Wrong, motherfucker. It did not affect the election one fucking bit.[1]

I never thought the video/song (Eminem's "Mosh" for those too lazy to clickthrough) would have any particular pull on the election. I suppose this claim would have more weight if I'd said it explicitly in my entry on the song, but I guess it seemed so obvious to me that I didn't have to. I mean, besides the fact that the video is an almost textbook example of the kind of leftism that annoys me to tears, who listens to Eminem for their political opinions? Who listens to Sean Penn? Who listens to Michael Moore, in the final analysis? The article (which maybe I'm unfairly signaling out, given its shortness and general inconsequentiality, but fuck it, it's what triggered this) uses the phrase "protest music’s most mainstream moment since the sixties." But look, it's not the goddamn sixties anymore. The truth is no longer sufficient, and moreover, to pretend like it is is to ignore the fact that there are only a few scattered historical moments when it was, and arguably even the sixties weren't one of them. Today we are loathe to admit not knowing something, because to not know is to be weak, and to be weak is to be uncool. Don't assume I'm arguing this is bad because it's shallow: cool is a far more potent force than most people are willing to recognize, a key element in modern politics. A shitty song with a shitty video whose message is "fuck Bush" just isn't going to cut it anymore, I'm sorry. If it's supposed to make us vomit with rage, well then, I'm sorry--you can pretend like "it's remarkable I wrote anything" but there is too much writing out there already, too much truth, too much information. Adding more onto the pile don't do nothing except in certain unique situations.

I think people need to admit that their conceptions of "political music," especially of it as purely "protest music," needs to drastically change. More later, or hell, just (re)read what I wrote before.

[1] Probably. Who can tell, really?

posted by Mike B. at 9:18 PM 0 comments