Democracy and Activism

I read the article about musical artists on campaign trails across America. In it there were some very interesting views brought up. One that struck me as very confusing was whether or not it is worth the effort to promote change as a musical artist. To me this is a stupid, for lack of a better term, question. Michael Stipe said that to him the political songs of Dylan were open for interpretation, but because of the time they were determined to be political, and while I understand this statement, I am very much of the belief that people mean to write politically. An example from the same period as Dylan is the song Monster/Suicide/America by Steppenwolf. This was a clearly political song, but is available to interpretation if you want it to be. Yet, along with many other songs and bands who spoke up, this helped bring about an attitude of the people that eventually ended the Vietnam War.

Other issues that were brought up were the abolishing of the electoral college and citizen participation. The artists quoted such instances as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who stood up and spoke about the injustices that were being proliferated. In my opinion this is the very essence of democracy, and our electoral college, while noble in intentions, prevents the vox populi from being heard in most cases.