So, can we kick the idea in the bucket that music has any impact on human behavior at all? Besides geeking out on the dance floor of course. The 2000s had plenty of anti-Western imperialism and capitalist critical messaging and still it hasn‘t raised any consciousness in society for that matter.
>Ah, yes, that‘s because capitalism‘s sublime nature to subsume-
No, it‘s because most people don‘t actually care about the lyrics. That‘s the banal answer. Even when people actually took note of the lyrics it all boiled down to expressing edgy rebelliousness to them and not „Ah, I have now learned that the US prison system practically conducts slave labor and for that purpose is more interested in incarcerating more people than lessening crime in the long term. How dystopian! I better get to organizing and educating my fellow workers.“ It‘s not because capitalism is that smart but because people are that dumb.
8 posts omitted.>>686506>I always thought someone would have to be really fuckin weak minded and suggestible to have a single piece of media change up there worldview dramatacilly. I can get when all or most of the media is broadcasting the same brainrot like all hollywood movies being DOD funded but how tf a singular movie,song or game is responsible for mfers changing there entire perspective eludes me. This.
It's like how people talk about how The Matrix really influenced them to get involved in philosophy and stuff.
Alot of people whom were inspired by single incidents of pop cultural product exposure often haven't grown out of that aesthetic impression
They don't even seem to care about high brow stuff they preach about. They just follow it for aesthetic
The Nazis appropriated themselves the aesthetics of Wagner for their societal project, epic symphonic dramas, dude we Germans stronk. They failed but postmodern fascists are still very attracted to this kind of epic aesthetics.
Italian fascists were more kooky, they celebrated modernity and ended up inventing noise music, but the far-right mostly try to associate themselves with epic stuff and "muh people" songs or slop.
The US subverted their societal hatred of black music (blues, jazz, hip-hop) from something that was a good excuse for a cop to fine or beat up some black dude, into a multi-gazillion dollar-worth of L.A. industry exported all around the world thanks to UK 1960s music.
The Soviets were weird about this, avant-garde, then socialist realism strictly enforced, then a period when people started experimenting again, then not, then just before the Russians started to eat shit again, a little period of post-punk liberalization. They have good music, melancholic stuff and silly party stuff, it's not popular in the West but some neighbor countries do listen more to their stuff.
It's due to different material conditions that these different countries and ideologies developed their own style and preferences for such or such aesthetics, just like anarchists tend to like more punk and techno, but at same time, the authorities and state of a country will always favor one type of aesthetics and reject if not outright ban some other kind of aesthetics.
Music can be political but I think very politically charged with explicit lyrics often tend to fail because music is a rather sensual thing, and pretty vague lyrics allow many people of all kind to relate with their current feelings and experiences. It will always be more popular than "vote for [politician]" or "[neoliberalism] bad", even if it can be cathartic.
Music might not cause a revolution, but a revolution certainly will have its music.
Most countries in the world have a folk song about defeating or being defeated by an enemy, which is in the end is more or less always about politics or ethnicity, and history.
>>686506I don't think it's about being weak minded, and it's not about a single piece of media. It's not like flicking up an electrical switch.
You can read, watch and hear one art piece that slowly changes your perceptions of things, and you might get hooked into exploring one type of music or specific movies or novels and books from that point on, and from this you might change your mind on societal issues or get new interests in life.
It's foolish to think one single piece of media can change your mind on things, it's all interconnected, you will feel The Internationale in your bones if you are a die-right activist or something, but it won't turn anyone into an annoying leftist with one single exposure. Maybe if you are a curious teenager or young adult, The Matrix is a good excuse to start reading books other than Harry Potter due to the underlying themes.
Media suggest themes that might be related to your life experience, and you either relate or not, and sometimes you can relate with a lot of other people about one kind of media, and you can think about a piece of media during your daily life. It's not that complicated.