Pop music has become bland, predictable and over-produced... in my opinion!
Even the "old record shows" aimed at people in their 40s, 50s and 60s only seem to play the unthreatening songs.
I was listening to one of these old record shows on BBC Radio 2, where they play all the chart hits from a particular year in the past. This one was 1984. There's not enough time in the show for all the hits to be played, so they sometimes skip over one or two.
When the presenter Tony Blackburn skipped over this particular top ten hit of the past, it really made me think. I realised I hadn't heard that record on the radio for years! Or anything that "edgy".
The record in question was "Free Nelson Mandela" by The Special AKA.
OK, the reason for the song is dated now, but ignoring the existence of songs like this one gives a skewed and sanitised version of history.
The 1980s was a time when boundaries were being pushed and walls were being broken down. It sometimes seems that today there's a feeling that we're all sorted now. All the barriers of race, religion and sexuality have been pushed down, so there's no more need to protest... or so it often seems.
Which is actually quite a dangerous thing. We still have wars and injustices, but the media messages on these issues are possibly more controlled than ever.
Not that there wasn't any control in the past. Certain attempts to ban anti-establishment records backfired spectacularly. That's probably why more subtle methods are used these days.
God Save the Queen
I was 15 in 1977. It was the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee, and on May 17th, me and my sister went to George Square to welcome the Queen and her entourage. We bought little Union Jack flags, and waved them excitedly as she passed by.
(My sister remembers nothing of this.)
A few weeks later, everyone at school started talking about this very rude record that had been banned. "It's called God Save the Queen and it says she isn't a human being!" my friend said. "And it's by a band called (whispering) The Sex Pistols!"
"The what?"
"The Sex Pistols!"
It was an absolute sensation. It's hard to exaggerate the impact of that record. By the end of 1977 we were committed anti-royalists. One of my friends bought the Sex Pistols' album, "Never Mind the Bollocks", and we listened to it with glee.
Punk rock became a thing. Me and my friends didn't become punks, but our attitudes were massively changed by this underground movement that exploded into the mainstream with this one song.
A conspiracy theory that God Save the Queen was deliberately kept from the No. 1 chart position was verified in a 2001 BBC article, which stated: "God Save The Queen reached number one in the UK in 1977 despite being banned by the BBC and marked a defining moment in the punk revolution."
Punk put the anti-establishment back into pop and rock. Pop music unleashed its radical and rebellious side – and it was played on the radio, though the most challenging tunes were played on John Peel's evening show on Radio 1.
Reggae broke through to the fringes of the mainstream, with Steel Pulse's 1978 album Handsworth Revolution becoming a classic. It reached number 9 in the UK album charts 10 days after its release, and the band even appeared on the weekly early evening pop TV show Top of the Pops.
Here are some other pop records with very anti-establishment messages that became big hits:
Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello (1979)
The lyrics for this song focused on the recruitment of young unemployed lads to the British Army to fight in Northern Ireland, and referenced Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army of the 1640s.
More info from the Wikipedia link.
The dark message was cleverly packaged in a jaunty tune, but it certainly got people talking.
Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1983)
This song about sexual liberation was happily being played on the radio, until a DJ called Mike Read famously expressed on-air shock at the lyrics one morning, and the record was promptly banned. It became a sensation, hitting the No. 1 chart spot and remaining there for five weeks. It became the seventh best-selling UK single of all time! The BBC's ban was lifted at the end of 1984, and the record was performed on the Christmas edition of Top of the Pops.
Frankie Goes to Hollywood became linked with a range of giant t-shirts bearing ethical messages, from the fashion designer Katharine Hamnett.
Apparently the scantily-clad woman was from a performing duo called The Leatherpets. I certainly don't remember her appearing on the Christmas Top of the Pops!
More info here.
Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid (1984)
Christmas 1984 was dominated by one song, a song protesting against extreme poverty and famine. This song certainly does have a place in history. Do They Know it's Christmas was hastily written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in response to a shocking TV news report on famine in the Sudan region of Africa.
I vividly remember watching that news report by Michael Buerk, as a student, and I was so shocked by it that I decided I'd send money to the relief effort, something I rarely did as a poor student (most students were poor in those days!).
Then I heard about this supergroup being put together by Bob Geldof, called Band Aid, featuring the UK and Ireland's biggest stars. The rest is history.
There are many critics of that record now, but there's no doubt that it changed things and created massive waves throughout the music industry and beyond. The American single "We Are the World" followed in March 1985, and in July of that year, an enormous dual-venue benefit concert was held at Wembley Stadium in the UK and John F Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, in the US.
The music industry had found its voice.
I remember another, not quite so big protest record... and then suddenly everyone seemed to be talking about "compassion fatigue".
Sun City by Artists United Against Apartheid (October 1985)
The grainy quality of this video suggests that maybe it's been somewhat forgotten about... yet there are quite a few household names featured here.
The record was written by Stephen van Zandt, a guitar and mandolin player with Bruce Springsteen's EStreet band. It declared that the artists involved refused to play at Sun City, a South African resort in a state created by the then apartheid South African government as part of a forced relocation programme.
