Sorry, Neil Young, Music Never Could Change The World

Yesterday, Neil Young showed his movie "CSNY Deja Vu," at the Berlin Film Festival. The film was shot during the 2006 Freedom of Speech tour by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Young, who directed the movie, told reporters:

"I think that the time when music could change the world is past," he told reporters. "I think it would be very naive to think that in this day and age."

I take issue with Neil. Not on his assertion that music can't change the world anymore. My beef is that music alone, never could change the world.

The best music could ever do in the "world-changing" arena, was and is to be an anthemic backdrop for protests, then and now. And maybe to raise a little cash for charity or lobbying some of the objectionable disputes the songs.

Just a few examples:

"We Shall Overcome" was a noble rallying cry for rallies to end the atrocities of segregation. But wouldn't that have happened anyway, without the theme score?

"The Times They Are A-Changin'"- did the iconic Dylan song ever alter the power of the military-industrial complex? And it did not "help end" the Vietnam War. More than 55,000 dead did. And now the song is in a commercial for an HMO.

John Mellencamp's "Rain On The Scarecrow?" Plenty of farm foreclosures, still. And not just farm foreclosures. Rather than bring judicial or regulatory relief, it is even harder to declare bankruptcy.

"War" (What is it good for, absolutely nothing)? -- I think this one's obvious.

"We Are The World," about starvation and wars in Africa? Some $50 million was raised, which is nice. But that's a pittance compared to the problems over there. Pocket change compared to the billions hoarded by potentates who countenance deforesting the land and starving its people through plunder or indifference.

Rwanda, Darfur, and now, sadly, Kenya. That Kumbaya didn't last, now did it.

Or what about the Neil Young-composed (Four Dead In) "Ohio"?

Well we're in a war now. Not that GWB would countenance shooting of college kids, but maybe intercepting their phone calls?

One more from Neil:

"After The Gold Rush," with its immortal line, "Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s."

She's still running, faster than even back then.

No, the real song that best encapsulates the futility of using music as a front-line agent for social or political change is "Won't Get Fooled Again."

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Indeed. Worse, actually.

Young added: "I think the world today is a different place, and that it's time for science and physics and spirituality to make a difference in this world and to try to save the planet."

Comments

[hiprogloho]

This is a very important overlooked topic that should have been left for further debate. Neil was only right for himself. For he has always been a poet lyricist without catchy music.

No, music can still change the world. But after the advent of rap and hip hop, the pop culture lost its ability to fuse melodic ear candy with message music.

In a bygone era changing the world was still possible because kids were forced to fight our unjust wars and had more reason to cry out and fight in protest and with art.

Once upon a time, when we used to impeach our DC crooks the world was a better place and there was a such thing as good music.

Not so now. America is aging like an old man whose best days are behind him. Kids today need to suffer to grow up and learn the difference between good and bad.

And make good music with less bad ass attitude and more messages of right and wrong put to song and not just sound.

[Wisewarren]

Actually, music is continually changing our world, just not the way people posting here are looking for. Consider when millions of people start singing the same song and take a chance that they will incorporate the thoughts expressed in the words into their internal dialogs. "Imagine no religion" comes to mind as a world-changing call for perspective that came over via music into millions of minds. Which is another point to consider--music may not change us old guys' worlds, but when children grow up singing together, don't they bond in a different way and have community in a different way? Whether it is impeaching the president, telling everyone war is good for nothing or urging us to love the one we are with, music is an opener of minds to new thoughts and associations. Consider Obama's support among the young, who sing together, listen together, dance together, and watch the YouTube music video that Will.i.am put together, that they send each other, and tell me you really believe music no longer changes the world. It constantly does, is my humble observation. Just less from the stage of the amphitheater, always in the mouths or from the instruments of the people--and in their minds.

[VicPerry]

You're framing it wrong...music isn't politics. Music changes the world the way all the other arts do: slowly. Like thinking.

[freespeach]

No context here Mr. Shaw.....or very little. Time and technology change the degree to which any given media will impact the world.

I agree with the idea that music could and did change the world in the 60's, but that it no longer can.

Music was a perfect medium for an information starved youth movement (or civil rights, or women's rights etc.) to spread the good word without the controlling influence of "the man".

TV and print media provided no real opportunity for youth to communicate, as they still served their corporate masters and sponsors. So the notion of "radical" ideas and truth being spread by records and taken to higher levels at concerts is realistic.

Peace rallies and protests did impact society, and always had music as a large component.

But like every other money making concept, music was gradually co-opted by massive corporate whores. Remember when Neil Young sang "This Note's for You" as a criticism of the entire industry's sellout behavior?
What about Tom Petty fighting his own record company to keep the price of his album LOWER! Mere skirmishes on the road to corporate rock n roll.

Music as a social movement catalyst is basically dead.....but it can still empower and inspire individuals.

The role of music in the 60's is now, more or less, the constantly morphing internet. The place were dissenting voices and "freaks" can still by heard, still fly their flags. The upside is more information....the downside is no more real sense of oneness or community....no more effective street protests.

Fascism is winning. Neil Young is still a great person who knows the score.

http://www.neilyoung.com/greendale_frames.html

Peace.

[larry278]

Pete Seeger still thinks that music can change the world. Idealists often aren't too bright & are dangerous to a cause. Some unions make sure that the singers & other idealists stay in the union hall, never walk the picket line & never talk to the media. Winning a strike is serious business. Idealists & singers don't or won't understand that ugly fact. "So long; its been good to know you..."; keep 'em in the kitchen of the union hall till after strike is settled.

