Povert

More on American Idiot

I seem to be following up on previous posts a lot lately. Meh.

Anyway, I mentioned that I picked up American Idiot from iTunes.

First, I should say that I generally don’t like overtly political albums. Never have. Ask Chris. I’ve never much liked Rage Against the Machine, for example. The music itself is fine, but… I dunno. I’ve just never much liked hearing excessively political music. A political song here or there is fine; I just think Zack de la Rocha should have written a few love songs or something. Mix it up a little.

I do like Audioslave, though. Hmm… I wonder why?

However, I do like American Idiot. It is quite political, I think. I don’t pick up on lyrics too quickly, but this is the general impression I get. They don’t seem to dwell on it too much, though.

“Whatsername” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” are particularly good, I think. They give me goosebumps. Actually, I like all the tracks. Those two just kind of stand out for me, though.

This has got me thinking about other people’s reactions to politically-themed music. Specifically, conservative-type people. They tend to hate the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam, whatever, because they’ve expressed their beliefs in public. These people often say that they don’t want their entertainers to express political beliefs, because it somehow ruins the experience. However, they don’t seem to mind when a country singer does a pro-war song.

I, on the other hand, would prefer no political commentary at all, of any persuasion, whether I agree with it or not. I just accept that there is some. Doesn’t bother me much, it’s just a preference. If the music is good, it ultimately doesn’t matter. American Idiot is very good, so I don’t much mind the political commentary. At least they’re not doing a RATM thing like screaming “FUCK YOU I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!” 20 times in a row.

One of these days I’ll post something about the political madness in my mind… I’m really quite sick of it from both ends of the spectrum. I’ve had a liberal call me a xenophobe and a conservative accuse me of sympathizing with pedophiles… Blah. Screw them all.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 29th, 2005 at 1:16 am and is filed under Music, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Citizen Says:
December 29th, 2005 at 9:58 am

Unless I’ve missed something horribly obvious, Green Day didn’t start getting political until Bush came into office, and even then they waited for him to start going berzerk before lamblasting him in song. I’ve heard mixed things about American Idiot, but I’ve been tempted on more than one occassion to pick it up. I think I might, finally, since I do like the songs I’ve heard from it. “Wake Me When September Ends,” in particular, is a great song.

Many people of both spectrums only get upset at some slight when it’s against what they support or believe in. “Oh no, I don’t like politics in music… Patriotic music? Bring it on! Dixie Chicks? Why those damn dirty commie pinko whores!” It’s not just conservatives, although I do believe they’re more prone to it simply due to more set beliefs. Liberals can be just as bad, although they tend to be a little more open-minded. Must be that dirty liberal hippie thinking they’re indoctrinated with at those commie-infested public universities.

Erin Says:
December 29th, 2005 at 12:04 pm

I wish I could concur on the Green Day praise, however I still think they are a bunch of whiney pussies. I haven’t heard the album (no one has successfully caught me and forced me to listen to it under the threat of extreme finger and toenail removal) so that’s all I’m gonna say.

Chris Says:
December 29th, 2005 at 12:24 pm

It seemed to me that a few bands have gone political. Perfect Circle’s last album was reactionary to the war. I think music, and or art is a reflection of the time. Green Day, NIN, Radiohead and Perfect Circle have all had very political albums recently. I tend to like political minded music.