Why Neil Young Is Wrong

[im10ashus]

By Stephan Smith-Said
July 2006 Issue

On Sunday, May 14, the San Francisco Chronicle published my open letter to Neil Young, “Hey, Neil Young, We Young Singers Are Hog-tied, Too.” I tried to explain how the corporatized music industry has censored protest music in the past several years. The letter went viral on the Internet, and I was flooded with enthusiastic responses from all kinds of people. Even Neil and his team posted it front and center on his blog for the entire week.

What prompted my letter and the outpouring was Young’s comment about why he felt compelled to write his new anti-Bush album, Living with War. “I was waiting for someone to come along, some young singer eighteen-to-twenty-two years old, to write these songs and stand up,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I waited a long time. Then I decided that maybe the generation that has to do this is still the ’60s generation. We’re still here.”

As the first protest singer to rise from the streets of anti-war and WTO protests and get a major worldwide distribution deal, I felt compelled to explain that today’s Dylans, Ochses, and Neil Youngs are here, but they’re being silenced by an industry that has for years derived its profits from kiddy porn and dreamy boys.

Just two days after my article came out, MTV, which has refused to play anti-war videos even by the biggest stars, published an article addressing the need for political consciousness in mainstream music. In a flourish of Bush-like hubris, one of the country’s chief purveyors of military recruitment ads to youth posted the article, “Where Is the Voice of Protest in Today’s Music?” The webpage boasted an Army video game in the bottom right corner. (MTV, by the way, refuses to air anti-war ads produced by organizations like Not In Our Name and Win Without War.)

Where’s the voice of protest? It’s in MTV’s trash can.

cont'd...


http://progressive.org/mag_smith0706

[WCGreen]

1. What about Baby Face and his When the President Talks to God

[im10ashus]

4. Was that Baby Face? And did it get a lot of airplay?

I usually buy more alternative and blues and jazz. I actually have the new Neil Young cd. But I am a fan of his already.

[WCGreen]

22. It was Bright Eyes...

and he played it on Leno....

[Mnemosyne]

14. It was Bright Eyes WC. n/t

[WCGreen]

21. That's what I meant.....

I can't believe I mixed them up...

[Mnemosyne]

23. Happens to the best of us. n/t

[im10ashus]

24. I understood where you were coming from.

:-)

But I think they are referring to newer bands getting airplay.

[hiley]

32. Video of "When the President Talks to God"

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2005/05/when_the_presid.html

[progressoid]

41. Thanks for the link.

I rarely watch Leno. Am surprised NBC let him play that; probably lost Leno a couple points for a week or two.

[paulk]

2. I think this fellow has a valid point

the music industry has gone out of it's way since the mid seventies to suppress politically motivated music. They realized what a huge role such music had played in the social upheavals of the sixties and they wanted no part of it. IMHO.

[im10ashus]

3. I think so too.

I don't care for the headline that much. But the rest is well intended and is valid. I am sure Neil Young meant nothing personal for those trying to get their music out there but are being met with closed doors due to their political message. Thankfully we have the internet. For now.

[AndyTiedye]

15. The Music Industry Suppresses Political Music & they Suppress Dance Music

They suppress dance music because they want people at home watching TV, not out dancing.

They suppress political music because their owners like their politics right-wing.

That means that they refuse to publish much of what people want to hear.
This hasn't exactly done wonders for their sales.
They blame it all on piracy, but the truth is that nobody wants a lot of the insipid stuff they do sell.
Most of it isn't even worth downloading for free.

[Joe Fields]

16. I think that the apathy of today's generation, by and large,

with few exceptions is palpable, and that has a lot to do with the music industry and what it does or doesn't do.

[paulk]

25. that certainly plays a role

but a lot of that apathy exists because today's generation hasn't been exposed to .... the concept that music can play a role in social change.

I know, for myself at least, that was a given - listening at the age of eight to my older brother's Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs records -
I just felt something, living through that era of the mid sixties to mid seventies, that the music was an integral part - a uniter, as it were, in the great social upheavals of that time - the civil rights movement, the Vietnam years, the rejection of the conservative post ww2 values concerning experimentation - you know, sex and drugs and rock and roll...


