Iraq is the new Vietnam as pop protest returns to the airwaves

Rock’s conscience awakens for the first time in 30 years and Bush is the
alarm clock

By Torcuil Crichton

For the first time since the Vietnam war the protest song is back. But this time it’s personal. Whereas protest songs of the Vietnam era were broadly anti-war in their message, the new batch of political tunes rising up the American Billboard chart are focused directly on Iraq and aimed at getting George Bush out of office.

"For better or worse, Bush has stirred up a lot of vitriol in the music community," said David Browne, the head music critic for Entertainment Weekly.

"There’s always been protest songs against presidents, but they have never been near to the level of venom you’re seeing now."

It’s not just street rappers and garage punk bands who are having a go at unseating Bush. In the battle for American votes this year the traditional rock ’n’ roll guitar chord is riding to the rescue of Democrat candidate John Kerry.

A host of mainstream stars, from the veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen to New York rapper Jadakiss, are helping pop find a political voice once again. The reason why? This time, they say, it’s too important not to take part.

American musicians, moved by the war in Iraq, are starting to write, perform and tour against the re-election of President Bush in November’s election, hoping to swing a few crucial votes.

Bruce Springsteen, the boss of blue-collar America, is at the helm of the Vote for Change tour, which begins in October and takes in the crucial swing states that could tip either way. He has kept out of partisan politics during his 25-year career but feels that this election is the most critical of his lifetime. "This wasn’t one that a concerned citizen felt comfortable sitting out," he said when announcing a 28-city tour to rock the vote.

Ahead of the October tour, anti-war protest music has already broken through to mainstream America despite the reluctance of radio stations to promote hard-hitting material, and a diverse range of musicians are slipping into an anti-war mood.

Why?, a single from Jadakiss, the rapper from Yonkers, New York, reached number 23 in the Billboard chart last week. The success of the single in the incredibly patriotic United States is all the more amazing given that its lyrics include the line: "Why did Bush knock down the towers?"

Jadakiss explained to the Washington Post that the reference to knocking down the twin towers is a metaphor highlighting the Bush administration’s intelligence failures before 9/11.

"Everybody ain’t gonna like it, but as long as they hear it, my job is done," said Jadakiss, whose real name is Jason Phillips. "I want them to hear it and think about it."

Reaching out to the voters with music with a direct message is 1990s dance music guru Moby. He has teamed up with hip-hop group Public Enemy to produce an uncompromising single, Make Love F*** War, which was written for Unity, the official album of the Athens Olympic Games.

Following the lead of the rapper P Diddy, whose Citizen Change project aims to broaden voter registration among young people, Springsteen has set up Vote for Change, which will enter the electoral fray at the height of the battle, strumming up support for the Democrats.

An impressive list of artists has been put together for the Vote for Change tour, which will go directly for votes in the 10 crucial swing states and finish in Florida, the most important electoral battle front of them all. Rock giants REM, Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, the Dave Matth ews Band and the Dixie Chicks are lined up for the tour.

The Dixie Chicks have put their politics on stage before, of course, and paid a commercial price for it. In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, their lead singer Natalie Mains said she was ashamed that George Bush came from her home state of Texas. The remarks, which gave the new-country group terrific exposure in Europe, proved explosive and commercially disastrous in the United States.

Springsteen has laid out his approach in a string of television interviews and an article in the opinion pages of The New York Times last week. "Like many others in the aftermath of 9/11, I felt the country’s unity," he wrote. "I supported the decision to enter Afghanistan and I hoped that the seriousness of the times would bring forth strength, humility and wisdom in our leaders.

"Instead we dived headlong into an unnecessary war in Iraq, offering up the lives of our young men and women under circumstances that are now discredited."

Springsteen says the tour will not be a head-on attack of the President and that the tone will be questioning, more in sorrow than in anger.

Not every musical note in America is struck against Bush. There are patriotic songs supporting the war in Iraq, such as Toby Keith’s country hit Courtesy Of The Red White And Blue (The Angry American), but they are rarities in a tidal wave of anti-Bush lyrics.

Not surprisingly, punk is leading the charge against the White House. Fat Mike, frontman for the veteran punk rock group NOFX, created the current Billboard-charting compilation entitled Rock Against Bush, a collection of sneering punk songs from bands like Sum 41, OffSpring, and the Ataris. Twenty-six bands off ered songs for the compilation and many more joined the tour that followed.

Established artists like Patti Smith and Rickie Lee Jones have always been at the forefront of political lyricism. Now others are getting in on the act. John Mellencamp and Steve Earle have penned anti-Bush songs, and Earle’s next album, The Revolution Starts ... Now, is almost exclusively about the Iraq war.

Whether a single musical note will make a difference to the election is in some doubt. As well as it being a case of singing to the converted, it’s clear that voters are not greatly influenced by celebrity endorsements in politics. In raising the profile of the election itself, and the war, in a nation where almost half the population don’t vote and the mainstream media is cowed by government, the tour will serve a direct purpose.

It will, of course, be attacked by the Republicans as another liberal circus showing how out of touch John Kerry is with mainstream America. With Bruce Springsteen onside, a performer whose songs and persona embody earthy, home town America, making that charge stick won’t be that easy.

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