-
Archives
- February 2012
- September 2011
- July 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- July 2010
- April 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- August 2002
- July 2002
- June 2002
- April 2002
- June 2001
- May 2001
- February 2001
- January 2001
-
Meta
Tag Archives: protest
One Small Love – drawing the line
The ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’ concert on February 14, a red-letter day made infamous by Hallmark cards and various killjoy extremist groups, will bring together musicians Konarak Reddy, Ravi Kulur, Alwyn Fernandes, Gerard Machado, Karan Joseph, Gaurav Vaz and Swarathma along with Thermal And A Quarter. Continue reading
Posted in activism, Art, artists, bands, bangalore, moral policing, music, musicians, politics, Social Media, Web
Tagged bangalore, culture, facebook, moral policing, One Small Love, protest, protest song, Thermal And A Quarter
Leave a comment
Protest and the Strange Fruit of Mistaken Identity
I happened to be streaming Nina Simone’s haunting rendition of Strange Fruit when the news video of the policeman’s killing, which had been buffering, came alive. Both audio tracks played side by side and I was struck by the eerie similarity of their themes — it had a sort of roughhewn, impromptu resemblance to Simon & Garfunkel’s Silent Night-7 O’clock News.
The age of original heartfelt protest songs in jazz, pop or rock has passed unlamented ever since we started counting Madonna, MJ, Eminem, the Black-Eyed Peas and Amy Winehouse among protest singers. Insidiously, Protest has become a marketing label, a genre if you like — which adds up to a nice new varnished shelf in a large music store somewhere before Punk and after Gospel. Most artists have realized that they have little to protest about but their own inconspicuousness. And their acts of protest are in truth about having a go at the fifteen lucre-encrusted minutes of fame that their voices, if sufficiently loud, would bring them. Continue reading
Posted in journalism, music, musicians, politics
Tagged Abel Meeropol, apathy, Billie Holiday, civil rights, Joel Katz, lynching, mistaken identity, mob attack, murder, Nina Simone, policemen, politicians, protest, protest song, racism, strange fruit, Tamil Nadu
1 Comment