For someone growing up now, what reference do they have that music can be part of a social movement?

[femrap]

46. The apathy of today's youth would stop with the DRAFT.

I think most of today's youth are concerned with getting a good job ($), p0rn, video games, and Access Hollywood. It's so unbelievably different today on college campuses than it was during the Vietnam War.

In large, it's still the Boomers out there speaking up.

And don't yell at me...I'm just the messenger. Yell, better yet SING, at them. And persistence is not fun. Start your own music companies. Get your music on Amy Goodman's show, 'Democracy, Now!' Be creative. Have a 'Stop the War Battle of the Bands' in someone's cow field. Hell....you have the Internet to use to advertise the event. Hook up with Cindy Sheehan...put on a concert with her.

Green Day seems to be doing OK. Get involved with PunkVoter.

[fishwax]

54. I think the apathy of today's generation is overstated

and manufactured by the mainstream press (including such "alternative" sources as MTV, etc.) for the same reason that they try to suppress protest music. I agree that the two are interrelated, but just as those factors help create/promote apathy, they also tend (imo) to present it as normal in a way that serves their purpose.

[samdogmom]

5. Thank you for posting this. It is so TRUE!

Please, if you care, check out this artist's website and his music. He is very talented!

Unfortunately, the priorities in our country are very screwed up. We need to keep moving further and further away from any product produced by a "big" USA corporation. I'm sad to think even CD sales are caught up in this, but they are. If we can find true artists on the internet, we need to bypass the present sales model and buy accordingly! Good luck to Mr. Smith--I just bought his album by following the links in the article posted above, or just click on: http://www.stephansmith.com/ and then just click on the album you are interested in purchasing. (P.S.-He gives A LOT of stuff away free--it's worth a visit and then a hefty donation to pay for your pleasure!)--sdm

[justgamma]

6. Do you like punk rock or heavy metal?

I picked this cd up at Targets. I hate the name of the group because I don't think it describes them at all. It's called for Blood and Empire.
Not my kind of music, but the name of the songs got the better of me.

"The Project for a New American Century"
" Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"
"Depleted Uranium is a War Crime"

It's actually not too bad.

The booklet alone has an essay about every subject including websites to check out. Impeachbush.org, the worldcantwait.org ,Mother Jones just to name a few.

The songs talk about the Downing Street Memo, Torture, New Orleans

"The Press Corpse"

"The Downing Street memo says...
We gotta' make the facts fit the false charges
Pull the wool over the eyes of the filthy masses
Stab the people in the back for the corporate choice.
Roll the propaganda out using the People's Voice.

The press scribble, scribble every half-truth spoke.
Then shoot it around the country like an April Fools joke.
Hype the nation for a Desert Storm love affair.
Wave the stars and stripes like you just don't care.'

It talks about the White House press corps

The essay that goes along with this song is about Judith Miller and the NYT. The different reasons given for the war.

Anyway, these guys really get it!

[Union Thug]

7. I remember Billy Bragg and Chumbawumba released some

anti-war music at the beginning of this nightmare, but the guy is right, corporate music would rather keep audiences titillated, logo-centric and consumer-focused, than politically aware.

But I do think Neil has a point, too.

At risk of dating myself (too late, I know), my first real anti-war dig was Black Sabbath's Paranoid album. Between War Pigs and Electric Funeral, it didn't get much better than that! I still crank it up from time to time.

[Hippo_Tron]

8. I highly doubt that MTV didn't play videos from American Idiot

That definately qualifies as protest music

[Union Thug]

9. True. But does the exception prove the rule in this case? n/t

[Hippo_Tron]

10. No, but he could've mentioned that it was the exception...

And a powerful one at that.

BTW, I went to a show with four bands signed with Fat Wreck Chords last October and I while I really enjoyed them I can assure you that even if the music were not political, it still wouldn't fit MTV's bullshit standards.

Green Day shows that when you gain enough mainstream success, people will listen to you no matter what your politics are.

[Union Thug]

13. Pointing out the exception would have bolstered the point.

You're right.

