This could be the best thing to happen to Kanye West since glow in the dark glasses.<\/p>\n
Ever since Natalie Maines went on record regarding George Bush, musical acts have been afraid to take a stand.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is funny, since the willingness to stand up for what they believed in was the key to artists’ success in the sixties, the era when music went from sideshow to main event.\u00c2\u00a0 The biggest act in the business, the Beatles, flirted with drug use, challenged listeners and John Lennon even went on record to say the band was bigger than Jesus.<\/p>\n
Which they were.<\/p>\n
And they were also damn good.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why they got so much attention and people followed them.<\/p>\n
But people have stopped following musical acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Heroes are found in other endeavors, sports, television, movies…\u00c2\u00a0 Musical acts aren’t leaders, they’re followers.\u00c2\u00a0 You think you’re helping your career, but you’re just one more brick in the wall between people and music, if you’ve got no edges, no one can relate to you.<\/p>\n
And now we’ve got Zach de la Rocha imploring musicians to boycott Arizona.\u00c2\u00a0 You should get on this bandwagon quick, take a stand, before everyone else does and signing up looks safe and is ultimately meaningless.<\/p>\n
This is music’s power.\u00c2\u00a0 There are music fans throughout Arizona.\u00c2\u00a0 Zach and his pack are mobilizing them, drawing attention to the abhorrent, and probably unconstitutional, Arizona law.\u00c2\u00a0 Not worrying that some of their fans may support it.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t challenge your fans, if you’re not willing to expand their brains, stimulate thought, then you’re not a artist, but an entertainer. And entertainers are a dime a dozen, constantly angling for new gigs, their careers always teetering.<\/p>\n
You can get a bunch of musicians to stand up for Haiti, Nashville flood relief, even cancer.\u00c2\u00a0 But what if there are two sides to an issue?\u00c2\u00a0 Are you willing to stand up for your beliefs?<\/p>\n
I’m not saying to join The Sound Strike if you’re for the law.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, you might want to reconsider your position, because your viewpoint might be outed to your detriment.\u00c2\u00a0 But if this is where your heart lies, if you believe injustice is imminent, then I implore you to sign up.\u00c2\u00a0 The boycott of all those gigs in Sun City, the cage-rattling by musicians helped bring down apartheid in South Africa.\u00c2\u00a0 It brought awareness, of an issue many were unfamiliar with previously, just like many outside of Arizona don’t realize how heinous this law is.<\/p>\n
No color is better than another.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re all immigrants.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s time to leave your prejudices at the door.\u00c2\u00a0 Zach de la Rocha has a Mexican-American father.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you gonna hate him, think of him as a second-class citizen because of his heritage?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the oldsters who are set in their ways, youngsters are much more open, and they can rally around youth leaders, who are traditionally musicians.<\/p>\n
Then again, who’s gonna follow Ke$sha?\u00c2\u00a0 Or Miley Cyrus?\u00c2\u00a0 What do they stand for, partying in the U.S.A?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, we all want the freedom to party, each and every one of us.\u00c2\u00a0 And Zach’s pack is willing to take a stand, to enforce this right.<\/p>\n
Mr. de la Rocha has a long history of political activism.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I think of taking a stand, I don’t think of Joe Satriani, but he put his name on the line.\u00c2\u00a0 As did Massive Attack.\u00c2\u00a0 And the aforementioned Kanye West.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a good start.\u00c2\u00a0 But we need you.\u00c2\u00a0 Young and old.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone from Justin Bieber to Don Henley.\u00c2\u00a0 Anybody who has ever worked in Arizona.\u00c2\u00a0 If you think everyone who came to see you is legal…\u00c2\u00a0 If you think you’re not a beneficiary of immigrant labor…\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t think that this crack in the edifice of the right to human freedom can ultimately impact your ability to self-express as an artist, you’re sorely mistaken.<\/p>\n
Yes, music is all about freedom.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t Steppenwolf implore us to get our motors runnin’, to get out on the highway?<\/p>\n
I’m not saying illegal immigration is not an important issue, that it does not need to be addressed, but this Arizona law is the wrong damn way.\u00c2\u00a0 Fill up my inbox.\u00c2\u00a0 Berate me.\u00c2\u00a0 But I reach many more people than you do.\u00c2\u00a0 And I reach a tiny fraction of the souls Zach’s and his pack do.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the power of music.\u00c2\u00a0 Use it not only to your own benefit, but everybody’s.<\/p>\n
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