Message 17/33
Date: 24-Sep-03 @ 02:26 PM -
RE: Sting
Sure, Sting wrote (or co-wrote?) some good pop guitar hits with the police sure, Fields of Gold was a good song too admittedly, but his or anyones 'musical' ability doesnt detract from their other actions does it?.. especialy if they've spent along time creating this semi-mythological image of themselves as some sort of bastions of an anti-establishment leaning...
What I'm saying is that these 'stars' USE a sort of quasi-political stance to enhance their credibility when it suits them & it's safe, but then fade away and leave it to a supposedly 'lame' pappy-pop artists like G. Micheal when they have to lay something on the line of themselves.
I find that to simply smack of good-old colonial white patronising shite... 'Save the poor disenfranchised blackies/brownies/forests/whatever' which to me is a pile of patronising poo of the same old white-people-save-the-non-white-poor shite. But when a political issue arises which to make comment over could cost them sales they run for cover and shut up. If the common man & lower-echelon politicians can make comment then why not these spokespeople of the 'new caring' world?
Saving the rainforests or helping the poor africans is a guranteed sales-booster for all the punters with a concience. Makes 'em think if they buy those artists records then they are 'helping' (gag) - a bunch of shit imo
BUT, my point is, no-one spoke up when it came to 'save the poor Iraqi's/Afghani's from getting carpet bombed to fuck'
why?... is that any better than being bled dry by a bank?
It's a pile of calculating posturing imo. And then Sting, on the one hand 'saves the rain forests' and on the other does car ad's for Jaguar which promotes cars/pollution/oil-use - seems like double-talk twaddle to me.
and whats this half-assed trance-pop-shite sting's got out now? - I dont doubt he's a qualified musician & knows his jazz, chords, scales and can write good pop when he tries, but that's no get-out clause even IF the last two years since Sept 11th has been pretty-much to all effects a good old McCarthyism revival.
Back in the 60's the whole musical establishment was out against the war, leading a positive movement of gigs festivals and protest and being up-front and vocal... what did OUR era's great rock-stars do?... fuck-all basicaly
Admittedly tho, this probably says as much about current social trends as it does about the new control of the music industry... whatever, I dont advocate that anyone CAN save the world myself, but if one is to posture publicly that one DOES, then at least one should be consistant in ones assault on the system surely?
anyways, we're just talking. Whats does it matter if our gran's and other family cant get hospital treatment or our kids have shitty schooling, or education is only for the wealthy as long as we're pumping billions into Iraq for the yanks.
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I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!