Writing

On Music that Screams

June 23, 2022

Lets imagine: you attend a rally for one of the myriad of issues brought about by our modern day capitalist society. You settle in a bit and start to march and someone with a portable PA system on a bike passes by you playing Rage Against the Machine’s Take the Power Back. And you think to yourself: hell yeah. A certified banger. Let’s go!

And you march for a bit and chant and sing along, and then the next song comes up: Killing in the Name. Ok, cool. Also a great track. Frustratingly appropriate. You continue. An hour later, it becomes very clear that said person with the bike PA has been playing Rage Against the Machine’s hits on repeat. And listen, no disrespect to Tom, Zack, and the crew. I love their music and also think it is totally good and relevant to play some Rage at a protest, rally, revolution, or otherwise. They also were huge in injecting a much needed political perspective into the mainstream musical culture of the 90s.

However, what now?

Are we going to continue playing the greatest hits of Rage Against the Machine to express a deep-seated and ever increasing desire to revolt at our current political, social, and economic situation?

Is there any contemporary equivalent to the political and social relevancy that they (and many bands and artists before) brought to mainstream music?

And if we take it further… what happens to a culture and a social body when music and art making has been thoroughly divorced from a political perspective?

But for now, let’s ask a simpler question: Where is the contemporary music of revolt and revolution? Where are the artists NOW, filling in the footsteps of a band like Rage, writing music explicitly about revolution and overthrowing the destructive cycles of power that dominate our daily lives?

Of course, there are some artists making politically relevant music. Gojira comes to mind, songs like Amazonia or Global Warming have a clear call to action in terms of the destruction being wrought on our ecosystems (by capitalism). And it goes without saying that this discussion should not be limited to rock music. Rap, hip hop, noise, folk, bluegrass, and so so many other genres have a long history of engaging with politics and still do to this day. Hell, on a very mainstream level, just look at a lot of the body of work from someone like Kendrick Lamar. So many tracks of his contain a pointed and articulate political or social critique.

But often it’s only a handful of artists writing only a handful of songs that delve into the waters of politics let alone revolution. And let’s be clear, this is not the status quo. Music and art have not always been a thing of simply entertainment. Art is a cornerstone of community and discussion. It creates an avenue for people to come together, spread ideas, and create change. The Church knew this all too well, which is why they banned music hundreds of years (until they then co-opted music by creating their own music and banning all OTHER music). Even Hitler knew this, which is why he intentionally pumped Wagnerian opera into the German public consciousness and suppressed most other musical forms (also, NO MORE WAGNER, STOP PRODUCING THE FUCKING RING CYCLE).

On the other side of the coin, look at the 60s and early 70s. You could barely release an album without having an explicit anti-war agenda. Even the Beatles, debatably the most mainstream and popular band on the planet at the time, engaged with political songwriting (albeit after gaining fame through a period of well-written but very by the book pop songs). And now that we find our world at one of its most precarious points, facing seemingly insurmountable challenges that almost all (liberal and conservative) politicians refuse to confront, we rarely see a song of any political relevancy crack into mainstream consciousness.

And I’m not here to say that something needs to be mainstream to be good or relevant (I would actively argue the contrary). But it feels at times that we forget that we (the artists) are the culture. They (the capitalists) have always and will continue to try to control and manipulate our work to make money and fit their cultural agenda (so that they can make more money). But they only have so much power. If we, as a collective, can push towards more radical, anti-capitalist, revolutionary work, then we can push beyond their influence. But it requires us to work together across so many different genres on a project that goes far beyond selling records, making money, or even building a large fan base (the things we’re often told are the goals of art-making).

So let’s write songs, LOTS of songs that speak to the state of the world and encourage people to wake up not stay asleep. Let’s ALL do it. All at once, lets OVERWHELM the music industry with the message that business as usual will not work for us any longer. That we’re not just asking for people to elect a few pseudo socialist democrats to congress, but we’re asking for a fucking revolution! That we need to end the reign of capitalism yesterday! That we don’t have time to wait any longer. Let’s stop singing, and start SCREAMING (metaphorically at least, or, also, maybe literally too? Your call).

And let’s scream not just about issues that placate and prop up the traditional concerns of the political establishment and the media. Let’s scream that the entire system must be dismantled because our survival and our livelihoods depend on it. Let’s not just make political work that engages with the political system that the capitalists, oligarchs and politicians set up for us. Let’s dream and imagine a better world. A world without power dynamics. A world where our work as human beings is not sold to a boss and evaluated in financial terms, but has meaning, to us, the people doing it! And through our music, our songs, and our art inspire others to dream and imagine with us to the point where it’s not just artists screaming, but all of us, collectively screaming against the systems of power that dominate us and deny our humanity.

Let’s make political work now! Let’s not only make work that comments on the state of the world, but that actively calls on listeners and viewers to do what they can to destabilize the current structures of power. We have the power to create change, but it requires all of us acting together as artists to generate a shift in the culture.

LETS FUCKING SCREAM