Politics and Music and Madness

So on MySpace I just saw the Hillary for President page and there's a good protest song (if a bit obvious) playing by Pink called Dear Mr. President. Now, my politics, in broad brush strokes, are probably not much of a surprise to anyone given where and how I live (actually, the surprise to some might be that I'm not further to the left). I generally try to avoid discussing them here, however, because political blogs abound and I sometimes feel like there's no winning these discussions. It's almost more interesting to apply subtle diplomacy, no? To somehow make your points come across through story and example rather than banner and slogan.

Along those lines, I recently came across some advice for musicians: don't use your artistic platform to campaign; let your music speak your politics. There were two reasons for this. The first is that you will alienate some potential fans--possibly as many as half of them, in this country. (That seems craven, right? What, my music is more important than electing a president? On the other hand, imagine an artist you adore espousing politics you despise and you see how ugly this gets.) The second reason is that music fans come to you for respite from the propaganda and the 24-hour news cycle. We are artists, and as such our job is to inspire, transport, nurture and energize people with our creativity. In times of crisis, society needs us more than ever to paint its portrait, to mirror its many faces. That means we do our duty as citizens, but also our duty as musicians, composing, playing, practicing, wandering as troubadors, setting the language of the day to songs that encapsulate our turmoil. You know, songs like "Oops, I Did It Again" or "Promiscuous Girl" ;-).

That said, for many reasons I am excited about the possibility of Hillary as president. Should I become her "friend" on MySpace, I wonder? Well, the scary thing is the number of totally insane comments from friends on her page. I took a look at those comments and thought, do I really need these folks to know my name? I mean, they're not even from people who are against her candidacy--they appear to be from schizophrenics. Yikes. Makes one realize, there are jobs a lot worse than being a musician. Try being leader of the free world. Talk about becoming a lightning rod! It's a dirty, dangerous job and I am glad I don't have to do it.