protest-music

I was having a discussion with some of the other Cultural Production students last semester about anti-war and political protest songs in America. I thought I would post the lyrics from some of these songs up in the hopes of sparking a discussion about politics in American popular music.

These are songs which I interpret as making some kind of commentary on current events. And by current I mean the past three to four years. Some of them are more sophisticated than others. I'll post the lyrics along with a brief analysis of how I read them. I think there's more to be said about them, though, so I'm curious what other people think.


 * //The Hand That Feeds//**

You're keeping in step In the line Got your chin held high and you feel just fine Because you do What you're told But inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold

Just how deep do you believe? Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you chew until it bleeds? Can you get up off your knees? Are you brave enough to see? Do you want to change it?

What if this whole crusade's A charade And behind it all there's a price to be paid For the blood On which we dine Justified in the name of the holy and the divine

Just how deep do you believe? Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you chew until it bleeds? Can you get up off your knees? Are you brave enough to see? Do you want to change it?

So naive I keep holding on to what I want to believe I can see But I keep holding on and on and on and on

Will you bite the hand that feeds you? Will you stay down on your knees? [8X]

This song is by the band Nine Inch Nails and came out in 2005 on their CD "The Hand that Feeds." I believe this song is criticizing the way many American citizens blindly followed and supported their leaders in a war without questioning too much. If I recall the state of the country at the time this song came out, many people still felt as if we were doing good in the world and criticism about the war in Iraq and the way the administration handled the entire affair was not nearly as vocal as it is now. However, it could equally apply to fundamentalists on either side of the conflict (or in any conflict) who use religion as a means of justifying war. The song is a challenge to people who doggedly stick to the G.I. Joe mentality that "Americans are the good guys." It asserts that people who are "keeping in step, in the line," in other words, those who are conforming to the current dominant ideology, feel pretty good about themselves for it, but they're actually being heartless. It may be that we've been fooled this whole time ("this whole crusade's a charade"), and even though a lot of people can see what is actually going on, they "keep holding on to what [they] want to believe" about their country, and ignore the facts. I interpret the question about "biting the hand that feeds" as a metaphor for the fact that in a global economy, you can't attack one part of the world without affecting every other part, including yourself. With the destruction and alienation that we are causing through wars, we are ultimately screwing ourselves over.


 * //Boys Wanna Fight//**

The boys wanna fight But the girls are happy to dance all night

They know best how they can mess with us Nursing an opinion's getting dangerous And in a world where good's not good enough Let's get loaded and kick up a fuss

The boys wanna fight But the girls are happy to dance all night The boys wanna fight But the girls are happy to dance all night Is there anybody else?

What a mess we've made It's ridiculous The whole wide world's a stage of complete chaos It's gets so funny that we get confused We don't know where to turn cause we've all been used

The boys wanna fight But the girls are happy to dance all night The boys wanna fight But the girls are happy to dance all night Is there anybody else?

Let's get loaded (oh let's be selfish) Let's get wasted (and lose our senses) Let's get shit faced (so we can fake it) Let's get stupid (just entertain us) Let's get wicked (desensitize us) Let's get toasted (don't educate us) Let's get hammered (yeah paralyze us) Let's forget it (don't count on all )

The boys wanna fight But the girls are happy to dance all night The boys wanna fight But the girls are happy to dance all night Is there anybody else?

I'm sick sick sick of saying nothing Sick sick sick sick of doing nothing I'm sick sick sick of saying nothing But let's get loaded

This is a song by the band Garbage. It also came out in 2005, a few months after the Nine Inch Nails song mentioned above. It's directed at a different audience, however. The idea that "nursing an opinion's getting dangerous" is one commonly held by paranoid college students like myself who worry that engaging in any sort of protest might result in getting stuck on the "No Fly list." The feeling of being used is also something that I think a lot of people in America can identify with. Many people seriously believed that Saddham had WMDs and thought that if we kicked him out of power, we would be solving all of the worlds problems or something equally ridiculous. However, while the Nine Inch Nails challenges people to stop turning a blind eye and change things, the Garbage song offers a much more depressing message. The bits in parentheses in the sixth stanza point to the reasons that there had really not been that much protesting, even though many people were dissatisfied with the situation. People are desensitized, uneducated and far more concerned with their own lives than in what is going on in a country they know almost nothing about, halfway across the world. As the singer says at the end, she's sick of doing and saying nothing, but it's easier to "get loaded" and forget about war and pain than deal with all of the confusion of figuring out what's right and wrong.

I'll add more later.