The brain, politics and music
by Steve Wallis
Version 6, 20th February 2006
See my document on How the brain helps or hinders the struggle for socialism for my analysis of how the brain works (earlier versions of this document contained such analysis but I have moved it to a separate document now massively modifying it in the process).
Music has always been used as part of the class struggle, because songwriters, singers and musicians can influence other people's views (in subtle or blatant ways) by putting messages in the music. Most songs are about love, but even if the songwriter is unaware of it, his or her subconscious is planting messages in songs.
Every genre of music originated from a particular class, either struggling to overthrow its oppressors or maintain its oppression. Note that capitalism was progressive in the past in its struggle to overthrow feudalism, during the French revolution for example, where small businesspeople and peasants united to overthrow the existing order.
Some genres of music originated from the ruling class (which today is big business), others from the oppressed class (generally the working class but alongside the peasantry in the underdeveloped countries: the so-called "third world"). Of course there are many examples of musicians who were on the opposite side to the originators of the genre of the track that they have performed.
In my opinion, classical, heavy metal and rap originated from the ruling classes, whereas folk, rock and roll, reggae, soul and gospel originated from the oppressed classes (usually black people, but I think that folk originated amongst ordinary white people in Britain and Ireland). Classical was convenient for the ruling classes because members of the oppressed classes have found it very hard to decipher the meaning of symphonies, due to the lack of words. Heavy metal is also convenient because you often can't hear the words. [Indeed, a lot of modern pop music that has reached the charts, in other genres like soul and R&B, contains words that are sung in such a way that is very hard to hear them; I believe that this is a deliberate policy of the record industry, backed up by people on the side of big business working in the TV industry (in particular those who decide what songs to promote before they reach the charts on the ITV1 programme "CD:UK") and the bureaucrats who choose the Radio 1 playlist which restricts what the DJs are allowed to play.]
Rap originated with black gangs in the USA, many of whom were into drugs and guns, with inter-gang rivalries leading to many murders. Such gangs have historically played a negative role in the struggle for black liberation, in contrast to Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party (the latter armed themselves for self-defence, and argued against the waste of lives caused by gangs, so their use of guns was a different matter entirely). Rap music tends to play a negative role today, because it is often played loudly out of car stereos by black men, irritating white neighbours (and turning some of them into racists) due to the way it tends to grate on the ears. Softer forms of rap, perhaps combined with other genres (such as at least some songs performed by the Fugees, Ms Dynamite, the Black Eyed Peas or Kelis) can play a positive role. Eminem has rightly been criticised for homophobic and sexist lyrics in some of his songs, but I liked two of Eminem's earliest songs "Stan" and "The Real Slim Shady" (particularly "Stan" since Dido sang very well on it); they didn't grate on the ears and there were no dodgy lyrics that I recognised. However, Eminem then started coming up with material that sounded absolutely dreadful and with lyrics that could not easily be deciphered, perhaps because he had not then worked out powerful politics to put forward, and he instead wanted to win over those who liked such stuff when he later came up with his album "Encore" (which contains excellent politics particularly against George W Bush and the war on Iraq).
The advice that artists get from their agents or others in the music industry is important. In the BBC's TV series "Fame Academy", black singer Lemar did a brilliant version of Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U", which he dedicated to his girlfriend (a sign that he really liked it). However, in the final, when the singers were asked to choose their best song from the series, he performed a really uninteresting soul song and came third, against David Sneddon and Sinéad Quinn - and when he got a record contract he carried on with that formula. However, some of his more recent songs have shown much more originality, and do not neatly fit into a particular genre. For more about "Fame Academy" visit the following discussion group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fame-academy
I tend to prefer songs and artists which combine genres, since they are generally more original than those who stick to one. I like good love songs, but I tend to prefer songs with explicitly left-wing lyrics.
I now regard Katrina and the Waves as my favourite band of all time. I was very keen on their song "Walking on Sunshine" when it came out (and liked most of the songs on their albums as well) but didn't realise how good they were politically at the time. When I fairly recently bought "The original recordings: 1983-1984" and read comments about the genres of that band, a considerable list were mentioned, which helped explain why I liked them so much. I finally found out how good their politics were when I bought their CD "Roses" in Canada, the only country in which it is available because it is so important (although the same CD was released under the name "Turnaround" in a different country). I did get hold of it again via ebay, having had it stolen along with most of my collection a few years ago; the thief or thieves nicely left me with most of my better CDs but not that one. On that CD is my favourite song of all time, "Walking Where the Roses Grow" - which I interpret as being a great environmental song: I don't want to go to the capitalist city paved with gold but to the countryside "where the roses grow". The CD also contains a great anti-war song called "23rd Psalm". Katrina and the Waves also performed "Love Shine a Light", which won the Eurovision Song Contest by far the biggest margin ever - because it spread a message of love around the world which would mean an end to wars; it can also be interpreted as an anti-racist song. It appeared on the "Walk on Water" album which is good but not as good as "Roses", and there is a brilliant "Xenomania club mix" on the CD single. I've created the following discussion groups around the band and those songs:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/katrina-and-the-waves
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/walking-where-the-roses-grow
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/23rd-psalm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/love-shine-a-light-katrina