As regards MTV - in general, I've hated it since it first made it's debut back in the 80s. For the most part, it spun commercial, white-bread, corporate shill music. I do remember the thrill of seeing an isolated moment of good music back then... but it wasn't worth waiting around for.

[Hippo_Tron]

18. The thing is that 80's music had no message, it was just fun

Or at least mainstream 80's music. There was nothing controversial about it (in the political sense) so there was no concern about this back then.

MTV's shitiness is much more noticeable now than it was in the 80s and early 90s.

[unpossibles]

27. not necessarily true

The English Beat, The Specials, and quite a few of the other English Two Tone bands all had a lot of socially concious songs that were anti-war and pro-people that you could also dance to ("Stand Down Margaret" and "Too Much, Too Young" come immediately to mind), as did several other popular artists such as the Police, The Clash, etc.

Granted, those are technically late 70's bands that got popular in the 80's, but I still say it counts as "80s music"

[Laurab]

31. There's also Jackson Browne

although I'm not sure you can dance to it. He personally funded videos from his "Lives In the Balance" album because his record company wouldn't do it. The album was mostly about Iran-Contra, I think in 86, but if you listen to it today, it's more relevant than it was then.

His website also has a powerful video on it that's been posted on here a time or two. A lot of people (reviewers and fans) wanted him to stick to "love songs" at the time, but he's never been able to do that once he became a bit of an activist. Back then, MTV would play the videos, nowadays it's doubtful, unless you have HUGE mainstream success, and they can't ignore you.

Back in 1986, I didn't "get" what he was talking about, but I sure do now.

[druidity33]

48. yes and no...

I think you mean 80's popular music. As for me, it was The Smiths, Cure , Siouxsie, Pistols, Velvet Underground, Billy Bragg, REM, 10,000 Maniacs... and many more socially conscious bands that actually did devote songs to issues. The only thing i ever watched on MTV was 120 minutes, and ok The Young Ones when they played that... but otherwise, MTV has never been cool.

[Carni]

49. U2 was very political in the 80's against bush

Bullet the blue sky--at some point Bono has lodged his head up his ass but it used to be political against bush /raygun

[tuvor]

50. All generalizations are completely stupid.

(Yes, that was supposed to be ironic.)

U2
John Mellencamp
Bob Geldof
Midnight Oil
B-52s
Deee-Lite
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Skinny Puppy
Consolidated
Sinead O'Connor
Dead Kennedys
The Clash
OMD
XTC
Nena

...and undoubtedly a ton more. Not to mention, the 80s was the decade of the benefit album.

Point being, if you can't find it, regardless of the decade, you aren't really trying.

[Warren DeMontague]

53. Not all of us spent the 80s listening to Huey Lewis or Hair Metal.

I was all around the country seeing the Dead (who were controversial AND political, if you had the ears to hear) and was an R.E.M. fan from Reckoning onward.

There was really good, meaningful music made in the 80s, you just had to look beyond the corporate crap-fest to find it. Just like now.

[Radical Activist]

12. Green Day was already an established ban.

They CAN'T ignore Green Day. The point of the article is that NEW artists with political themes are ignored. I would also point out that the first single from that CD "American Idiot" which is about Bush, received less airplay than their other singles and the album didn't get promoted as much until after the '04 election. Their other singles that are less obviously political get better play in the media.

[Hippo_Tron]

19. I'd argue that Holiday and Jesus of Suburbia are just as political

And while Wake me Up When September Ends isn't in itself, the music video certainly is.

But yea I get what you're saying, I didn't understand that he was only talking about new bands.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

30. an important point is that

if you were to replace Green Day's political lyrics with non-political words those singles would still have been hits. They wrote catchy songs AND they were anti-Bush/war.

I don't know of many other songs that are anti-Bush AND catchy. The 60's were full of great, well-written songs - some by established bands some by one-hit wonders. I just don't think I see the talent out there that existed some time ago. Maybe the rise of hip-hop over rock has something to do with it. I can't even think of any politically minded hip-hop stars (Eminem's "Mosh" comes to mind but that's it). As far as I know that was one song though.

Bright Eyes song about the President is great and well-written, but it's certainly not "catchy" or marketable. I would imagine as the war painfully drags on more and more artists will be moved to write.