The record reached No. 21 in the UK charts and No. 38 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. According to Wikipedia, only about half of US radio stations played the song. I certainly remember it being played on BBC radio stations.
South African apartheid officially came to an end in the 1990s, with Nelson Mandela the first black president of the Republic of South Africa. Music probably did play a part in changing the tide of events, though it was only one part of many protest initiatives.
I don't remember too many protest or anti-establishment records getting a lot of radio airplay since then. I feel that the music industry was seen as having got a bit out of control at the time, and there was probably an attempt to rein it back in. A very successful attempt, because today's pop music seems so much more over-produced and manufactured.
What do you think?
If there have been recent challenging, anti-establishment records in the charts, please let me know about them! I rarely listen to contemporary pop music these days, so maybe I'm missing some of the good stuff.
I doubt it, but if I am, please enlighten me!
Agent Orange by Pharoahe Monch (2003)
I want to finish with this song from 2003, which is the last time I can remember a new anti-establishment song being played on BBC radio. (Actually no, it's the second-last time, because Morrissey's "Spent the Day in Bed" was played on Radio 2 a few months ago.) And to be honest, this could be because I so rarely listen to pop music radio these days.
It amazes me that this record got airplay. I heard it on the Radio 1 Rap Show back in 2003, at a time when I was aghast that we were going to war in Iraq. The BBC news was sanitising the whole business, with cuddly Clive Myrie and Rageh Omar reporting daily from Baghdad, while I was despairing at what was going on.
Then I heard this record. I only heard it once or twice, and I don't think it got into any chart, anywhere!
The lyrics are profound, challenging and brilliant... in my opinion! Oh, and it has a couple of sweary words. But nothing about bitches and ho's.
At the time it sounded like a strident voice in the wilderness.
It goes to show that just because we're not hearing much anti-establishment music doesn't meant that it's not being made.
A little endnote...
How ironic! Just after I posted this, I nipped out to get fuel for my trip up north, and I put on Radio 2 in the car. The programme was Sounds of the Seventies with Johnny Walker, and the music was... God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols!
So occasionally a brave DJ will play those old anti-establishment tunes. Good for you, Mr Walker!
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I remember most of this though I didnt get an appreciation for the Sex Pistols until after they were gone. I still have a copy of Never Mind the Bollocks, and what an album it is.
I just borrowed it from my friend. I remember happily playing it in the living room and then quickly turning it down when I realised what the lyrics were like!
I just read your post, I eccanta the subject, well you mainly refer to a fragment of the anti-establishment music that was made in Britain.
I think that if we look at the music anthropologically it has always been anti-sableciemiento, minstrels and troubadours are a good example of criticism of the monarchic system of its time.
I think that the 60's and 70's were undoubtedly the golden years of anti-establishment music, for example in South America there was very good production, to name a few musicians and bands, Los jaivas, Alí primera, Violeta parra, intillimani among others. who surprised with criticisms of the establishment of their countries of origin and also anti-imperialists.
and jumping a little in the 90s until today, because you already named legendary bands from the 80s, anti-establishment production continued to emerge. for example Spain has a very good punk and hardcore move, even Oil among those bands I can cite the cock records and some current as School of Hatred (this is very good) and Ska-p very listened to throughout Europe despite being in Spanish.
In the United States also emerged some groups with a style a little abstract but in itself with a digestible code for youth, such as Tool, burial, panther to name a few, even if we stop in 2018 I recommend two Chilean rappers one called Spokesman and another called Subverso are eminent in anti-establishment music.
I think the problem is that it became trade and currently despite the harsh criticism that may have a group the establishment knows how to numb the masses if they come to reveal against the power.
(Rage against the machine) another American band of the nineties considered as the first communist band in the United States became a highly consumed commercial product.
so at this point I think that after the Hippies the record companies understood that any social movement that expressed itself artistically against establishment through music could take advantage of it commercially and lead the industry in that way.
Clearly there are more groups that I consider as junk music, especially Latin productions such as reggaeton or Latin trap that the only thing they profess in their lyrics is sexual aberrations, drugs and denigration of women.
I can assure you that if shakira played in the 90s pop rock now plays reggaeton because it is what the industry dictates and if those social upheavals return then the industry will surely change its format to sell protest music.
greetings, and thank you for sharing a topic that fills me a lot to talk about
peace and love
Thanks for your detailed and interesting comment @arrozymangophoto. I will look out for some of those Spanish bands. I definitely think there is still good anti-establishment music around - it just doesn't get played on the radio so much these days, so it's good to hear these names.
I TOTALLY agree with this!
It is very interesting that you brought up such topic in today's time.
I was a kid in the 80s when our biggest national revolution happened in 1986. It was called The People Power Revolution which toppled our dictator president Marcos. I believe that became a world histoty. Prior to that, he reigned for decades with his martial law and sent people to prison if they express protest. One of those who were sent to prison was our famous folk singer Freddie Aguilar.
