Comment by The_Big_Daddy on 01/02/2025 at 15:55 UTC

19 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

View submission: Why are there no current political hits?

• Conservatives started successfully cancelling any major artist who made left-leaning music or challenged the status quo post 9/11. The Chicks went from one of the most popular country acts to non-existent over night when they criticized the Iraq war.

• Counterculture movements are bought up by corporate interests and turned into mainstream products. Hip hop was a counter culture movement but rap was bought up by major corporations or labels started by rappers which ended up just being like the other labels. This isn't to say there aren't conscious rappers but the norm has shifted to glorifying capitalism, seen through the growing number of major rappers who are conservative.

The insidious thing about capitalism is it co-opts even attempts to criticize it or challenge it into profitable products.

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Comment by 1maco at 01/02/2025 at 16:31 UTC

12 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Also people overestimate the degree to which the Vietnam anti war songs were actually counter culture.

The Doors, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Edwin Starr, etc released War, Fortunate Son Gimme Shelter etc after Americans had elected a president who promised to end the war.

War! Came out in *1970* Vietnam was absolutely toxic by then

Only 1 (all along the watchtower)  that people would place in the anti-Vietnam greatest hit albums came out prior to the Tet Offensive. And it did so by like two weeks.

The degree to which big acts and big labels were sticking there necks out is vastly overrated by nostalgia