MUSIC AND POLITICS

Do your politics affect what music you listen to ?

My answer is definitely yes. But only skin deep when I look at it.

I'll take the example of three cases of artists that I strongly despise and dislike for political reasons : the Stranglers, Eminem and the Rolling Stones.

- The Stranglers' "Rattus Norvegicus" had obnoxiously sexist lyrics plus they insisted on building their reputation on various and extreme forms of anti-feminist provocation and outrage. Their act at one point was but SM shit, and they went as far as abducting protesters who were demonstrating at one of their gigs to make fun of their indignation. Perfect swines. OTOH musically I loved "Rattus Norvegicus". Powerful, brilliant, and more importantly, something sincere beyond the cynical lyrics. Later on JJ Burnel's girlfriend got murdered and he wrote "La Folie". No comment.

- Eminem was such an imperialistically bombastic and egotistic proud-to-be-an asshole homophobe that I couldn't even listen to his output. Then he came round to dreading that his younger brother and friends might be tempted or forced to serve in Iraq and he wrote "Mosh", which is an overwhelming work of art and the closest thing to F9/11 I ever saw. I then listened to the rest and was but forced to admit the jerk's absolute brilliance. No comment.

- The Rolling Stones were caught from the start between theft and tribute, pillaging and promotion. They always respected the bluesmen who had made them what they were, but the balance was lost after Brian Jones's death when they began to cash in on their "evil" image to promote the most vulgar of consumerist values and recycle everything they could for their own purposes. From "Street fighting man" to "Sweet neo-con", the audacity remained but Bush's name got lost, cuz, you know, Keith Richards lives here so let's be bold but not too much. No comment.

All in all I don't take anyone's word at face value. Someone who claims reactionary positions isn't necessarily right-wing. It's even truer the other way round.

And deep down, my personal postulate is that there is NO such thing as a right-wing artist. True art is bound to be revolutionary - even the brand which defends itself from any political involvement.

If I find no rebellion in a work, then that's what I truly despise and I turn away from it quite naturally believe me !