Music For Democracy

Sweet Talk

From the brain flow of Paste's Editor At Large:

Some nefarious music hounds from Decatur twisted my outsized ego into creating a dialogue littered with opinionated recommendations and myopic rants. Therefore, to put a smidgen of decency back into nepotism, I have stolen the title "Sweet Talk" in homage of my father who had a weekly sports and leisure column of the same in the early 70's that was syndicated in several small town newspapers in the land the gods made great, New England (sans Connecticut of course). Luckily this space will focus more on sporting leisure, my favorite kind.

Browse Sweet Talk

For years I always quietly condemned the direct use of music as a bully pulpit for politicalchange. In general I believe Music should be about providing a mental space for people to find their own meaning in the sounds and words of a song. I of course applaud artists who give their time, money and spotlight to worthy causes, but when they are on the stage it should be all about the music.

However we live is some disturbing times and things seem to be heating up as the far corners of our world grow closer and closer, and unalienable rights are seemingly evaporating before our eyes. Therefore I am examiing more and more the importance of Music as a DIRECT vehicle for social change. A collegue recently sent me to a website that examines this exact paradigm; it's called Music For Democracy.

In their own words:

The digital age has opened up an area of tremendous potential for positive change and education at the interface of music and politics. While politics has always played a role in socially-conscious music, politicians have often engaged musicians and their fans only in shallow, self-interested ways. To many young people now, musicians are the cultural leaders of our time -- acute observers outside of the "game" of politics who can be trusted to articulate their own authentic vision of the way things are. At the same time, however, the corporate music industry has played a role in discouraging musicians from expressing their political views if doing so might alienate potential audiences and buyers for their products.

If this strikes a "chord" and you want to learn more check it out: Music For Democracy