watch the frank zappa videos where he's arguing against the PMRC (on youtube). Theyre great because he's so much more intelligent and witty than his opponents and their simple reactionary ideas.

Styxx wrote:Thrashduck (I really should learn everyone's real names, it feels wierd addressing someone as "thrashduck")

Paul.

Saul

Darth Saul

ABWHAHWAHRAWJEHKAWKEHAJKDHAJKDHAJKWHWAHJW.

God that's an old picture.

Haha, good shit!

boovidge wrote:watch the frank zappa videos where he's arguing against the PMRC (on youtube). Theyre great because he's so much more intelligent and witty than his opponents and their simple reactionary ideas.

Yeah man, same with the episode of Jerry Springer with GWAR. Admittedly though, they were pretty crude about it. Made a great point when they said something alsong the lines of "After 10 years and 4 albums not one fan has self harmed, killed themselves or gone on a shooting spree in their school". Fuckin legends

boovidge wrote:watch the frank zappa videos where he's arguing against the PMRC (on youtube). Theyre great because he's so much more intelligent and witty than his opponents and their simple reactionary ideas.

Yeah, he is by far the superior side on that argument. Did you know that Zappa considers himself staunchly conservative? I was a little surprised at hearing that considering his unconventional music.

Styxx, in reply to your 'no one writes political lyrics anymore' I can totally see where you're coming from. However, the reason that politics is far less specific is because our world is far more global. Also, to be fair, punk songs were often very little more than variations on 'fuck the system' and never on 'poorly distributed budgets'. These days there are bands that cover the political issues but they rarely focus on the UK discretely because the UK isn't discrete anymore. Also, the most critical musicians these days are rarely punk - country, reggae, folk, hip-hop; not punk.

When the STD stuff eventually gets released, you will see a return to genuinely political hardcore punk songs (though hardly any about Tony Blair, Gordon Brown or a specific area of anti-UK establishment)... Trust.

Can't remember what I wrote befre, and can'te be arsed to look back, but I think my original point was, political lyrics back then, though they may have been variations on "fuck the system", were inspired by things that affected the writers of said lyrics. The reason they were anti-establishment is because they believed the establishment was corrupt (not to say that it was or wasn't) and that that was affecting them and holding them back in some way. You know, like how people went on about the govenment keeping technology from the people etc. Nowadays, political lyrics from bands like System of a Down and RATM (I really can't think of any others offhand) are more about other people in other parts of the world. System started off with a lot about the Armanian genocide (which was more like raising awareness, as that's something that already happened), but now it's more about stuff going on around the world. The musicians are a bit more comfortable these days in my opinion, and that probably has a fair bit to do with them writing about foreign politics. The closest I can think of to writing about home politics is stuff like System's "Boom", where they're having a go at all the warmongers of the time (Tony Blair, George Bush, Saddam Hussain and Osama Bin Laden come up in the video) for using bombs. That only really relates to home politics in that America are bombing other countries, and it's not really the same.

Gotta be honest, I really don't know where this one is going. Sorry for all the SOAD references, I'm pretty sure they're not that popular here.

Styxx wrote:Can't remember what I wrote befre, and can'te be arsed to look back, but I think my original point was, political lyrics back then, though they may have been variations on "fuck the system", were inspired by things that affected the writers of said lyrics. The reason they were anti-establishment is because they believed the establishment was corrupt (not to say that it was or wasn't) and that that was affecting them and holding them back in some way. You know, like how people went on about the govenment keeping technology from the people etc. Nowadays, political lyrics from bands like System of a Down and RATM (I really can't think of any others offhand) are more about other people in other parts of the world. System started off with a lot about the Armanian genocide (which was more like raising awareness, as that's something that already happened), but now it's more about stuff going on around the world. The musicians are a bit more comfortable these days in my opinion, and that probably has a fair bit to do with them writing about foreign politics. The closest I can think of to writing about home politics is stuff like System's "Boom", where they're having a go at all the warmongers of the time (Tony Blair, George Bush, Saddam Hussain and Osama Bin Laden come up in the video) for using bombs. That only really relates to home politics in that America are bombing other countries, and it's not really the same.

Gotta be honest, I really don't know where this one is going. Sorry for all the SOAD references, I'm pretty sure they're not that popular here.

Fuck whether System are popular. They are totally relevant to your point. The raising awareness of the Armenian genocide was related to SOAD's heritage. However, SOAD also did pieces like Prison Song that was against the US prison system (surprisingly). RATM's Voice of the Voiceless is about Mumia Ab-Jamal being on death row after an unfair trial. These are specific grievances that Napalm Death's 'Blows to the Body' (pro-choice song) can also be included amongst. These are not so much global issues as they are focuses on the band's own government/culture. Other songs can be specific but focus outside the bands' home borders. As I said before, that is because the world has become increasingly integrated and interdependent.

The anti-establish lyrics are still around LOADS. My personal problem with them is they're so generic. Lyrically, there are not enough 'Prison Songs' or whatever. Like I said those that deal with specific issues normally sit outside the punk genre; punk merely writes resistance songs for resistance sake. Ultimately this punk fan is basically saying that punk is pretty much dead. At least thrash was never meant to be more than fun.

Yeah, I have to be honest I prefer songs with no point to them other than awesome music. I reckon it's the key to a lasting band too, look at some examples: Metallica, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Pantera, all wrote stuff that generally kicked ass. There's a few songs in there that are personal, like 5 Munites Alone, but mostly it's just songs for the sake of good songs. Maiden's songs are like short stories man, it's ace Then look at bands that fizzled out (not counting those like Pantera who split up from choice). Limp Bizkit for intance: singing about all the people you hate only goes so far. I can't even remember any other bands that fizzled out because they made such little impact, the only others I can think of are one hit wonders like Violent Delight. Admittedly this is more of a trend than a rule; a band writing music for music's sake won't necessarily be huge forever, and a band writing music with a point (SOAD and RATM being prime examples) won't necessarily fade away. But even so Maiden and Metallica are way bigger than RATM or SOAD.

James wrote:I just don't tend to enjoy music with an agenda.

Agreed

I just don't tend to enjoy music with an agenda.

This is fascinating:



I think it's meant to be the shadow that a 4 dimensional hypercube would cast or something!

That is a tesseract isn't it?

Fucking mentalist shapes.