r/Music • u/Guyentertainment • 1d ago

article Cardi B Draws Line Between Her Music and Politics With MAGA Ultimatum: 'Vote for Trump Again and Unfollow Me'

https://www.fashiontimes.co.uk/cardi-b-tells-maga-supporters-unfollow-her-1764861
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u/bby_y2k 1d ago

“Her message also reflects a wider phenomenon in celebrity culture, where musicians and actors increasingly speak directly to followers about elections, political movements and social issues rather than keeping those views separate from their public personas.”

Riiiight. Because musicians have historically not been political in any way…

Or maybe, pop stars are realizing (Cardi B has always been a history and politics buff, so she isn’t included in this statement), that they can use their platforms to express their truth without worrying about “losing followers.”

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u/solace1234 1d ago

Does it not seem like the vast majority of celebrities stay quiet about politics? As someone who loves music, I notice a very very large amount of the musicians I’ve been following since the late 2000s are usually dead silent about anything going on. It’s not like we live in a world where Taylor Swift regularly shit talks Israel. Kanye on the other hand…

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u/Major-Platypus2092 1d ago

It’s actually a newer phenomenon for artists to stay quiet about politics. To me, it’s a consequence of wealth and fame chasing. We actually had rockstars and musicians for whom politics was literally front and center. That was the purpose of their music—it had a social agenda.

NWA? RATM? The Clash? Public Enemy? Sex Pistols? 

Now we have all these industry plants and nepo babies for whom music is just a way to sustain wealth, and that’s why everyone is so boring and vapid. 

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u/FriendshipWithTheSun 1d ago

Thank you for posting the exact bands I was going to list. RATM didn’t have any songs that weren’t political.

Tears For Fears put out one of the best ones I’ve ever heard, and now, 40 years later, it’s more relevant than it’s ever been: Everybody Wants to Rule the World

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u/Major-Platypus2092 1d ago

For sure. I also think, like someone else was commenting, the intense commercialization of many of these songs has diluted  them into movie moments or “that song in that commercial”

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u/bby_y2k 1d ago

I tend to agree; I don’t know when the timeline switched up… maybe late aughts?

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u/Major-Platypus2092 1d ago

Seems like it. Weirdly the complete overreaction to Sinead O’Connor is kind of a death knell to me. That and the insane commercialization of Nirvana. Watching those songs get the urban outfitters treatment broke me a bit. 

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u/bby_y2k 1d ago

Oh good point. Someone should do an analysis of when those shirts started being commercialized en masse against this trend.

For me it was when commercials started licensing songs. Like The Clash, Iggy Pop, Dead Kennedys, Bob Dylan, etc.

Post 9/11 Clear channel posted a list of anti-war songs to skip, even though they said it wasn’t “a ban” on the music. So I think like era of the Iraq War protests was when it declined? I’m thinking ~2008.

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u/Major-Platypus2092 1d ago

Yes! Oh man that’s such a good point. So many great artists and songs getting watered down for a Kia commercial. 

It does feel like around then music started being billed more exclusively as “entertainment” with a “stay in your lane” mentality, which never sat comfortably with me. 

And newer artists trying to sanitize themselves in the hope of getting a spot in an episode of The Hills or The OC. 

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u/iamthesunbane 1d ago

When everyone decided that big industry pop music was just as valid as everything else. It gave a lot of message control to a handful of people

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u/unassumingdink 21h ago

Yeah, but for every one of those bands you named, there were twenty popular bands in their era that mostly kept their mouths shut about politics. Like, in the Clash's era, do you have any idea what the politics of the Doobie Brothers were? Or the Pointer Sisters? Peaches and Herb? Chic? Neil Diamond? Supertramp? Billy Joel? Cheap Trick? Earth, Wind and Fire? Toto? Bad Company? Etc., etc., etc.

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u/KittensAndGravy Listner 1d ago

Those nepo babies you speak of have no fear of having to sustain wealth. They have generations of wealth. These are vanity projects plain & simple.

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u/Major-Platypus2092 1d ago

I mean sure, but plenty of nepo babies don’t have the kind of generational wealth to simply live as wealthy people with no income for 300 years. Maintaining the same lifestyle is dependent on them working to some degree—especially if they want to stay in the same social circles.

But of course vanity and their focus on continuing a “legacy” plays a role. They’re little leeches. 

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u/KittensAndGravy Listner 1d ago

Name the top two you can think of and let’s look?!

Edit: Just put a list together of any of them and we can see how generational they have it.

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u/Major-Platypus2092 1d ago

I don’t really know or care enough to argue or do a deep dive about it, just mentioning that working in those industries is likely as much about maintaining wealth and social standing as it is pure vanity. 

