re: When bands go all political on their fans and music?

Pop culture is inherently political, and it is conservative. Not conservative in the "Republican/Democrat" sense, but that it supports the current status quo conservative. It is, to borrow a phrase from Karl Marx, the opiate of the masses. And it always has been, back to Roman times. When the Roman emperor had a choice between buying bread or sand, he chose sand for Colliseum. Nothing, and I mean nothing, pacifies the masses quite like their entertainments.

Pop music exists to reinforce current cultural norms, and also present our platonic ideals. Taylor Swift gives a generation of young girls something to aspire to be. But it also defines success as selling records, being pretty, and being popular. The complete absence of anything that could be construed as a political stance is itself political. It's Jordan's "even Republicans buy shoes" in action.

The corporate and government powers want you to be apolitical. They don't want you to invoke political and social ideals. It's a threat to the order, which clearly benefits the people on top of it. The "shut up and sing" crowd is making an explicit political argument, and that is that we shouldn't be political. The very foundation of our democracy is that every citizen should be engaged in the body politic, yet we explicitly want our entertainment to simply pacify us.

Apolitical music in fact reinforces current cultural norms, and it supports the power structure. It makes the system stronger, and it defines success in the terms approved by the corporate control of the industry. It values an unengaged, stupid populace that does not worry itself with messy ideas, and instead only worries about having fun or consuming more. We are, to borrow yet another phrase, amusing ourselves to death.

Bob Dylan wrote propaganda songs.