There's also the fact that many music-lovers, myself included, have stopped listening to the radio altogehter because it is dull and homogenous. Even if a great protest song came out most of us wouldn't even know it.

[Radical Activist]

11. Another consequence of media consolidation.

I wish more people would push the government to break up the corporate media.

[Bad Penny]

17. or vica versa

[rman]

37. Rather not

At least now we still have a government to reclaim. It'll be to late when corporations completely replace - instead of own - the government.

[mmonk]

20. Yes, there is suppression of protest songs

and it really kills me when radio stations call themselves rock and roll but don't play protest songs or give them a chance. One things is sure, if they ban protest songs they most definitely aren't rock stations and also any artist that supports rightwing cause that calls themselves rock isn't either. Rock was an attitude and to be true to its nature and art, it must include songs of conscience or they are nothing but dollar whores.

[elehhhhna]

26. In ur Honor by the Foos should get air.

[theboss]

28. I don't think there are any "rock" stations anymore

"Alternative" has pretty much replaced that format.

I recommend everyone get satellite radio. You will find a format for you there.

[im10ashus]

33. I don't listen to the radio, other than NPR.

It's all crap run by the corporations.

[mogster]

29. Great comment!

You've nailed it :-) It's media censureship, or plain war support, that stops young people from reaching out.
I am amazed at how conservative the mass media has turned out to be, considered that journalism used to be called 'liberal'. MTV is pretty tame as far as politics goes, but might respond to email campaigns demanding balanced coverage?

And Billy Bragg has a good point in spreading songs as free mp3's on the internet.

If you look at it in a wider perspective, the protest scene also encompasses people like the DU'er Ava, only 15 years old and with a nice touch on video production. I think free 'remixes' containing political messages has a large potential to inform people, and it has been fun to watch her go from internet by NYT and onto the CNN :-)

[Beelzebud]

34. In 2004, A Perfect Circle released an entire album of protest songs.

Including a video for their cover of John Lennon's song Imagine. MTV and MTV2 refused to air the "controversial" video because of the lyrics, and because the video was nothing but current day news footage...

A Perfect Circle is not a small band. They are world famous, and their lead singer also fronts the progressive metal band, Tool.

When this complete dismissal of their album (even in the blogs) happened, I knew it was impossible to hear any new anti-war voices.

[Ariana Celeste]

42. And it's an awesome album, too

I listen to it all the time- any one of those songs could be a hit on the radio if they got any air time.

[LuckyLib]

44. We can't have "controversial" now, can we? Censorship comes

in many ways. Keeping young people plugged into videogames is a whole lot more profitable.

[Dr Fate]

35. Son Volt has a great anti-Bush tune (but not on the radio, of course):

Son Volt - Jet Pilot


Jet pilot for the day
Washed his sins away
Loves to see the Rangers play
His daddy has a job in Washington
Wants to raise a Harvard son

Junior liked to let his hair down
Only trouble is, word gets around

Revolution will be televised
across living rooms
and the great divide
Robbing barren ghettos
for us now
everybody needs a hunting ground

Jet Pilot flown away
Got a passing grade
Made it to the world stage
A hemisphere away
Death is on display
The sins would never wash away

Junior liked to let his hair down
Only trouble is, word gets around

Revolution will be televised
across living rooms
and the great divide
Robbing barren ghettos
for us now
everybody needs a hunting ground

Junior liked to let his hair down
Only trouble is, word gets around

[Warren DeMontague]

52. I actually have heard it on the radio up here

'course we have one or two decent non-CC stations in the area.

Jay Farrar kicks ass.

[SeattleRob]

36. indeed

this is all about Media Consolidation and Censorship. The M$M are beholden to the Government for favorable regulation - eg The Telecommunications Act, Net Neutrality, etc. Look how Clear Channel has practically boycotted the Dixie Chicks.

There is a lot of great Anti-War music out there - the Corporate Media for the most part just won't share it with a mass audience.

[rman]

38. Good point

I know several contemporary anti-war songs that are 'MTV-worthy', but will never be aired by them.
But hey, we (still) have the internet.

