andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> I don't think the decline of protest music is due to
> downloadable music, ditigalization, and iPoddery. I
> noticed 30 years ago (yikes!), when I first started my
> political activist work, that we were still relying on
> and recycling old Vietnam and civil rights and even
> older union music at demos. There is no "We Shall
> Overcome," "Which Side Are You On?" "If I Had A
> Hammer," "This Land Is Your Land," or anything similar
> (yeah, Doug, I know you hate that stuff) from the
> antinuclear, anti-intervention (e.g., Central
> America), or other issue movements of the 1980s or
> since. I don't mean there are no good songs, just
> nothing canonical, universal, instantly recognizable,
> and usable at a march or demo.
Well, if it goes back 30 years maybe ipoddery isn't to blame. Maybe it
has something to do with (here it comes....Joanna's refrain) the
negative aspect of identity politics, which, whatever else it does, does
not encourage universalist thinking or songs.
Joanna