Music

Last week I talked about two artists (Ben Harper and Rage Against the Machine) that had mutated mainstream musical success with songs that touch deeper issues of society without compromising their musical vision. This week, we pick up where we left off with two more prominent 90’s artists that were/are not scared to sing their politics. 

Mos Def originated with a group of political rappers on the East Coast that included the brilliant KRS-One. Although like KRS-One, Mos Def too is controversial with the issues he covers. Mos Def popularised this socially conscious form of rapping with the likes of Talib Kweli in the late 1990s. Def and Kweli formed the The Black Star, a group that released an album of the same name in 1998. The album I’m concerned with though is Black on Both Sides, his 1999 release. It went on to make gold in sales, except only one single made the pop charts: Ms. Fat Booty and I’m concerned with three other tracks that convey a lot.

This article is a two part look at the most socially aware music in the last 15 years (most of it coming in the 1990s). It looks at four of the most important artists of this type of music: Rage Against the Machine, Ben Harper, Mos Def and Tool - four artists from the mainstream music world yet they still create music that has political meaning and a moral message behind it. It shows this category of music is hard to come by (these days).

Voices of the Voiceless
Gil Rubin talks about the mainstream music industry’s lack of socially conscious material

The pop industry is commonly populated with music that is shallow, without any dignified meaning. There are very few artists in the mainstream that make music which is concerned with social awareness, and these few artists are really on the outskirts of the mainstream. There is an evident split between music with a social conscience and music that portrays self indulgence. In fact, it is hard to find music that has been aggressively advertised and marketed and also talks about societal issues.

New Zealand Music Month:
Necessity or Novelty?

Talia Blewitt offers her thoughts on the annual Kiwi music-pusher that is the month of May 

Back in 2000 when we all thought the millennium bug would be the end of us, the government established the New Zealand Music Industry Commission (take ‘industry' out and we have today's official title). The sole purpose for the Commission was to make sure more Kiwi music was played to more people. And so it was, New Zealand Music Week became New Zealand Music Month.
    May has rolled around again, kicking off the eighth NZMM since its humble beginnings. Over the years we have seen the promotion of Kiwi tunes on our airwaves, television screens and charts go from strength to strength.