Re: The Iraq war, set to new music

When entertainers feel comfortable enough to comment on politics through their own art — which is much riskier than just saying 'Stop the war' or something similar from the stage — you know that they, their management, their label, etc. have recognized that enough of the public already agrees and there won't be any real damage inflicted on their careers by doing so.

If the uproar within the country music community regarding the Dixie Chicks happened this week instead of March of 2003, it would've been no big deal, even with the (initially) large amount of war supporters among country fans. That’s changing, too; I predict that within the next six months, a major country artist will either do an interview commenting negatively on the war, or they’ll release a song that carefully addresses our being in Iraq… If it’s a song, it will probably be called something like ‘Mothers and Sons,’ and the lyrics will read like a letter sent home from a soldier in Iraq — it’ll be a big hit. While country music’s target audience may consist of super (and maybe blindly) patriotic folks, the artists aren’t so much. Marketing is marketing.

With that being said, it was still a pretty ballsy move for Green Day to release American Idiot, a full-on rock opera. In actuality, it is less of a commentary on the Iraq War as it is an examination of American 'values' (or the lack thereof) and the growing apathy of average citizens. Of course, it's been well received, but I'm sure that there were some initial concerns about whether Clear Channel would be stoked about playing the title track as the first single.

I'm going to see the Green Day/Jimmy Eat World show at the RBC Center this Wednesday evening. It'll be interesting to see if there's a lot of political commentary from the stage, or if they'll just let the music do the talking.