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Published on Saturday, August 18, 2007 by The Olympian (Washington)
Subtle Songs of Protest Hit a High Note
by Chris Macias
The Dixie Chicks nearly lost their careers after bad-mouthing President Bush on the eve of the war in Iraq, but today there is a surge in protest songs by popular artists. They’re not just penned by the people you’d expect to be topical, such as Neil Young or Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.
Songs with anti-war sentiments are popping up from some unlikely places in the pop music marketplace:
...
The difference between the protest songs of the 1960s - think “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire or Edwin Starr’s “War” - and today’s is that these newer messages tend to come in more subtle musical packages. And they can be so hummable that people may mouth the words and never know they’re dissing the president.
“Particularly in the ’60s, artists tended to just come out with much stronger messages with less fear of upsetting anybody,” says Lee Abrams, the chief creative officer for XM satellite radio. “Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan didn’t give a damn. When the Dixie Chicks came out with their Bush statement, a lot of country radio stations stopped playing them. A lot of record companies don’t want anything over the top. It’s symbolic of the era we’re in.”
Complete article Link
Subtle Songs of Protest Hit a High Note
by Chris Macias
The Dixie Chicks nearly lost their careers after bad-mouthing President Bush on the eve of the war in Iraq, but today there is a surge in protest songs by popular artists. They’re not just penned by the people you’d expect to be topical, such as Neil Young or Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.
Songs with anti-war sentiments are popping up from some unlikely places in the pop music marketplace:
...
The difference between the protest songs of the 1960s - think “Eve of Destruction” by Barry McGuire or Edwin Starr’s “War” - and today’s is that these newer messages tend to come in more subtle musical packages. And they can be so hummable that people may mouth the words and never know they’re dissing the president.
“Particularly in the ’60s, artists tended to just come out with much stronger messages with less fear of upsetting anybody,” says Lee Abrams, the chief creative officer for XM satellite radio. “Jim Morrison and Bob Dylan didn’t give a damn. When the Dixie Chicks came out with their Bush statement, a lot of country radio stations stopped playing them. A lot of record companies don’t want anything over the top. It’s symbolic of the era we’re in.”
Complete article Link
I'm a big Norah Jones fan!
Protest songs are always a sign of the times, I too think...they will become more forceful.