It’s Cheese Alright
Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that I am a music aficionado and often quote song lyrics when I think they fit into a post. It should also be pretty well evident that I think people like Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks are being stupid when they insist on making music about politics. Not because she is not entitled to her political views, but because she is willfully cutting herself off from a segment of potential fans. In other words, playing politics with music is bad business in my opinion.
There have been overtly political songs that have become bona fide hits on many different subjects through the years. For the most part, this has happened because the songs were good, not because they were political. They succeed in spite of the politics because of their musical merits.
So I am amused when I read an article like the one in the New York Times today about a group of Nashville songwriters who want to push country music toward liberal ideals. They see themselves as bold champions of the left in what they consider a conservative wasteland. Or something equally dramatic.
Sitting at a table in early August, Bobby Braddock, the longtime songwriter, lamented the conservatism of the country music industry that was demonstrated when the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks became a target of fury three years ago after saying she was ashamed that her band and President Bush shared the same home state.
Asked whether his recent song “Thou Shalt Not Kill” would have airplay, Mr. Braddock said, “Oh, never.”
“Something political will not get played on country radio unless it’s on the conservative side,” he added. “If you show both sides, it’s not good enough. It’s got to be just on the right.”
Country music, the genre of lonely hearts and highways, lost jobs and blue-collar woes, has become a cultural battleground. Conservatism is widely seen as having the upper hand, a red-state answer to left-leaning Hollywood.
Democrats on Music Row, the country music capital here, have grown frustrated with that reputation. A group of record-company executives, talent managers and artists has released an online compilation of 20 songs, several directly critical of Mr. Bush and the Iraq war.
The price for the set is $20, with most of the proceeds going to the group, which calls itself Music Row Democrats and is using the money to support local and national candidates who share its values.
Bob Titley, a former manager of Brooks & Dunn and a co-founder of Music Row Democrats, has no illusions that the songs will shoot to the top of the charts. Rather, Mr. Titley said, he hopes to use them as fund-raisers and to change the image of country as strictly Republican music.
“My hope would be that they would play this music at campaign rallies,’’ he said, “and when the volunteers are out on a hot day driving door to door, they’ll put it in their cars to keep themselves pumped up and in a good mood.”
I can truthfully say I had never heard of Bobby Braddock before reading this article. Or actually about any of the people that are featured in it. Real hardcore country fans may know them, but I wouldn't exactly call them household names. Regardless, what they seem not to grasp here is that music, especially in Nashville, is a business. The people who run the industry are very, very good at figuring out what sells and what doesn't. They are also very good at spotting quality work. One of the members of this group just wrote and recorded a song that may help explain why they just are not getting the attention they think they deserve:
The songwriter Darrell Scott contributed “Goodle U.S.A.” Faith Hill had recorded it under a different name and without the line “It’s like Joe McCarthy was our acting president.”
Mr. Scott recently recorded a new song, “W Cheese,” in a basement studio at Famous Music on Music Row. One verse ends, “They filled our plate with freedom fries, red, black and blue, white lies/And a helping, heaping, hating size of stinkin’ W cheese.”
“I’ve never thought of myself as very political,” he said. “It just seems like in the current environment even I have to write about it.”
Mr. Scott may have talent, but if he can't come up with better lyrics than that, he sure as heck wont be getting any big airplay. Playing politics with music isn't likely to succeed unless the quality is there in the first place. Cheesy lyrics wont cut it. How about sticking to what music is all about in the first place: entertainment?
By Roland Hesz, Monday, 21 August , 2006 @ 5:44 am
Music as entertainment?
Well, interesting idea.
Music was originally for spreading knowledge, supporting political and religious goals, etc. Entertainment is a side effect, I would say.
Music were always used to spread values, worldviews, believes and so on. If it has lyrics it wants to say something. Good or bad, but music almast always always has a meaning to it.
Most of the really good songs around here were political ones. Not stating “get rid of the leaders” type, more like “you believe the yellow rose is still blooming/ you still think your lying words we still believe in”, and so on - although, in the 80s we had Beatrice which were more direct.
Most of them were censored, not allowed on air.
Entertainment? Sure, partly.. Bu always, always with some message…