I’m just pining for a better yesteryear that may have never actually existed.
I mean, Neil Young and Joan Baez were encouraging people to vote back in the 60’s, so it’s been at least 60 years that popular music has been closely involved in youth culture’s voting habits
Like I said:
For singers who are mostly political, sure, this kind of makes sense (think most of the famous 60s singers, most punk etc) but, to the best of my knowledge/limited listening, Swift’s music has seemed pretty non political, which makes it a bit weird to me. (That being said, also what makes it a bit more effective. Rage against the Machine telling folks to vote is preaching to the choir.)
To me, there’s a difference between music that’s explicitly political effecting political behaviour and music that isn’t.
If, I dunno, BTS got hundreds of thousands of kids to register as Republican, I imagine/hope people would be concerned that that’s where kids are getting their political direction from.
Edit: I have no idea if BTS is actually political, I assume not. Most of the young music this old fuck listens to are political because that’s what I enjoy, so I’m not great at picking pop non political stuff. Sorry!
Taylor Swift definitely has some political songs like “The Man,” which is focused on the double standard faced by female celebrities, or “You Need to Calm Down,” which is explicitly pro-LGBTQ+, etc.
Neat! Though, I think her political songs aren’t really what she’s known for? I could be completely wrong though!
Edit: I mean, especially when you think about the artists you first listed like Baez and Young.
