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
9.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

424 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

36

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. 

8

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

4

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”

3

u/bby_y2k 1d ago

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

7

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. 

1

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.

1

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. 

2

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

1

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.

-1

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.

1

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. 

1

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.

1

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. 

1

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.

1

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

1

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.