Been thinking a bit about this, popular music (the ones that hit top 100 charts or whatever) never has lyrics that point out real problems or point to culprits and how they’re fucking our shit, which is very easy to find in punk rock and some variations, as well as rap.

Of course, part of the problem are the record labels themselves, which often hold artists “hostage” in order to profit off them. Bigger ones will obviously prefer to avoid having such lyrics become popular.

Still, there seems to be absolute zero songs in certain genres that even come within 10 meters of talking/singing/teaching/bringing awareness about situations that affect a LOT of listeners, even from far away, and would be extremely helpful in spreading some knowledge.

Granted, doing so is easier said than done, a catchy tune that calls out big oil’s many attempts to burn the world, or big pharma’s frequent price gouging, aren’t things “any idiot” can come up with. But that nobody outside “angry” genres seems to be doing it is what saddens me.

  • @Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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    171 year ago

    I always thought it was pretty stupid that rage against the machine was criticized for simultaneously being anticapitalist and commercially successful. What do we want, commercially successful bands to all be bootlickers or completely apolitical? Much better to reach more people.

    • @Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      61 year ago

      How is rage against the machine reaching more people when their latest concert tickets were going for like $500 a piece. Seems like they’re only reaching the wealthy at this point. I mean rage is a band that loses its meaning the moment they get big and wealthy. Now we got a bunch of millionaires on stage, singing to the children of millionaires, about how unfair society is. It’s kind of a joke