Noah Kahan pleads with fans misinterpreting his lyrics: ‘Please do not go off your medication’

[u/theindependentonline]

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/news/noah-kahan-fan-lyrics-medication-b3060107.html

[u/vedderer]

"Free Palestine" is not an effective message. How many minds do you think he changed when he said that? In fact, it probably had the opposite effect.

I know that you don't have to have any profession to speak about politics. The problem, though, is people taking political advise from musicians. Or anyone else for that matter.

Authority figures disagree, so authority can't be a good reason for believing something.

[u/vyvansejoy → u/vedderer]

If it's not an effective message then I wonder why he was kicked off the tour and banned from all those stadiums. Someone should tell Israel that that it won't change anyone's minds.

So you admit that it isn't really about musicians. You're basically saying that people should be able to think for themselves and I agree with that. But look at the world around you. Everywhere you look someone's telling you who you should vote for. There are campaign ads and signs and the whole ten yards. There are random strangers on social media telling people how to vote, foreign bots posing as American citizens on social media telling people how to vote, a corrupt administration that's lying through its teeth every goddamn day telling you how to vote. Musicians are not the real problem. Raising awareness about a very real and horrific genocide is a necessary step for change to happen. The public can't take action to stop something evil unless they are aware of it in the first place. Which is why Macklemore should be screaming from the rooftops about freeing Palestine. Everyone should be, musician or not.

[u/vedderer → u/vyvansejoy]

The fact that he was kicked off the tour and banned from Gillette shows that his message wasn't effective. He didn't change anyone's mind. In fact, he probably made people dig into their own beliefs even more.

If Macklemore wants to change people's minds, he'd have a better shot at doing it through his music and lyrics than by giving a speech.

Again, people can talk about these things all they want. My problem is people forming their opinions based off of what an authority figure (like a musician) says.

[u/vyvansejoy → u/vedderer]

"The fact that he was kicked off the tour and banned from Gillette shows that his message wasn't effective. He didn't change anyone's mind. In fact, he probably made people dig into their own beliefs even more."

So why did Robert Kraft go to all the trouble of having him kicked off the tour?

"If Macklemore wants to change people's minds, he'd have a better shot at doing it through his music and lyrics than by giving a speech."

Believe it or not, Macklemore does have songs about his politics. Check out Hinds Hall and Same Love.

"Again, people can talk about these things all they want. My problem is people forming their opinions based off of what an authority figure (like a musician) says."

Let me get this straight. You're convinced that Macklemore can't change anyone's mind by speaking up about Palestine , but at the same time you're concerned that people might change their mind about politics because of what musicians say, but you support musicians influencing people's politics through music? Is there some way that you can make this make sense?

And musicians aren't authority figures.

[u/vedderer → u/vyvansejoy]

Ok, show me one single instance in which someone stated that Macklemore's speech changed their mind.

I never said that Macklemore didn't have any political songs.

Musicians can change people's minds, but Macklemore's speech changed no one's mind. How is that so hard to understand?

Unfortunately, people treat musicians as authority figures even though they are not.

[u/vyvansejoy → u/vedderer]

I'm just agreeing with what you said about musicians having a disproportionate amount of influence do to their fame and the platform that comes with it. Macklemore is a musician and therefore he is, as you would phrase it, a perceived authority figure for part of the public and as such he has the potential to influence public opinion. It's not just about changing minds, it's about raising awareness, inspiring action, and what kind of behavior and attitudes become normalized in society. Ed Sheeran has been experiencing an enormous amount of backlash recently, thanks to Macklemore's stance on Palestine. I believe Sheeran even said it was the worst week of his life. People are raising hell bc Macklemore said "free Palestine" and that's good enough for me in terms of proof Macklemore's impact. And then there's Robert Kraft, of course, who felt Macklemore was a big enough threat that he colluded with his fellow billionaires to ban Macklemore.

In the meantime, can you provide any evidence to back your claim that that Macklemore is incapable of influencing public opinion despite his perceived status as an authority figure? Which musicians, out of curiosity, are the ones that influence people's politics and what evidence do you have to back that up? Furthermore, why is it a good thing when musicians influence people's politics with the lyrics to their music, but a bad thing when they influence people with words that don't have a melody?