Does music inspire us to fight for our rights… or just party?
Dear Readers,
It’s been a spell since I last posted on this blog, for which I humbly apologize. I hope to post more in the near future. Read and comment if you want to encourage me. So, yesterday I was reading the Urban Planning Blog and it had a very random link in a footnote to an entry on the blog of fake Steve Jobs, “Ask Zack de la Rocha,” a letter from fake Zach de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine responding to Jennifer’s question about what iPod to buy for her boyfriend. Get all that?
Anyway, “Ask Zach” is really good. He launches into a rapid-fire tirade on consumer culture, Asian factory labor, and a lot more. It’s breathless, angry, and often articulate, precisely what one would expect from de la Rocha. Then the tirade falls off right at the end for the last paragraph of friendly advice:
However, to answer your question, I’d say your choice of music player depends a lot on how your boyfriend intends to use the product. If it’s important to him to carry his complete collection in one device, I’d recommend the 160-gigabye iPod Classic from Apple. If he doesn’t mind carrying only part of his collection I’d highly recommend the iPod Touch, also from Apple. It only holds 16 gigabytes but the touch interface is really amazing. Hope that helps.
Luv, Zack
Pretty good, huh? It got me thinking — of all the folks who listen to Rage Against the Machine, and their lyrics on genocide and other atrocities and afflictions — how many of them are inspired to action? How many alter the course of their lives, change their decisions, their behaviors? Let me tell you what I’ve observed: the largest Rage audience is privileged white boys. I for one, will listen when I’m stressed out in my workday and want to crank out a website for some fast cash.
Then, today some Spearhead came up in my shuffled iTunes playlist. Michael Franti has a great way with words and music notes, and as a rhetorician he’s fantastic. That doesn’t actually do Franti justice. His music combine cleverness with depth. It’s authentic and charged.
But, when I saw his film I Know I’m Not Alone where he goes to Iraq, Israel, and Palestine, and Franti him speak afterwards, I was sorely disappointed. He came across as foolish, even, disrespectful in the film. And then for him — by no means an expert on any of the regions — to answer questions on the conflict afterwards seemed ridiculous. The whole presentation came across as thoughtless. I talked with my friend Sara Dykman afterwards and she told me how fake she felt, and the rest of the audience seemed to her there. I would put myself in there as well.
The point I am driving at is that Michael Franti and Spearhead’s music is nice to listen to, always a hit at a party, fun to have a drink, very well-suited to accompany a bong rip or a beer, but as an agent of social change, I have my doubts.Spinning out all my thoughts here has taken more words than I thought it would, so I should probably wrap it up.If I had to leave off with anything, it’s that I believe good music has the capacity to make us better people spiritually and emotionally, but as a direct spur to action, and as a forum for effectively discussing ideas and issues (here that Mr. Preachy Ben Harper?) it doesn’t work so well.
I can’t remember ever being called to set the world’s wrongs right by a song but I certainly have by the written and spoken word. Fiction (this is a link to one of my favorite books) and non-fiction (this is a link to more on a recent book I read) have both been extremely influential in my life.
What do you think on music power in inspire change?
aaron :: Dec.31.2007 :: Music ::
Hey, Smila’s Sense of Snow is one of my favorites too. I even liked the much watered down movie.
Zack is from the neighborhood and I can tell you his answer to your Q is an emphatic yes. It’s clear in nearly everything he does or says. How the rest of us live is something else again, probably more of a mixed bag. I haven’t seen I Know I’m Not Alone but you and I and everyone we know can do what we can and hope for the best.
Best, George
RATM, like most ranters, are hypocrites. When they played the Free Tibet concert in San Francisco they had Che Guevara stenciled on their amps. If you are going to be political and high profile you had better think it through.
When they played the Coachella festival for the first time their fans “revolted” by overrunning the water stands (which were selling bottles of water for the capitalistic sum of $2), stealing all the water they could and then trashing them.
That’s quite revolutionary, using the rhetoric of revolt in order to enrich yourself. Oh that’s right, it’s more of the sameâ¦
“We carry a new world here in our hearts.” Buenaventura Durruti
“A despot easily forgives his subjects for not loving him provided they do not love each other.” Alexis de Tocqueville
pbc