Posted on 08/15/2004 8:12:55 AM PDT by wardaddy
By PETER COOPER
Staff Writer A vote is a voice, and celebrity provides a microphone.
Thus — especially in an election year — it's common for politically minded artists and musicians to use their fame as a platform to push agendas and candidates. That's been the case for hundreds of years in hundreds of countries, and the American tradition includes plenty of singing and stumping.
(Excerpt) Read more at You have to go to the Tennessean yourself.com ...
It's one of my favorites. You just don't hear songs like that up here anymore. Didn't one of the band members die in a plane crash? Anyway, freebird is my most favorite and thank god there's one rock music station left in new york otherwise I'd not hear it *LOL*
http://www.skynyrd.com/
LOL
Average age last nite was about 25 I'd guess. It's music they grew up with their folks I'd imagine.
I'm sure the kids prefer edgier newer stuff as their own but they knew this stuff and they obviously liked it.
And this was the semi-rural South...I actually know kids who buy Kenny Chesney and Montgomery Gentry records believe or not.
Also....there were no white boy thugs who think they are in reality black gangstas....none. That demographic is a scourge in working class Nashville.
Fair haired peachy and the young girls looked like KDs or Tri-Delts at Ole Miss (in fact there was a car load of them)
Lots of the gals looked like a CMT video or Sara Evans....soft featured....a distinctness of Deep South gals...I'm a Mississippi native...an expert..lol
We watched the Redskins play the Cardinals last night. What a relief to have football season start! Anyway, Tom Bostick was announcing and I counted 3 times in the first half that he tried to inject politics into the commentary. No kidding! Once was about the player "Clinton". Once was about how the game was being played in Washington, a lobbying town. And, hmmm, I forgot what the third was.
I don't know what angle he was pushing, but that's not the point. I hope they continue to keep football play-by-play focused on the game. Like music and movies, an entertainer's audience is politically diverse.
Why would an entertainer risk of offending a portion of their audience on a subject that is outside their patronage?
It doesn't make business sense. I would really hate to put football announcers on my boycott list.
If it's a liberal ... you take your chances on losing fans. If you are a conservative the same applies as well.
sure...think Moby fans..lol
Don't take time out of a concert or show that I paid money to see and waste it spouting your drivel (whether I agree with it or not) unless I knew, up front, that it's part of what I was paying for.
Don't air our dirty laundry to a foreign audience. This is akin to going to school and telling an auditorium full of kids about your brother's inability to keep from wetting the bed. It's just not done.
If you, as an entertainer, can't understand the above concepts, then you won't be receiving my money. That's not a violation of your free speech, moron, it's accepting the consequences for your freely-exercised option to be as stupid as you want to be.
"Sure...leave it to me to do all the grunt work around here...."
Oh...Oh...Oh my heart...can't catch my breath...such beauty...too much for an old man's ticker....but it's worth i-i-i-i-i-i-i-t......good bye cruel world.
It's just that you do the grunt work so well, Fin. Thanks we needed that, I know I did.
Thanks for posting that.
The link doesn't work for me but that's
not unusual either.
I would make a good Demcorat,
I believe those artist who agree with me should
have a voice and those who don't should be jailed.
Freerepublic is mentioned, isn't it?
Their talk doesn't sound funny to me
but then I'm from dixie too you see
proud to know that upon their beautee
You and me agree.
This looks like a case of the First Amendment being opposed by popular sentiment on the face of it, but I believe it's truly a matter of artists lacking respect for the sensibilities of half the people who helped them become successful. Music artists, much like those who work in film and television, depend on creativity for continued inspiration and hidebound closed-mindedness would chisel the epitaph on their careers. They're also surrounded by bohemian coworkers and management that invariably arrived from a liberal arts background. It's a wonder that there's any conservative Republicans among the ranks of artists at all.
On the other hand these people have a responsibility toward their fanbase. To best do that they need to read at least a portion of their fan mail and keep up with the current of public opinions. Depending on hired help to do those things skews that information when conveyed through the filter of the helpers' personalities. I suspect this and virtual insulation from anyone remotely normal contributed to Lina Rondstadt's goof (well, that and a lack of any common sense).
Then there's the minority who seem aware of those things yet remain determined to use their priviledged positions to push their agendas on people. Their lack of respect for fans combined with their ego-driven arrogance should be noted and remembered when their products appear on the market. Because, hey, it's a free country.
(Say hi to your family for me.)
Absolutely you are correct. The kids there last night were probably a lot like my 3 young adult children.
I guess my point is that these kids are not going to make a difference in a close race. The Rock the Vote crowd is being organized as a voting block for Democrats. Republicans don't have much organization in this area.
My children vote Republican and help me register their friends but it is far from the well oiled machine of Rolling Stone Magazine and MTV.
"Singers" can say whatever they like.
However, if their FANS don't agree .. then the singers have to be willing to take the lumps. If they're not willing to allow other people to have a different point of view .. then they should just "shut up and sing".
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Don't get me started. I really don't feel like getting banned again |
Don't get me started. I really don't feel like getting banned again
OK
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