My favourite overtly political band of all-time is Latin Quarter. Their only hit was "Radio Africa" - it was flawed because it said that there was only bad and sad news on Radio Africa at the time that there were revolutionary movements in South Africa (although it can be interpreted as saying that positive things happening in Africa were not reported on the radio). There are two brilliant songs on the album "Modern Times" on which "Radio Africa" appears: "America for Beginners" (about the devious means in which big business stays in power in the USA) and "Cora" (about a working class woman's life through the ages). Their third album "Swimming Against the Stream", which is very hard to get hold of (like "Roses"), is their best album; it was released shortly before the collapse of Stalinism in the USSR and Eastern Europe, after which their lyrics became obscure reflecting the difficulty in coming up with good political songs at a difficult time for the left. That album includes "A Slow Waltz for Chile" (describing life and death under the Pinochet dictatorship, which is rather pessimistic but very moving), plus "Dominion" (about animal rights) and "Something isn't Happening" (an excellent song about the lack of real change under capitalism). I have been repeatedly thrown off the Latin Quarter discussion group called "alittlelatinquarter" and the moderator has even deleted messages I had already sent, so that those who read them via the web may not have seen them. Since Steve Skaith (who was originally one of three singers but by the final albums was the only one left) has now formed the Steve Skaith Band with other musicians, I have created a new discussion group around Latin Quarter and the Steve Skaith Band. I've set up further groups around the best album and particular songs:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/latin-quarter-and-steve-skaith
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/america-for-beginners
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cora-lq
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swimming-against-the-stream
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slow-waltz-for-chile
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dominion-lq
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/something-isnt-happening
One of my favourite recent albums (including a song with the same name) is Green Day's "American Idiot". I have therefore set up a group around them:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/american-idiot
One of my karaoke specialities is Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire". The version of that song on the soundtrack of the film with the same name is much better than any other version I have heard, but I think I can sing it even better (although there is a need for a brilliant keyboard player to accompany me). Although outwardly a love song, I think the great balls of fire could be interpreted as fireballs travelling from one planet to another to destroy the latter, which is what would happen if George W Bush mastered outer space. The following discussion group is based around "Great Balls of Fire":
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/great-balls-of-fire
I've also set up the following discussion group around the artist Colin Vearncombe (a white singer/guitarist/songwriter who sometimes records as "Black", who had three hits, "Wonderful Life", "Sweetest Smile" and "Paradise"):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/colin-vearncombe
Bruce Springsteen's anti-war song "No Surrender" from the "Born in the USA" album is particularly good, and the fact that it was played as Senator Kerry went down the aisle at the Democrats' Convention in 2004 indicated that he was not as pro-war as it seemed! Bruce is unfortunately not as political now (if at all), but I've set up the following group around that song:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/no-surrender-springsteen
I have also set up a group around the female Scottish singer Eddi Reader (who performed the hit single "The Patience of Angels" and was previously in Fairground Attraction and sang the number one hit "Perfect"):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/patience-of-angels
My favourite duet of all time, which is very political because it gives hope to a man in a suicidal frame of mind due to the capitalist system he lives in is "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. The only music newsgroup (accessible via Google) that I have been able to send messages to - until a new version of newsgroup software was installed at http://groups.google.co.uk - is rec.music.gaffa for fans of Kate and similar kinds of music (it is named after Kate's song "Suspended in Gaffa"), because of the heavy censorship of other music newsgroups. If you join the "love hounds" mailing list (named after Kate's album and single "The Hounds of Love", see http://gaffa.org/faq/faq_1_2.html) you can send messages straight to the list and newsgroup. Therefore I have sent a lot of political messages to it over the years (some to do with music, others not). I have set up the following discussion group based around the song "Don't Give Up":
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dont-give-up
My main project for leading the world socialist revolution is my revolutionary socialist band Galaxia, named after the left-wing future of the galaxy in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. I have participated in a lot of conventional political campaigns over the last fifteen and a half years, but that alone won't achieve socialism; I am confident that Galaxia can lead the way in educating young (and not so young) people and inspiring them to play leading roles themselves in overthrowing the multinationals that control the planet inflicting so much misery and death on ordinary people around the globe.
I put an appeal out on the internet before our first recordings (on the 30th of June at the Cutting Rooms, Manchester) for anybody who desired to participate, specifically inviting some famous people - Martine McCutcheon, (see http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk/martine.htm), Konnie Huq (who appeared on and was the subject of racism and mind control in "Comic Relief does Fame Academy", see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/konnie-huq-fans), the three Waves from Katrina and the Waves (Kimberley Rew on guitar, Vince de la Cruz on bass guitar and Alex Cooper on drums) and Yona Dunsford from Latin Quarter on keyboards and backing vocals. However, unsurprisingly, none of them turned up and I sang the three songs ("Do They Know It's G8 Time?", "The Revolution Starts Now!" and "L'Internaçionale") simply accompanied on the first two songs by Adam from the Cutting Rooms on acoustic guitar.
Adam told me that he did not want to be involved with Galaxia in the future and I now plan to reform the band with a female singer and guitarist, who has been in a band and taught drumming before. [Perhaps I will learn drumming and use that skill on some of our songs. I have tried learning keyboards and playing guitars but found them too difficult (particularly, I think, because I would have had to forget or relegate to the back of my mind knowledge that I need for my political analysis of the world).]
Galaxia's first tracks promoted the idea of a worldwide general strike at the time of the G8 summit in July 2005 (in Gleneagles, Scotland). That was a rush-job and strike action did not take off, but Galaxia will go on a world tour performing updated versions of "Do They Know It's G8 Time?" and "The Revolution Starts Now!" as well as other songs, including going to South Africa (where we may record an album with the same name as Colin Vearncombe's "Live at the Bassline Johannesburg"), to seriously publicise my call for a worldwide general strike at the time of the 2006 summit (which takes place in St Petersburg, Russia from the 15th to the 17th of July).
To find out about or discuss Galaxia, go to its website (http://www.galaxiamusic.org) or one of the following discussion groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/galaxiamusic
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/do-they-know-its-g8-time
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the-revolution-starts-now
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/live-at-the-bassline-johannesburg