I feel global political oppression or global wars usually produce great music but Macklemore might be the peak.
Nothing against him, some of his songs are good, but I expected real rage inducing stuff with everything going on. Or is this just the state of music as a whole?
This is America was produced in 2018. Say the word Mustard around a lot of people and they know what you are talking about. That is my whole point. We still have massive hits but no rage against the governments or wars.
I also feel that the design of current music ecosystem is doing this as well. They can stop music being released or throw money at it.
We don’t have the bands kicking, for the most, against capitalism.
How many indie punk bands do you listen to? In the 80s and 90s counter culture and anti-establishment is what sold music, and that’s why bands like Rage were able to go mainstream. Producers and promoters don’t support bands like that anymore because they know they won’t make as much profit.
My counter point is music is way easier to consume now. You can find no name bands everywhere. Durry is a great example of a band born out of the pandemic. Older group that is anti “normal” life. Seen them in concert amd have really hit a groove in their music. Indie bands have a way as before you heard them on some AM station.
It feels like less and less big artist are less vocal against what is happening. They will speak or make a post but their music is still the same ol same ol.
My point is that artists who are vocal don’t make as much profit for the record labels as they used to, so they’re not being promoted as much as they used to. RAtM only became as big as they are because they were profitable for Sony. Ironic, isn’t it?
Most people are anti-war or anti-genocide. It seems like an easy payout for artist right now. Kneecap and Vylan showed that. Most people never heard of them until the BBC stuff recently.
There’s also the wider political angle to consider. The 90s was very safe for media companies to push revolutionary talk, there was no chance it’d actually turn into revolution. Now, shit’s starting to go down, and media companies don’t want the government to think they’re encouraging revolution.
Please remember that Parental Advisory and TV Parental Guidelines started in the 90s. 2 Live Crew was taken to court and declared legally obscene by a federal judge in 1990. Every generation has been through this.