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

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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.

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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.

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