Justice Through Music -
The Music In The Message
The 1960s was a time of intense political activism for artists of all stripes. Everyone from hard Rockers to sentimental Folkies sang about social injustice, racism, war and just about every other political issue you could imagine. Seems everybody had something "political" to say or sing.
Then came the Disco 70's, followed by the hair-band 80's and the self-tortured 90's. It's not that social consciousness disappeared exactly. Midnight Oil, R.E.M., U2, Natalie Merchant, Pearl Jam and others continued to inject politics into their songs. But on the whole, political messages have been absent from most popular music (with the exception of Rap) over the last couple of decades.
Either pop culture has finally tired of self-absorption (doubtful) or the overwhelming number of controversial flashpoints like The USA Patriot Act and the war in Iraq has forced artist's in the Post 9/11 decade to once again squawk about something bigger than themselves.
Understandably, artists may have mixed feelings about whether airing rebellious political views is good for their careers (check out AP Sept.04 edition). And we should note that many don't care about the positive or negative effects on their careers; they're doing it because they want to express their beliefs.
And while their managers and booking agents might want them to restrain themselves, one left-leaning organization, the Justice Through Music Project, is devoted to encouraging artists to speak out, and helping them to meld political activism with effective marketing. Most recently, JTMP signed a high-profile deal to help promote Neil Young's new anti-war protest album, "Living With War." (You can listen to the entire album at the Justice-Through-Music Project site).
JTMP spends most of its energy encouraging young people to vote and trying to inject a cool factor into the whole idea. "Politics before 2004 wasn't very hip," says JTMP spokesman Craig Gillette, noting that the youth vote was up significantly by the 2004 presidential election. "That was a direct result of organizations like ours," he says. "And we're not going to rest with that."
According to Gillette, the politics of young music fans tend to skew to the left, so encouraging them to vote helps the "progressive," or liberal, cause. As a 501c(3) organization, JTMP can't take an official stand on the issues, but it can encourage artists to do so. That's the idea behind it's latest innovative scheme, the Harmony Vids" contest launched on April 17 which invites artists to select from several protest songs by the band Op-Critical or use their own music and create a music video for it.
The program's goal is to engage more bands and, of course, bolster the progressive/liberal cause. "We can start creating a buzz, a movement of sorts," says Gillette. "And we want to bring people to the Web site. Since we started the campaign, our hits are up six-fold." JTMP will take submissions in the Rock, Alt. Rock, Country, World, Urban, and R&B categories until Sept. 15 and name winners on Oct. 15 (winners will receive a small cash prize of $500-1,000).
And the JTMP approach to spreading activism through music and marketing is poised to go even further. It has been speaking with YouTube and MySpace about cross promotion, and it has even been talking to MTV and Fuse about getting some video content on cable TV. Of course, going mainstream won't be an easy sell for the organization-judging from the featured videos already on the site such as Kayne West's anti-Bush comments, and music videos with titles like "Assault on Bush," "Bushwhacked" and the very funny "Let's Bomb Iran" (sung to the tune of The Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann").
Gillette compares the current state of the progressive politics to the conservative movement 30 years ago, which was then fighting against what it saw as a liberal takeover of the country. "It's the extremes of what's happening right now," he says. "That has started to wake people up." He says artists are no longer afraid to bear their politics on their sleeves (or in their songs), and he claims that's having an effect on fans and voter turnout over the long haul. "We have a common enemy, which is the conservative movement," he says. For whatever reason, more artists seem to skew more left than right. That's pretty much always been the case in show biz-whether music, film, TV or visual arts. And Gillette says many fans share the views of their favorite artists, judging from those who approach JTMP's information table at certain shows. "We're out there engaging them," he says.
JTMP is very skillful at harnessing the Internet for viral marketing, creating a sort of ecosystem through which like-minded political musicians can become an overall support system for each other and find fans receptive to their message. The jury is still out on whether fans will tire of this music as they did post the 1960s. But with a war raging, Washington scandals sizzling and the conservative establishment on the defensive-the liberal protest song may be back for a while. If that's your thing, enjoy it while it lasts. Or at least until they bring back Disco.
(Mike Grebb is a writer, journalist and singer/songwriter based in Washington, D.C. He has written for numerous publications, including Wired and Billboard. His debut solo record, Resolution, is available at www.mikegrebb.com, as well as digitally on iTunes, MSN Music, Musicmatch, Yahoo! Music Unlimited and other sites. And you can also be his friend on MySpace! www.myspace.com/mikegrebb).