their own version of "Give Peace a Chance"?
“How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?” wondered Bob Dylan and his well-known answer to the question has turned his song “Blowin’ in the Wind” into one of the most popular protest songs of the past century. A whole generation of students in the 1960s grew up with Dylan’s music and turned his songs into their anthem. The times they were a-changing, however the hippies were by far not the first who came up with protest songs, rather they joined into a long American musical tradition of resistance that can be traced back not only to the days of the Vietnam War, but all the way back to the American Revolutionary War. No matter whether the American people were raging against injustice, racial discrimination, war, or social inequalities over the course of the last three centuries, there has always been an urge for a musical expression of their agenda. Whether abolitionists, supporters of Women’s Suffrage as well as the Civil Right’s Movement and Union workers, at times every group joined into a chorus of folk rhythm lines.
There has been much lamenting about the fact that today’s generation of students has become increasingly apolitical and is lacking the social activism that so many of its predecessors demonstrated. However, one might wonder whether they do not simply lack a popular figure promoting their ideals with the help of catchy rhythms like Bob Dylan, Cat Steven and John Lennon did in the 60s and 70s. With the help of new communication devices such as web radios, video streams, and boundary crossing chat rooms, it should now be easier than ever to promote new and controversial songs to a global audience. The question is then: Are today’s stars simply not up to the challenge of producing their own version of “Give Peace a Chance”?
With the emergence of the "War on Terror" and America’s harshly criticized invasion of Iraq, a new generation of demonstrators is now on the verge of writing protest history themselves. Nevertheless, the vast majority of recent protest songs that have been played on the radio are performed and written by the stars of yesteryear: Neil Young, Patti Smith, Tom Waits, Morrissey, and Bruce Springsteen have all been busy trying to come up with songs that are supposed to reflect the zeitgeist of a generation of listeners that is largely 40 years their junior. Therefore it is not surprising that none of them has been able to establish themselves as the voice of the current MTV generation with their longings for star glitter and youth rebel activism.
“Dear Mr. President, who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep? What do you feel when you look in the mirror?” — 27-year-old singer Alecia Moore, better known as Pink, asks George W. Bush in her song “Dear Mr. President” that was released on her 2006 album “I’m not Dead”. The claims that Ms. Moore makes in her songs are partly based on political facts, for instance she claims the “no child left behind campaign” is not effective. However, foremost they are an emotional accusation of Mr. Bush’s allegedly cold attitude towards the American victims of the War on Terror. “How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?” wonders Pink in the chorus of “Dear Mr. President”. In the weakest lines of the song, the young artist even goes as far as to make an effort to dismantle Mr. Bush’s psychic state and calls him a “lonely boy” who ”has come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.” It is debatable whether Ms. Moore comes even close to reaching the lyrical sophistication that Dylan established in his songs, however that does not seem to be something that the young woman tries to achieve. The singer describes her motivation to write her protest song that has the form of an open letter as following: "I read The New York Times every day, and watch the news. And I was completely disgusted with it. I just felt like.... I just needed to write a song. I really wanted to write a song to piss my dad off because he is a Bush supporter."
Interestingly enough “Dear Mr. President” has become far more popular in Europe and Australia where it climbed up the Top Ten of the Single Charts quickly after its release in 2007. In the U.S., however, the song was never released as a single and despite its great success abroad Pink is not eager to have it released. Moore performed the song for the first and only time on American television in April 2007 on the ABC show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” telling the host: "I have to thank you so much (because) you're the only show that's not afraid of letting me sing Dear Mr. President... I can't even speak about it on radio.” She thereby suggested that the American media has gotten to a point where self-censorship drastically reduces the possibilities to publish critical material, even for well-established stars like herself. With the help of the internet Pink’s allegation of censorship on American television and radio has been spread all over the world. In numerous online chat-rooms and online bulletins, especially European fans argue that “Dear Mr. President” could not be released in the US because the government, namely George W. Bush, simply banned the song because of its critical content. Although those claims are obviously far fetched and can simply be revoked based on the existence of the First Amendment, many European fans are eager to believe them. For instance, a German user of a chat room, who calls himself Lenny, argues in a heated debate that “as soon as Mr. Bush does not like a song, he bans it.” Although this myth might very well have been helpful in terms of sales of Ms. Moore’s single, the more accurate reason for its non-release in the United States seems, according to an interview with the artist herself, rather personal: “This song is too important to me to allow others to look at it as a publicity stunt." Critics have pointed out that this is purely a marketing strategy, as Pink had no personal problems to release the single outside of the U.S. Hence, Pink might foremost fear loosing fans who do not share her opinion on the war in Iraq.
It is not possible to predict whether Ms. Moore would actually lose a large number of her supporters should she decide to release her single in the U.S., nor whether American television channels would actually deny to broadcast an existing music video of “Dear Mr. President”. However, it is obvious that despite the increasingly critical attitude among Americans toward President Bush, Pink’s song has not become a new protest song with the help of the new media scene that does not depend on the release of a single in order to promote a song. Although there are a number of live recording videos of “Dear Mr. President” available on YouTube and various personal Web sites, the demand for a single extraction has not been high enough to urge Ms. Moore’s record company for a release. “Dear Mr. President” has so far proven to be one of the most promising songs of a mainstream artist trying to mobilize the young generation to protest the Bush administration. However, one might have to accept that the days of the mass media producing a common identity of protestors who all join into the same song, has come to an end and will be replaced by a wide variety of more individualized groups, that all have their own ideals and lyrics. Numerous songs are available on social platforms like MySpace, iTunes and YouTube. This offers the chance for a vibrant diverse new culture of social protest. One would be mistaken to think that new forms of resistance are inferior to the larger than life role-models of the past. "Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine no possessions'?", comments Elvis Costello in his song "The Other Side of Summer" satirically on the impact that some of his fellow colleagues actually made through the contribution of their songs.
