Activism in Music

There is a certain amount of cynicism attached to the “Peace Love and Understanding” motto of the Hippie generation. That movement was very involved with civil rights issues and to protesting the US government’s involvement in war in Vietnam. At that time, Joan Baez and many others became representative of a voice of protest against an establishment that was sending a portion of its youth out to a war that wasn’t theirs. Nick Lowe retorted to the cynicism with “What’s so funny about Peace Love and Understanding” (a cover of this is on A Perfect Circle’s last studio album titled Emotive).
Activism represents a consciousness – a general consciousness of our surroundings. A lot of people, when talk of politics come out, treat it like the dirty word it has become through years of abuse by its practitioners. Sure, it’s a corrupt premise, but all the more reason to take an interest in it to try and make it better. Activism can be about politics, about the environment, about moral issues and so on. It has to do with believing there is a need for action for a cause, and acting on it and bringing other people in on the journey.
As for musicians, they have the obvious medium at their fingertips, and a very successful one at that. Luckily, some are aware of that power.

In 1939, Billie Holiday recorded “Strange Fruit”. A special arrangement was made to record the song since her existing record label did not want to take responsibility for doing so. The lyrics for the song was written by a Jewish schoolteacher by the name of Lewis Allan, and the song spoke of the lynching of African Americans, a common racial crime of the period. Speaking out against racial discriminations and for racial equality at that time was a scary prospect even for a white man. And being a black person in that role could very well mean death. Still Billie Holiday took that chance and the song became the anthem for protests against lynching.

Today a musician’s activism has many faces. In the era of multimedia, it could not be any other way. The artists today can release music like before, plus can speak to their audiences in large stadium arenas during concerts, speak on tv, channel ideas through music videos, and the last, but definitely with the widest reach, they can use the internet to spread ideas. Of course the bit about television and popular media is a bit tricky in case the cause is not one the owner, or advertisers would not endorse. The safest bet is then the Internet. As far as I have seen, many bands are using that medium to the best.

Try to remember Bono, without U2, and with some unlikely crowd some years ago. He was hanging out with the politicians! His cause was to get debt relief for some African countries, and he got somewhere with his approach. Most musicians are however not that interested in hanging out with the men. Or prefer to go through more conflicting paths. Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Incubus all have sections on their websites that deal with some causes. Incubus has made a separate foundation called the Make Yourself Foundation and Pearl Jam’s Activism section has a list of organizations that work with youth and arts, the environment, healthy eating and public schools, keeping commercialism out of public schools and community health. Rage Against The Machine has of course defined their purpose in this world in their name. They spent their years and all their energy in writing protest songs. And now that they have disbanded, their site still exists with a list of the causes they support. Tom Morello himself is quite involved in these. Zach de la Rocha, the songwriter for Rage, has put into words the anguish and the emotions of his consciousness on the issues of racism, fascism and greedy manipulations by powerful corporations of the west. They, as a band, had also played once to raise money for lawyers, investigators, and other legal costs for the trial of a man who was imprisoned without a trial. R.E.M. is a band that hails from a small quiet place in USA and they have awareness for the environment. Michael Stipe recorded few songs and raised money for Mercy Corps that helped the victims of hurricane Katrina. Those who helped on the album include James Iha (ex-Smashing Pumpkins) and Chris Martin (Coldplay). Chris’ band, Coldplay, also endorse a lot of causes on their websites. One of them is Make Trade Fair (Oxfam), the same words that Chris had written on his hands and was visible when the cameras filming the concerts zoomed on him to show him playing the piano. Quite a way to get something noticed! System of a Down shot a very simple video that surely represented their stance on the War on Terror. It was simply footage of them and others present at a rally protesting the war. The song was titled Boom. A Perfect Circle’s release of Emotive during the present times of war with renditions of the classic songs of protest and war (including a haunting version of John Lennon’s Imagine and the aforementioned What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding) also speak of their mindset now.