[bugscuffle]

A song can't change the world, Neal. But an old man can, eventually, grow up.

[ShawnMichel]

Yeah, a crap post by a pessimist, one with a surprisingly sad lack of vision and sense of history. The same goes for Young, who has, apparently, turned snide and brittle and bitter in his (very wealthy) old age.

Music changes the human soul. The problem is, so many have no soul: they are consumpticans, cogs, nothing more. And so music takes the blame. Very silly.

But because the vast majority of the human species is soulless--does that mean music is then worthless as an agent of change. No. As Erich Fromm pointed out, the human species would've perished long ago were it not for those very, very few who dare to dream, to live, to *be*. And music brings them--and I--great joy, relief, inspiration, and the courage to keep on keepin' on.

Perhaps Mr. Shaw will wake up one day and see this.

Perhaps not.

SMdM

[Wilburrr]

uh.... Dylan wrote "Times" in 1962; before the US entered Vietnam. It was about the civil rights movement. We now have a better than 50% chance that a black man will be our next president.

Pete Seeger wrote "We Shall Overcome." It was a rallying cry for civil rights marchers. Would as many people marched without that song? I suggest not. Pete wrote it to unite protesters as well as soothe their fears while marching.

Pete also wrote "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" which is also the title of his autobiography. Perhaps you should read it. Woody Guthrie and the Weavers had an impact on the world. Listen to Woody's "Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues" -- awareness must be raised before change can be manifest.

How about the Dixie Chicks? Boycotted on country radio they wrote "Not Ready to Make Nice" which spent record time on the video charts (9 months?) What percentage of Obama's youth vote has been energized by them?

Yes the environment remains a problem but we have solved many of the issues from the 70's. The ozone hole is in the process of repair. John Prine's "Paradise" helped slow the construction of destructive dams and maintain precious riparian habitat.

In itself, music doesn't change the world... it raises awareness for critical issues when it is not over researched/marketed/played on FM pop/country radio.

[slg]

Music does change people. Maybe one day enough people will change and the world will live as one.

[CaveatMagnusFrater]

Imagine that. Nothing to kill or die for. A brotherhood.

[Wilburrr]

You must say I'm a dreamer.... but I'm not the only one.

[JFCooper]

I disagree with both you and Neil, Russell. Though I think I see where Neil is coming from.

There's a reason that Erato, is a Greek muse along with Terpsichore, Clio, et al.

N.Y. is a baby-boomer. In his heyday there were 3 television networks and 5 or 6 major music labels. These made for a smaller set of popular songs and shows from which to choose, but it also created a greater sense of community and made for broader fan bases. So a song like "Ohio" reached more people and more quickly than it could now.

N.Y. sees the power of that broader based, shared experience diluted in a world of multiplied entertainment and news offerings. Perhaps he is right. But music has subtler power than he is acknowledging.

You, on the other hand, are being unfair to music by expecting that it could change the material world, thwart base impulses, or counter act the effects of people for whom music is not important.

The fact is, music does change the world in much the same way that poetry, literature, and movies change the world. All of these things add or subtract from the realm of possibilities we allow ourselves. If we believe we can do something, we may find a way to do it. If we believe we cannot do something, it will not get done.

Music creates an atmosphere, inspires, changes points of view, and broadens perspectives. There are no more profound changes than those.

[alkamm]

JF Cooper is beyond accurate! He's inspired. That's what even defending the power of music can do to you.
The most subtle power is, like music, sometimes the most powerful.
The sense of community developing within the Obama movement is like music in the sense that it unites instead of divides. It plays to our best instincts and emotions, and it energizes old and young alike.
I'd expect that Neil realizes that young musicians (real and at heart) will lead us again with anthem quality poetry set to tunes that unite our hearts in mystic collaborations ringing with truth and passion.

[Scarabus]

Why was Mozart's opera Marriage of Figaro banned in France? OK. Granted that opera includes plot as well as words and music. Why was Pete Seeger censored when he was trying to sing Waist Deep in the Big Muddy on the Smothers Brothers Show?

[realitytrumpsbull]

I disagree, I think music DOES change the world. Else, there'd be no market for 50 Cent and so forth. Rebel music, patriotic music, blues, bubblegum, punk rock, it kind of depends on what the lyrics are, there. Young's 'lets impeach the president' was ok, I guess, I think he's kind of at the end of his singing career, though, but it's all politics, going back as far as 'battle hymn of the republic'. Music is just the carrier wave for the vocalist. WHAT message is being carried, there? Remember Tipper Gore and her PMRC? Yeppers, rock n roll, bay-bee, you, too, could be a professional musical tool. Rebel, Britney, rebel!

"Give me a toot, I'll sell you my soul, pull my strings, and I'll go far!"
-Pull My Strings, Dead Kennedys

In all fairness, it's not ALL 'message' music,
but, a good chunk of it is. Gangsta rap is FULLY 'message' music. And, moreover, the music biz has been this rotten racket for DECADES.
That's why they hire programmable people to do just what Jello was talking about, above. Now, take your Soma, 'citizen'.

[jrb35]

Gangsta rap is fully message music? Are you nuts? With the exception of a handful of truly gifted artists in the genre, most gansta rappers are unoriginal and exploitative, saying whatever they need to to make a buck. "I'm a thug/I smoked this many punks/I banged this many ho's" Wow. Message music it must be!

The same can be said for any other genre of popular music (rock, r&b, country, etc.) 99% are derivative hacks while maybe 1% actually break new ground musically and lyrically and really do have something to say.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Read about 'christian' music, there.