I was reading the other day in the newspaper..that we seem to have run out of protest songs. And this sort of surprised me. Apparently nowadays whenever people protest they sing songs that were written in the 1970s during the Vietnam movement.
Thats sad.
I blame the music companies for this. They have taken on the responsibility for recruiting and creating the talent we see on TV..cookie cutter singers..out of the same box musicians..and those guys aint gonna protest about nothing. They would only protest if their champagne came without bubbles.
It says a lot about our generation. We have grown up to become slaves, and even those of us who dont want to be slaves dont have updated songs to protest about the fact. The reason why there have been no new protest songs is because we are a generation which perhaps doesnt believe in protest..which cant protest properly..which protests in a very bland fashion..because we are living in a state of constant fear.
But I speak for myself..I have never protested about anything. And thats not because Im a coward. Its because just staying alive, maintaining my standard of living has gotten so hard, that all the fight is reserved for everyday living.
And the other sad part is, who can you protest to? Earlier, you had the administration..you could stick it to THE MAN. But now, THE MAN has gone underground. He has so many heads, you dont know which one to cut off. He finds way to threaten what you have, so that everyday is spent clinging onto it. You never want to lose the precious few things you managed to wrest from life.
The other night we were at a nightclub..and it was a peaceful party, listening to this DJ Pete Gooding..specially flown in from Ibiza or something. Just chillin. And then the cops marched in at 1am. They busted a party where nothing illegal was going on..they took down our names and phone numbers..and then let us go. Nobody shouted at them. No one said..this is bullshit. We all said bummer and took off home. Later in the week the same thing happened to another friend of mine..this time at 12.30am. They even arrested the DJ. So that means we cant even go out for a night on the town anymore.
And thats how they get you. In small doses..take the fight out of you. Persuade you that you arent entitled to enjoy life. So once you never raise your head for the smaller causes, where will you raise your head for the big ones?
And even then, even if you do raise your voice, it will be with some song your daddy sang when he had sideburns.
Who wants that?!