Music Class Heroes

I have long been asking where the good anti war music artists have gone? Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and various others are betrayed by a generation that today only talk about getting to the weekend and getting drunk down and dirty.

In my younger days I remember telling my grandfather how I would move with the musical times, thinking back I was never really part of the times that I lied in. My music diet consisted of genius such as Hendrix, Dylan, the Zep, Bowie, Louis Armstrong, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Michael Jackson (and guilty pleasures like Diana Ross and Tina Turner) mixed with a a dash of modern elements such as Guns & Roses, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Chili Peppers and Blur. Still, these modern elements did not really serve to protest greatly against the system as they might have. They all shared one common factor, air time on the radio, today the chances of getting airtime for anyone challenging the system is extremely limited.

Have you heard of Bliss N Eso, Michael Franti, Flobots or Lowkey? If you are reading this then maybe.

I think there is a better chance of Jesus returning than hearing any of these artists on mainstream radio, save Michael Franti, who I suspect may have sold out or succumb to the brand Obama lies back in 2008. To get music today that has any meaning, with a greater selection of words than "I got the moves like Jagger", you have to trawl the Internet and find people that dare to buck the trend or party line. Shows like X-Factor have flooded the market with karaoke singers and people too afraid to buck the trend or go against the will of Simon Cowell. Then came Plan B.

In the Independent today music artist Plan B features as his new song 'Ill Manors' does the rounds with a project he hopes will be just the beginning of a plan to challenge the mindsets of people following the London riots last year. This song is receiving lofty comparisons to the late and great Marvin Gaye's "what's going on" and referring to "ill manors" as "the first great mainstream protest song in years" in a blog by Dorian Lynskey. The Independent writer Tim Walker claims that effective protest songs are rare, they are not, he is just looking in the wrong places for them.

The War Against War

10,000 hrs to become a genius?

Back in the time of such greats as Jimi Hendrix music of a political nature used to fly through the mainstream air waves, but today the remnants of the 80's soda pop movement, as once famously described by Bill Hicks, has left a flaccid and rank amateur bunch in their absence.
I used to ask the question "where had the great anti-establishment music gone?" only to accidentally stumble across Michael Franti (before he sold out or got conned by Obama) The Flobots and Bliss & Eso. Where as most of the modern music 'artists' are happy to sing about cheap sexual thrills, one night stands, S&M and coca cola, people such as Bliss & Eso are hard hitting and topical but increasingly unlikely to make it mainstream (unless like Franti you get duped by an actor looking to secure a vote during an election campaign) as shows like X-factor and American Idol continue to flood the arena with processed wannabe's.

I eagerly await Franti's next album exploiting the actor currently in office at the White House.

This is not to say that there have been no good singers or performers, as Leona Lewis has proved, but she is enslaved by the Simon Cowell cash cow and not likely to rock the boat speaking out against the injustices of this world, unlike Lauryn Hill.
Lauryn Hill released a song called 'I get out' which I believe was a direct slap in the face to this system and not before time. Unfortunately I do not believe she has done much about it since and was probably declared crazy by MTV or some other media outlet.

As soon as someone rises to challenge or expose this system (as stock broker Alessio Rastani found out after being interviewed by the BBC recently) the ranks close file and the news repeaters strive to discredit or humiliate.

So I shall continue to dig, share and receive pointers in the direction of artists providing a voice for the silent majority and share the latest effort from Dejavusion in association with Lucas Media, 'The War on War' with a little help from the late and great Jimi Hendrix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jAh7KyOGw