We Need a Punk-like Music Movement Now!

I'm sitting here listening to a great song I haven't heard in years, that will be very familiar to my fellow Brits, but isn't that well known in the U.S. - The Tom Robinson Band's "Sing If You're Glad To Be Gay". At the time it was associated with the punk movement, which, far from the anarchic image it has in the US, had a very significant moral and social impact through it's minstrels. This is one of those songs that was groundbreaking, and a rallying call for equality in Thatcher's fascist Britain of the the late 70's. If you don't know it, check it out. It's a perfect song - melody, killer/catchy/incisive lyrics, and a real message at it's heart, which, whether you were gay or not, made you want to line up behind Tom and drive change. In short, it was the music that led us to the message.

I was lucky enough to be 14 in 1978. It was a very tough time for Britain with mass unemployment, polarized political parties, and a very frustrated youth which, prompted by boredom and poverty, reacted through the musical revolution we called punk.
And not only punk. Too often, it's forgotten that other genres of music emerged and contributed to change by giving a voice, or an outlet, to Britain's youth.
 West London and the Midlands spawned a new variety of reggae, combining Jamaican music with anti-racist lyrics and inspiring UK-centric libertarian views. Just check out Steel Pulse's Handsworth Revolution.
And then there was the change in what we now call classic rock. The media have often portrayed rock as dying in a velociraptor-like way at the feet of punk. It's just not true. Sure the guys who were seen as overblown (like the mighty Zep) and those who were associated with over-indulgence (like the prog bands I grew up on- Yes, ELP, Crimson), faced a crisis. But (temporarily) they gave way to the new Brit heavy metal of Judas Priest and Motorhead, who ushered in a more aggressive, harder phase for the genre, which to me, was totally in line with the punk movement.

Everywhere you looked, kids used music to shake off their frustrations and in many cases, to make a needed point, whether it be about sex, race, the Government or the system in general. And it was good.

Those bands and fans didn't have the web, social media, blogs and communities. In fact they hardly had anything. No cell-phones, no SMS, no home computers. There were three weekly music papers in the UK which reported everything, one gay magazine (which was viewed as being obscene), and virtually no media channels for messages of racial equality. Plus, the mainstream media either trivialized these bands, or literally banned their output (the BBC actually banned all radio and TV plays of the Pistols' God Save The Queen, which of course  immediately sent it to number one in the charts). And further media ignorance just added fuel to the fires, which by that time were literally burning in the streets of Bristol, Birmingham and London. "London's Burning" cried the Clash, and indeed parts of it were, sparked largely by the messages contained in the music.

Check out the video below. The Anti-Nazi League was formed in 1977 and was active through the early 80's. It was a response to the growth of Nazis and white supremecy which had formed as an aggressive fascist protest against groups of immigrants coming into the UK in the 60's and 70's (mostly from British Commonwealth countries). The ANL was supported by many bands including The Clash, The Ruts, Gang Of Four, The Members, TRB and Pete Townshend.



So my point here is, that with all of the tools sitting before today's youth, like the web, divergent media, the ability to express oneself and gather support at the drop of a click, where is music's place in change? The youth movement was a huge part of Obama's election victory, and The Boss (love him, but hardly a young guy) and a few other souls gave their all. But where is it now? Where are the bands singing about the need to support change whether it be education, healthcare, the wars or the environment? Where are the kids who should be lining up to drive change, just like those who were inspired by Tom Robinson or Steel Pulse? Where is the protest and who is the voice? Where is the musical inspiration?

And how can we, who've been through it, help them to use today's music as their sword of change?