Slyngstad | Bluesky
Transcript
A three-panel political comic by Slyngstad highlighting the long history of political activism in music. In the foreground of all three panels, two audience members are seen talking in profile.
Panel 1:
On Stage: A modern musician holding a microphone calls out, “FREE PALESTINE!”
Foreground: One audience member complains, “UGH, WHEN DID MUSICIANS START TO BE SO POLITICAL?”
Panel 2:
On Stage: Freddie Mercury performing at the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert, with the “Live Aid” global logo in the background.
Foreground: The second audience member replies, “START?”
Panel 3:
On Stage: Folk singer Woody Guthrie playing an acoustic guitar with his iconic slogan written across it: “THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS”.
Foreground: The second audience member continues, “MAYBE YOU JUST WEREN’T LISTENING.”
Laughs in System of a Down
Prison song, BYOB (bring your own bombs), BOOM, Deer Dance, PLUCK, Holy Mountains, Protect the Land … a few of which were used to directly raise funds to support victims of an Armenian genocide …
System of a Down was instrumental in forming my political views.
Toot toot. Patta pum patta pum.
you know what I miss that we used to do a lot of?
punching the fuck out of racist sexist piece of shit nazis.
that should make a comeback.
We’re trying here: A friend of mine got unconsentually kissed and by a guy with a… reputation, to say the least, who’s been trying to get into her pants for a while. So my roommate/her boyfriend and I of course got pissed off and were like “so when do we smack the little shit?” (FAR from his first time)
However, victims themselves aren’t aware of what happened to them. She’s already starting to forget as a trauma response and very easily got gaslit by him later that it wasn’t that big/deep - til her boyfriend/my roommate reminded her that yes it fucking is.
The situation is kinda on hold, and there’s of course a lot of details that make it more complicated and such, but nothing’s been done because the state of the victims here are so used to such shit that when it boils over, it seems like less of a big deal than it is.
I’m in Europe, but haven’t always been and can very certainly say that where I come from, the bitch would be smacked around by the victim itself and likely socially isolated for a while, no need for help - instead of no social consequence, victim unaware of what happened to them despite having a trauma response they subjectively typically have and unsmacked
Shit’s out of whack and more often than not (about this specifically, but in general as well) feel like I’m the crazy one for seeing almost rape and saying “that bad” TT
Michael Jackson is arguably the most famous musician ever, or at least VERY close and a lot of his music is explicitly political, “they don’t really care about us” comes to mind, I think “man in the mirror” also qualifies, I know other stuff he’s done definitely does too I’m just not a big MJ head, I know the guy is problematic but it’s obtuse to claim musicians are just getting political now when arguably the biggest musician of all time was very political in his own right decades ago.
Well he wasn’t in the epstein files and he was an odd one. But as far as I know, no proof of the kid diddling has happened.
Agreed about They don’t really care about us, but Man in the Mirror is more personal. Black or White has a certain political slant, and Earth Song has a very direct message.
Let’s look at some other musicians who might have a claim to “most famous ever”: Elvis was not really political - if anything he was pro-establishment.
Mozart and Beethoven however were very political. Beethoven scratched out the dedication to Napoleon in the Eroica when Napoleon made himself an emperor. Previously Beethoven had been a major supporter of Napoleon because he was pushing enlightenment ideals. Mozart was less directly political, but The Marriage of Figaro was very subversive at the time (which I know from the movie Amadeus, but apparently that checks out).
The Beatles didn’t start out political, but they became more so over time.
Nobody has ever made the claim that “musicians” are just now getting political. That’s just the comic artist to make the comic.
It’s literally the definition of a strawman argument.
You’d have to be some kind of American Idiot to miss the messages.
When you’re a Bull on Parade, you don’t care to look for them.
Well, I certainly don’t want to be one of those.
This is not even a strawman. I seen people on reddit argue “art is supposed to just be fun, not push any ideologies.”
Jesus, somebody slept through art class for literally all of school. Several somebodies, apparently.
Ironic, the idea that art should just be for fun is its own ideology
Oh so you saw one of the hundreds of thousands of bots?
Yeah, ask Leni Riefenstahl about it! She knows everything about unpolitical art.
I heard “We Didn’t Start the Fire” today and thought “Well, that was a fucking lie.” It was a very popular song with people who just totally disregarded the sentiment entirely.
Umm like EVERY 60s song. What do they think fortunate son is about?!!! Fucking dense boomers.
According to the demented fool, Fortunate son is about him, he is the: Millionaires son, born with silver spoon in hand, waiving the flag while the band is playing “Hail to the chief”.
Born in the USA…
That is the best example of a “patriot” song.
I fucking LOVE Woody Guthrie. Start with his political songs, such as This Land is Your Land and Tear the Fascists Down, then pick up the Wilco/Billy Bragg album Mermaid Avenue for modern recordings of previously unrecorded Guthrie songs.
And let’s not forget he protested Trump long before it was cool.
It’s like in schools. People either don’t remember or pay attention at all to what the teachers says or what the lessons are. Or if they do remember the lessons, they never apply it.
I know a lot of people who have danced along to “Beds are burning” and have no idea what the song is about, even though it’s not exactly subtle.
![People act like musicians standing up for what they believe in is anything new. #FreePalestine [Slyngstad]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/229b1cbc-f82b-471f-a5b1-7aae0efb6aec.png){kind=link}