"SupaDubya"
http://supadubya.4odt.com/

"Down with us"
http://www.odeo.com/audio/917720/view


on edit,
case in point:

Stop Movement -Down With Us

Why Did Major Radio Stations Try & Silence This Man and His Music?

With the 3rd anniversary of this ridiculous war in Iraq upon us.. ask yourself how come major radio stations around the country including stations in Los Angeles ignored and Blackout this Anti-War record produced by Fredwreck.

Fredwreck in case you don’t know has laced everyone from Ice Cube to Snoop on down to Eminem with incredible tracks…

He’s always been a political type of guy so he got a bunch of West Coast artists together around the start of the Iraq War and they dropped this Anti_war song which they offered up for free download..

They had apress conference and pout out a press release, but then all the big stations which normally play many of the artists featured on this song suddenly went dumb and tried to act like it doesn’t exist..

Feel free to check this cut.. It’s the dirty version.. You can also find this song featured on the new album Hard truth Soldiers Vol 1 which has been released by Paris

Track Features: Everlast Tray Deee Defari Daz J-Ro RBX Soopafly Bad Azz WC Dilated Peoples Mac Minister

Track Produced By: Fredwreck
www.fredwreck.com
www.fredwreck.com/stop.html

[IronLionZion]

39. Screw MTV, there is a lot of protest music out there

especially in the rap and rock communities. Just because it's not on MTV, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

When a wingnut tells you this, ask them how much Christian music is on MTV. MTV caters to a very gullible clientele of teens and pre-teens who will ask their parents to buy them the crap advertised on there. Anti-war ads or protest music will have little effect on the MTV audience.

Many live concerts that feature good music will be happy to let their audience know that MTV sucks and will even laugh at anyone who admits to watching that garbage..

[Gregorian]

40. There's no draft.

That's why the bands are not screaming like they were in the 'Nam period.
I've had my ear glued to the cutting edge groups from that time and now. I'm watching. I would like to see more political stuff. Punk has always been political. But that is pretty faded now.

[im10ashus]

55. Good point.

But I have to agree with the writer of the article in that some radio stations and others are afraid of the "political consequence" of playing their music. Look at how the Dixie Chicks have been shunned by members of their own fan base. It's a sad reflection on what we have become in this country.

[SavetheUSA]

43. Corporations have taken over the music industry

Many bands have been putting out free MP3s since before the war
http://www.benfrank.net/nuke/Free_Peace_mp3s.html

[LittleClarkie]

45. I wonder what ever happened to the MTV crew that played

Imagine and then "What's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding" by Elvis Costello when Poppy's deadline when by just before the first Gulf War started. I was quite touched by that at the time

[JudyM]

47. Submit band tapes to pandora.com. Great online music site. n/t

[ghostsofgiants]

51. No, there's no protest music being produced by the younger generation...

None whatsoever.

I have never heard anything even remotely political in any songs by Bad Religion, Boysetsfire, Bright Eyes, Closet Monster, Dead Prez, Deltron 3030, Desaparecidos, DJ Shadow, El-P, K-os, Kanye West, Non Prophets, M.I.A., Mr. Lif, Propagandhi, Protest The Hero, Radio 4, Rise Against, Rx Bandits, Sam Roberts, Sage Francis, Silverchair, Snapcase, Sweatshop Union, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, The Coup, The Get Up Kids, The Lost Patrol, Thrice, Warsawpack, or about a million other bands/artsists. Not a fucking word about the state of the world! For shame! </sarcasm>

Nevermind all the other bands involved in projects like Punkvoter or the Rock Against Bush albums.

[paulk]

56. you have to ask yourself

would Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, or Neil Young be able to get a major label record contract today?

-----------


I don't think so...

[Nikki Stone 1]

57. Maybe Neil Young couldn't hear the FEMALE voice of protest as in

Natalie Maines and the Dixie Chicks.

Did the singer's statement and the consequences the band suffered for it completely pass him by?

While I'm glad he's speaking up, he needs to realize that others ARE speaking up and paying the price, which he won't since he made a fortune being anti-war and that's what people will expect of him.