The Billboard Top 10 this week contains songs about love, heartache and shaking it “right thurr.” However, at number 11 there is a strange occurrence – a socially conscious song with a message.
The song “Where is the Love?” by The Black Eyed Peas and featuring Justin Timberlake is one of the few non-country songs to become popular while still having a geopolitical message. With lyrics like, “Nations droppin’ bombs/Chemical gasses fillin’ lungs of little ones/With the ongoin’ sufferin’ as the youth die young,” this song seems to be a throwback to the 1960s peace, love and harmony message with a hip-hop twist.
However, the majority of recording artists today do not produce songs with any kind of political or awareness message. Instead, well-known artists such as Sheryl Crow write pop songs about soaking up the sun to sell records and then attempt to use their celebrity status as a platform to espouse their political message.
The war in Iraq, 9/11 and the hunt for Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden spawned passionate outcries from supporters and protesters in rallies around the world. The war is technically over and the songs concerned with world issues are no longer in the forefront because they do not garner platinum record sales.
Country music, however, continues to thrive on controversial lyrics. Where some artists sing about world peace and love, country musicians seek vengeance for 9/11 and “kicking butt the American way” in the Middle East. Toby Keith, called on his Web site an “outlaw country star,” has seen record sales soar since his post Sept. 11 song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).”
Another country singer, Darryl Worley, followed Keith’s lead earlier this year with his song “Have You Forgotten.” The pro-war song gathered media controversy with lyrics such as “Some say this country is just out looking for a fight/ After 9/11, then I have to say that’s right/ Have you forgotten how it felt that day to see your homeland under fire and people blown away?/ Have you forgotten?”
It seems as though artists are more than willing to speak out during a crisis, but afterward all social consciousness disappears. Legendary artists like Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead were revered for their music and their views expressed in song throughout their careers. Their lifestyles and possessions were not the emphasis of their fame, and so they possess credibility unattainable by modern musicians.
A majority of musicians today dedicated to a cause spend their royalty checks to buy the celebrity excesses made possible by the capitalism responsible for their grievances. This does not devalue the significance of their charitable causes, and social awareness can be further heightened through music.