There has been much lamenting about the fact that today’s generation of students has become increasingly apolitical and is lacking the social activism that so many of its predecessors demonstrated. However, one might wonder whether they do not simply lack a popular figure promoting their ideals with the help of catchy rhythms like Bob Dylan, Cat Steven and John Lennon did in the 60s and 70s. With the help of new communication devices such as web radios, video streams, and boundary crossing chat rooms, it should now be easier than ever to promote new and controversial songs to a global audience. The question is then: Are today’s stars simply not up to the challenge of producing their own version of “Give Peace a Chance”?
With the emergence of the "War on Terror" and America’s harshly criticized invasion of Iraq, a new generation of demonstrators is now on the verge of writing protest history themselves. Nevertheless, the vast majority of recent protest songs that have been played on the radio are performed and written by the stars of yesteryear: Neil Young, Patti Smith, Tom Waits, Morrissey, and Bruce Springsteen have all been busy trying to come up with songs that are supposed to reflect the zeitgeist of a generation of listeners that is largely 40 years their junior. Therefore it is not surprising that none of them has been able to establish themselves as the voice of the current MTV generation with their longings for star glitter and youth rebel activism.
“Dear Mr. President, who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep? What do you feel when you look in the mirror?” — 27-year-old singer Alecia Moore, better known as Pink, asks George W. Bush in her song “Dear Mr. President” that was released on her 2006 album “I’m not Dead”. The claims that Ms. Moore makes in her songs are partly based on political facts, for instance she claims the “no child left behind campaign” is not effective. However, foremost they are an emotional accusation of Mr. Bush’s allegedly cold attitude towards the American victims of the War on Terror. “How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?” wonders Pink in the chorus of “Dear Mr. President”. In the weakest lines of the song, the young artist even goes as far as to make an effort to dismantle Mr. Bush’s psychic state and calls him a “lonely boy” who ”has come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.” It is debatable whether Ms. Moore comes even close to reaching the lyrical sophistication that Dylan established in his songs, however that does not seem to be something that the young woman tries to achieve. The singer describes her motivation to write her protest song that has the form of an open letter as following: "I read The New York Times every day, and watch the news. And I was completely disgusted with it. I just felt like.... I just needed to write a song. I really wanted to write a song to piss my dad off because he is a Bush supporter."
Interestingly enough “Dear Mr. President” has become far more popular in Europe and Australia where it climbed up the Top Ten of the Single Charts quickly after its release in 2007. In the U.S., however, the song was never released as a single and despite its great success abroad Pink is not eager to have it released. Moore performed the song for the first and only time on American television in April 2007 on the ABC show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” telling the host: "I have to thank you so much (because) you're the only show that's not afraid of letting me sing Dear Mr. President... I can't even speak about it on radio.” She thereby suggested that the American media has gotten to a point where self-censorship drastically reduces the possibilities to publish critical material, even for well-established stars like herself. With the help of the internet Pink’s allegation of censorship on American television and radio has been spread all over the world. In numerous online chat-rooms and online bulletins, especially European fans argue that “Dear Mr. President” could not be released in the US because the government, namely George W. Bush, simply banned the song because of its critical content. Although those claims are obviously far fetched and can simply be revoked based on the existence of the First Amendment, many European fans are eager to believe them. For instance, a German user of a chat room, who calls himself Lenny, argues in a heated debate that “as soon as Mr. Bush does not like a song, he bans it.” Although this myth might very well have been helpful in terms of sales of Ms. Moore’s single, the more accurate reason for its non-release in the United States seems, according to an interview with the artist herself, rather personal: “This song is too important to me to allow others to look at it as a publicity stunt." Critics have pointed out that this is purely a marketing strategy, as Pink had no personal problems to release the single outside of the U.S. Hence, Pink might foremost fear loosing fans who do not share her opinion on the war in Iraq.
It is not possible to predict whether Ms. Moore would actually lose a large number of her supporters should she decide to release her single in the U.S., nor whether American television channels would actually deny to broadcast an existing music video of “Dear Mr. President”. However, it is obvious that despite the increasingly critical attitude among Americans toward President Bush, Pink’s song has not become a new protest song with the help of the new media scene that does not depend on the release of a single in order to promote a song. Although there are a number of live recording videos of “Dear Mr. President” available on YouTube and various personal Web sites, the demand for a single extraction has not been high enough to urge Ms. Moore’s record company for a release. “Dear Mr. President” has so far proven to be one of the most promising songs of a mainstream artist trying to mobilize the young generation to protest the Bush administration. However, one might have to accept that the days of the mass media producing a common identity of protestors who all join into the same song, has come to an end and will be replaced by a wide variety of more individualized groups, that all have their own ideals and lyrics. Numerous songs are available on social platforms like MySpace, iTunes and YouTube. This offers the chance for a vibrant diverse new culture of social protest. One would be mistaken to think that new forms of resistance are inferior to the larger than life role-models of the past. "Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine no possessions'?", comments Elvis Costello in his song "The Other Side of Summer" satirically on the impact that some of his fellow colleagues actually made through the contribution of their songs.