Political songs
Himanshu: Nehru Jackets: More diversity in the music writing biz would help it better deal with the role of politics in music, the criticism of which has become superficial. At Pitchfork, Zach Kelly wrote “Nehru Jackets is not an overtly political record.” That “overtly” leaves wiggle room, but not enough to stop Jawnita from asking: “How you gonna call a record that was released by a non-profit community organization of primarily AZNs in QUEENS and features many of said organization’s members RAPPING IN PUNJABI, as not being political?” This seems like an obvious and insuperable point to me, but maybe it isn’t to others, and maybe there’s a conversation worth having here. But such conversations are unlikely to happen unless people of colour initiate them, and there currently aren’t enough critics like Shepherd around to fight every battle.
Ani DiFranco: ¿Which Side Are You On?: Reviewers that don’t like this prefer the personal songs to the political songs, but don’t they always? Meanwhile last year there were endless “why aren’t there Occupy songs?” thinkpieces and now it’s all “protest songs now, what an opportunist”. When this isn’t accused of being a cash-in, it’s labelled “uncharacteristically dated” and “unfashionably late” (this whole review is weirdly obsessed with punctuality), as if we don’t need an Equal Rights Amendment anymore, because everyone knows women already have equal rights, right?
Bhi Bhiman: Bhiman: What does a socially-aware singer-songwriter have to do to get good press? Keep it sarcastic, apparently, with Wal-Mart marriage and North Korean kimchi production. The politics aren’t as deep as DiFranco’s, but the tunes and the singing make up for it. Can’t wait until he’s famous enough to have his work casually dismissed.