Freddie composed and performed many critiquing songs against Marcos government at that time. Here is one of those songs. It was performed in our language but is basically questioning the nation's leader.
When I learned about people being imprisoned just because of their songs, I wondered how national leaders can be so powerful but do not want critics.
Great compilation of songs you got there. Those songs may have been forgotten now but they still form part of history that led to today. And to your point, we may not have much of something like these today but we still see injustices here and there. Maybe more meaningful songs like before can help re-instill values to people.
Thanks for your interesting comment @macoolette. I remember the People Power revolution vividly, and Cory Aquino. We followed it on the TV news - it was such a huge event. But I didn't know about Freddie Aguilar. If governments can't bear criticism, then you know they are wrong. Governments can only be healthy if protest and criticism is allowed.
News about Freddie Aguilar was certainly not in the open that time due to martial law. Most people came to know about his case only after the Marcos regime ended.
Yeah, how I wish governments are indeed for the people and not for power...
First of all I have to mention that I was born after many of these songs were released, so you might feel that I have nothing to say about them BUT the only one from the collection that I didn't know was the Agent Orange (which was of course released MANY years after I was born).
It was so good to learn about why these songs were made. I'm coming from Slovakia and English is not our mother tongue so these songs were not banned. I remember listening to them very often as my parents liked this kind of music. I am certain they had no idea what the lyrics were about though. When they were kids (long before 1989) there was of course no English at school so they didn't and still don't speak English. They simply liked the music (we could listen to it after 1989)
I actually remember singing Save Nelson Mandela (of course just these three words), not knowing who he was at that time :D It is a very catchy song. I'm surprised to hear about motivation behind Relax and Do they know it's Christmas. It was really just songs for us, no deeper meaning. Finally I know after so many years :)
Thank you for sharing! It's be a real pleasure to read and listen to these cool old songs.
Thanks @delishtreats! Glad you enjoyed my trip down memory lane with a difference! It's so interesting to hear how you and your parents enjoyed these songs without always understanding the words - although maybe your subconscious minds grasped a little bit of their meaning :)
I'm not that sure about that :D But now when I learn meaning behind those lyrics, it all makes sense so you might be right :)
You are right, the music from 80-90 is amazing, the music, texts and performance with beautiful video clips. My son says that nowadays there are also many great pop songs but I think for me I am a loyal fan of old POP. It is almost a tradition on New Year starting from yearly afternoon till midnight there is a marathon of Pop Hit parade including such like songs that change the world and sometimes, romantic, from movies. it is endless music show. I usually stay with my family at home and this channel runs the whole day and we do it for last 4-5 years. For me there is no New Year without hit-parade. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and I really enjoyed your choice of music :)
Thanks for your comments@stef1. I think there is great music around today - we just don't get to hear it on the radio! And any song or musician that really makes waves doesn't stand a chance these days.
Music is a powerful tool to make some difference to make or break something in our society now @natubat
Yes, it certainly can be - if it gets listened to and the message gets out!
I like the Sex Pistols. It's funny because I just finished reading this post, to confirm, I looked for the top Uk of 1980 and in the first place (with 5 weeks being number 1) is Pink Floyd (by far, my farotive band) with his anti-stablishment song "Another brick in the wall pt. 2". It would be silly to compare both bands, although of course they allow you that kind of expressions if they are usually sporadic
and if they generate a lot of profits !!!which is unfortunate because it's so hypocritical, but anyway, that's the way it's how the censorship system "works"Great publication
Cheers
Thanks for your comment@nelsinho, and I'm glad you enjoyed my post. I also love Pink Floyd, and Another Brick in the Wall is another great anti-establishment song. Roger Waters is still making anti-establishment waves, as @johnvibes showed in this post recently :)
Hah this post made me realize that despite I'm staarting to feel old, I actually am still young. Cuz since I remember, pop music was just plain, predictable and not at all anti-establishment. When I saw the title of your post, I was like - "Huh, this is some Bullshit"
But you actually gave so many examples of how it was in the past. I just can't remember those times. I actually never even heard of any of those bands except for Sex Pistols :D
Well you certainly have a point - there have always been lots of plain, predictable songs around. And I'm sure there are some great anti-establishment songs around today too. They just don't get much radio airplay these days - if any!
It's amazing how these songs helped in a way to shape the world which we now live in today but it also sad that most artists don't go with these kinds of song today. Everyone wants to stay safe, keeping away from the "threatening" songs but as you said, there could still be a few writing and singing such songs in the background, maybe their talents haven't just been discovered or people (producers) that have spotted them think their songs are quite "aggressive".
These people back then wrote songs out of their heart and sang with passion and love for a better world, which worked but I believe there are times that we still do need such songs...
Yes, I think everyone in the music industry wants to play it safe these days. And you're spot-on that these songs helped shape the world we live in today.
Really enjoyed reading this & watching the videos.Took me back to the 70's as well.
Thanks @shamanorak. Glad you enjoyed my post.
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