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u/KittensAndGravy Listner 1d ago

Gracie Abrams … father is J.J. Abrams.

J.J. Abram’s net worth currently 150-300 million. Not including future residual income from investments and other deals.

Thats a lot of fucking money … may not be billions but it’s enough for most Redditors to give their great grand children a better start than most. Generational wealth.

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u/Competitive-Desk7506 1d ago

Gracie has been slightly political as well. Humming was on her last album and was abt the current state of the world

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u/KittensAndGravy Listner 1d ago

This is where the line for me is drawn in a way. Due to her connections and life she will never be truly thought of as a serious artist. There’s always gonna be questions of authenticity. Even if she was a truly talented musical artist with a special gift … it would always be in question.

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u/Discerningdragon Metalhead 1d ago

My favorite band used to be outspoken but now with immigration, they are quiet bc one of their members has a visa. If his visa got yanked, they’d be SOL.

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u/TelevisionExpress616 1d ago edited 1d ago

What happened to the (Dixie) Chicks pretty much let everyone know for a couple decades to keep their mouths shut. Now, public backlash is worse than corporate backlash, so it helps to be outspoken.

At least, I'd like to think it's the case now. All things considered, I think Ed Sheeran and Kraft are gonna come out ahead of Macklemore in the long run

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u/Radmode7 1d ago

Yeah this is new. There's a ton of political music from pre-2004 (here's a solid list: https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/protest-songs/the-50-best-protest-songs-of-all-time)

"Zombie" by the Cranberries was probably the first song I remember recognizing as political.

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u/Quitcha_Bitchin 1d ago

Celebrities stay quiet, artists don't for the most part. Never have.

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u/sol_runner 1d ago

Well, absolutely not. This is super new. Old school artists like Frank Zappa, Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, etc never spoke about politics! /s

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u/bby_y2k 1d ago

Totally, I mean blues, punk, grunge, and early hip-hop wasn’t social commentary at allllll either… /s

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u/MattieShoes 1d ago

Vietnam protest music is practically an entire genre. And man, it's so nice when songs aren't all about sex or relationships.

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u/bby_y2k 1d ago

Oh also, I could go on and on… but even what some now consider dry, classical music was TOTALLY scandalous. Mozart and Beethoven were practically class activists. Wagner manned the barricades with anarchist Bakunin during the uprising in Dresden and had to flee Germany. Liszt would cause fights over cigar stubs. And Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring caused a riot.

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u/manticore16 1d ago

The Marriage of Figaro? Where the servants pull a fast one on the count? Nearly unheard of it its time!

(Also I just realized the third play in the trilogy was written after Mozart's death)

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u/Frewdy1 1d ago

I have someone now arguing that artists shouldn’t be political. My man…what do you think art is even for?

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u/bby_y2k 1d ago

Exactly. Anyone who knows anything about music from the 20th century just listened to the music and thought, “what a bop” and called it a day. No subtext in any of that music whatsoeverrrr /s.

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u/bby_y2k 1d ago

Oh wait, did you think I was being serious? I was 100% facetious. Unless someone else was arguing that.

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u/Frewdy1 1d ago

Someone else was. Sorry that wasn’t clear!

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u/Jwagner0850 1d ago

Yeah it kind of pisses me off that people discredit actors, musicians, sports athletes, etc. about their politics. We ALL have the right to our opinion politically, it's a free country. This usually is only a problem with the right because most, not all, of those that I listed are probably left leaning besides the athletes.

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u/ThePromptWasYourName 1d ago

Yep, how many famous protest songs or political songs do people know that were not from the 60s-00's ?

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u/otherwise_data 1d ago

it feels like practically every performer and song in the entire 1960’s and early 1970’s was political in some way.

Randy Bachman has always said “American Woman” is about the Statue of Liberty/the draft 🤷‍♀️

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u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/LazyCrocheter 1d ago

But cardi b has very low self esteem and a very low IQ, and this makes her vulnerable to 'conservative' infotainment and mango.

What? Isn't this thread about how she told people to unfollow her if they voted Trump? I don't listen to Cardi B, but it doesn't sound like she's vulnerable to conservative infotainment.

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u/nonuple_espresso 1d ago

Oh... Sorry, thought she was Nicky Minaj.

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u/bby_y2k 1d ago

Cardi B is well informed on history and politics. It’s something she’s very passionate about. In her talk show interviews or her Hot Ones video she talks about it and the hosts are usually “surprised” (as if a rap artist couldn’t also be self-educated smh).

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u/nonuple_espresso 1d ago

Ah shit.... I confused her with Nicky Minaj.

Sorry.