Of course there is risk involved in case the popular sentiment goes against what the artist has to say. That may be why a lot of artists may also choose to stay silent or appear apathetic. Consider the debacle involving the Dixie Chicks. They stated to a London audience that they were ashamed that George Bush was from Texas! A really risky move considering the factions who support the president and those that are categorically country music fans overlap very well. This caused their listeners to go into some activism of their own against the country band in the form of boycotts and public destruction of their discs. Post 911 was/is difficult for the people of USA and during the first war on Afghanistan, Bruce Springsteen, the man who criticized the US’ Vietnam agenda in Born in the USA, made a comment to the press saying that the people should support the president in the war. But come election time, he was out there, touring and rallying support for John Kerry who was running against Bush. That campaign also saw Eddie Veddar (Pearl Jam) in support. The election also saw the rise of an anti-Bush campaign in the form of a competition for 30 second political advertisements, titled Bush-in-30-Seconds. The judges included Jack Black (Tenacious D), Moby, Stipe (R.E.M.), Veddar and many more from other walks. As we know now, success is not guaranteed in activism.

The organizations that directly work with a cause, realize the power of a popular artist’s voice, and they have been frequently borrowing them to further press their causes, from arranging fund raising concerts, to holding concerts to raise awareness on an issue, to lectures from an artist at conferences, concerts and other events. The Spitfire Tour was organized in 1998. A celebrity helper was Zach de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine). The idea behind the tour was to go to different campuses and other venues to hold talks on issues ranging from the environment, agricultural reform to censorship and corporate powers. The speakers included politicians, writers, people from the film industry, and of course musicians. Amnesty International is also using musicians to promote their causes, and some of the bands already mentioned so far are already helping that out. The initiative is being called Music For Human Rights.

Incubus is one band that has opened their own organization. They named it Make Yourself Foundation (named after their successful album title Make Yourself) through which they raise money for different causes they support and publicize other efforts like the Music For Human Rights of Amnesty International. The money is raised mainly from their touring, their record sale, and auctions held through the website of items like concert tickets, the band’s old gear and other items. Tom Morello (Audioslave, ex-Rage Against The Machine) and Serj Tankian (System of a Down) also run an organization, which they call Axis of Justice. The website states: “Its purpose is to bring together musicians, fans of music, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice.”

Locally we saw a movement worthy of praise from the members of the online forum (primarily about music) Amadergaan.com when it came forward to raise money for Abdur Rahman Boyati’s treatment on October 2004. On that occasion famed musician Maqsoodul Haque (ex-Feedback, Dhaka) was also in the boat and one of the strong hands. It was an extraordinary coming together of fans and musicians, with a lot of bands performing without payments. This, however, shifted the activist role, from musician to the music fans. Next to writing songs with an activist spirit, the next easiest thing artists can do is play live for a cause, and thus, help such movements to a success. We have seen lots of initiatives like this, and at this point The Concert for Bangladesh does need mentioning. Just like Ravi Shankar went to his musical friends for help in raising funds for Bangladesh, the friends of Meraz (bassist for Black) went to theirs to help raise money for his treatment after Black’s tragic accident on April 2005. Fund raising concerts are not uncommon, but they are usually ad-hoc and not organized centrally within a body of people as this.

Our artists serve greatly as voices of reason, and sometimes, also with that activist edge. Different Touch criticized, and presented the general criticism of politicians, and the people through their song satirically – “Ei mon chay, ekbar ami minister hobo, … shunsi naki minister-ra air condition pay… ”. Maqsood (ex-Feedback, Dhaka) in his solo album Prapto Boyoshkoder Jonno Nishiddho went for pretty sharp and direct criticism of the cat and mouse (or if you see any comedy inherent in it, Tom and Jerry) politics of our major players. Going further, back in time, our bauls did the same with issues of society, religion and all else.

The general tendency among local artists is that they are usually prepared to take part in concerts to support a cause, but not really act to on their own accord to be active in any arena, be it politics/society. Granted that the music industry in our locale is not as prosperous or lucrative as in the west, money is not the principal element for an activist. The heart and the voice must be in it, with the power to influence and inspire.