Political pop that could actually change the world

[imomus]

Eminem Mosh. He says 'Fuck Bush'. He says 'No more blood for oil'. He says 'Kerry on, give me hope'. He says 'Vote on November 2nd'. And the imagery in the video says a lot more. A message like this, from a star as big as Eminem, could actually change the outcome of the US election. Who says pop music is all neutered, spayed and tame? Who says that nothing anyone says makes a blind bit of difference? As brilliantly political as anything Bob Dylan did at the height of the 60s protest boom. Positively Brechtian.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I admire the thought of using music to bring attention to important issues, etc etc etc and all of that. But this is honestly a dull ghastly song. I don't see how it's as political as Bob Dylan's 60s protest classics, it doesn't even compare, it's not even on the food chain.

Dylan and 60's folk may have cited specifics but that music moved the masses because of the revolutionary sound of it all, stripped-down untreated raw guitars, cavernous world-weary everyman vocals, subversive psychedelic leanings and all. It was urgent and of-the-people and new and transcendent.

Without looking at a lyric sheet "Mosh" feels like a dirge, it's not hypnotizing and it's not energizing and it certaintly doesn't move me towards anything but the bed. The beat is slow and dumb, the piano line sounds like phoney hollywood 'sad music', and the rapping is awkward and forced. This is simply and unattractive piece of music, at least it is to me.

Good for Em tho. Hopefully the elections will draw attention to his new single.

Adam

[xyzedd.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Wouldn't it have been much more subversive for Eminem to release a protest song as absurdly catchy as "Without Me"? Iron fist in the velvet glove, anyone?

[(Anonymous)]

I am glad the videos on TRL and it's an anti-Bush video and all that. It's just i read about it on Pitchfork in a long multi-paragraphed essay and was expecting something amazing. It's just a dull, serious-sounding song that couldn't exist without the political lyrics.

He should have taken one of his older hits and simply re-written the lyrics or something. "Without Bush" or "The Real Dick Cheney" or something of that nature. It's just so much easier to spread the chorus of "The Real Slim Shady" than this tuneless mess.

just lose it--lost

[whatgloom.livejournal.com]

Just Lose It is fundamentally subversive. He even explicitely states on the song something along the lines of "Eh, What can I say to spark contreversy!" and then he proceeds to make homoerotic and pedophile allusions--which in a way pertain to his mockery of Micheal Jackson--but also I believe, introduce those taboos in a pop song less ironically than it may be perceived. With that said, aside from the sociological context in which the song may have some importance--as a RAP track, that shit is wack.

Re: just lose it--lost

[yanatonage.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'm saying anything off the map when I say that there is NOTHING subversive about making fun of Micheal Jackson. It's a strawman argument; there is no one there to disagree with in the first place. I was horribly disapointed to see a recent South Park episode in which the entire point was that, indeed, Micheal Jackson is weird and a bad father. Oh? I hadn't heard, you rogue, you. Tell it like it is, homie, etc.