PROTEST WEEK. artículo

You’ll be shushed
Viernes, 23 de Mayo de 2003

Yesterday, it was said that Lenny Kravitz teamed up with a group of singers from Israel and Iraq. Then, Madonna released her new video where she accuses the American way of life of being a lie. It seems that finally pop artists are speaking up.

However, Lenny’s song will only be available for selected members of the artist’s website and Madonna’s video has been banned from MTV.

Definitely, protest music is still alive. But, nowadays, it really doesn’t matter because no one can hear it, much less see it. Before, people would do almost anything to get the latest protest song in their hands. But today’s youngsters (who are the biggest consumers of music) don’t really care about it.

What sells now is shallow music; deep lyrics do not even make it into Billboard’s Hot 200 songs. So how much change can protest music make if it has been made for deaf people? How is it going to bypass Britney’s Slave for you?

It is true that hip hop is becoming more popular each day and originally it was completely under the category of protest music. But again, it was only in the beginning. Artists such as Nelly have “trashed” the true meaning of hip hop.

Hip hop veterans despise this kind of artists who call themselves part of the hip hop culture. Songs like Hot in Herre don’t represent hip hop and must not be labeled that way; but the truth is that our society would rather listen to songs about “popping the bottles” and partying than about the still existent black discrimination.

Protest music doesn’t have the support and propaganda it used to have. The few well-known artists that have taken the risk to write and compose a protest song, have suffered consequences. Most big record labels would turn them down and the few ones that accepted them, later would break the contract.

There are still two or three small labels which promote this kind of artists. Unfortunately they don’t help a lot since every new artist or single they release is immediately banned by several companies, such as MTV; which is ridiculous since MTV has proclaimed itself the biggest sponsor for protest music and its artists. My guess is that they have started to get old.

Just turn on your TV and you’ll see plenty of videos with thongs everywhere; that isn’t protest music (unless you consider protest to complain about the thong’s size). Turn on the radio and you’ll hear love songs, party songs and even car songs. These songs aren’t protest music. Whatever you hear, wherever you turn your head, the messages you’ll get sound like these: “Apparently Britney cheated on Justin!”, “They got married in secret…”, “Hers aren’t real!”.

So, what good is protest music if we can’t hear it?