Art, Activism, and Manipulation - A love triangle

I read earlier that the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd will perform at the Republican Convention in August. Also performing will be Trace Adkins and Kid Rock. It isn't a surprising line up. 2008 saw Trace Adkins, Big & Rich, Cowboy Troy and Gretchen Wilson sing the praises of the Republican Party at their convention. BTW that was the convention where the sitting Republican president didn't deliver a keynote in person, opting to deliver brief remarks by video.

When I read the list my first thought was "Sweet Jesus on the cross, Obama might lose the south!!!" After I finished panicking and freaking out, I took a few deep breaths. I remembered that in 2008, Obama lost the south. In 2004, Kerry Lost the south. Gore did the same in 2000, but got more votes, not that it mattered.

I've always been interested in the blend of art and activism. Ever since I was a teenager and followed Bill Clinton's campaign I found it fascinating. His campaign theme song was Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac. The song was one of his favorites, and one that I recognized. It was the first time a politician that I paid attention to used music that I knew as part of their presentation. Of course it was Bill Clinton, and "Don't Stop" was a phrase he was very fond of hearing. Props to him on that.



This is the same strategy just a different year. For their part the Democrats in 2008 featured performances by Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, John Legend, and others. In 2004 I remember seeing the Black Eyed Peas and Willie Nelson perform.

Art is a mirror. It reflects the culture as it is, and usually slightly skews the true picture to some degree. It tells us where we are, who we are, and what we're doing. Further it aims to tell us how what we're doing affects the rest of the world.

It's not an accident that the RNC, which has become a primarily southern party in recent decades seems to attract a lot of country music fans. To be fair, certainly not all country artists support republicans. Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, and Kris Kristofferson are not known as staunch conservatives. On the flip side, not all rockers are liberals. Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, Dave Mustaine (megadeth), and Gene Simmons tend to support conservatives. But in general, the 2 sides tend to court and attract a certain type of person. They can count on generalized types, and then have to court the rest of us. The arts play a role in that. Endorsements don't. I don't think most of us are really that interested in the endorsements of celebrities, except maybe to satisfy a curiosity about it. That's why the messages of one side or another are placed within the presentation. When you watch FoxNews for instance, the graphics and overall look tend to appear very patriotic. Lot's of red, white, and blue. Lot's of pictures of soldiers, although many of the people who appear on that network would like to get rid of the GI bill, so there's that. But, at least it looks like they support the troops. One can never have enough flags draped around them!(if this color scheme doesn't give you a rock hard boner for America then you may may as well be Canadian, you freedom hating commie bastard!)

But as I get older, I don't see it changing. And quite honestly, I'm bored with it. It's the same play over and over again. What would shake things up? I would find it interesting if any of the performers at one of the last conventions, switched and played at the other. Maybe Trace Adkins could continue to use his favorite prop- the military- in a different way, and pay tribute to the LGBT soldiers who are now able to serve without hiding who they are thanks to President Obama. That could make some news. Or what if Will.I.Am wrote a song for Romney about how the capital gains tax should be abolished. That shit would be crazy!

What if Lynyrd Skynyrd thanked the President for all the federal aid given to the state of Mississippi, which receives more federal aid than any other state, and is the state with the highest rate of poverty. That would get my attention. Maybe someone will do that. Incidentally, Mississippi is also the birthplace of the American Family Association, fine Christian folks who have been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

But there won't be any surprises. This is all part of the playbook, and it's not going to change. It's marketing. It's the use of art to promote policy. Often art promotes an idea organically, and art can be used on purpose to actively promote a point of view. Here's an example.


At the Faith and Freedom conference, well known intellectual heavy weight Glenn Beck railed against the show Glee. I'm not making this up. The guy thinks Glee is the end of civilization. He talked about how he and his wife watched Glee in abject horror, with their eyes widened and their hands over their faces. Those kids are pretty fucking scary. Especially the cute chicks. They'll wreck your soul. His solution was to produce a right wing version of Glee, that will be so well produced that liberals will like it. I'm again, not making this shit up. Glenn Beck actually said this stuff in front of a group of people.


I hope Glenn can find make-up stylists, hair stylists,
and choreographers who aren't gay and embrace his views. PPV Glenn should have an easy time finding that. I guess the kids on gLenn (see what I did there?) will sing about not being gay, and do contemporary Christian hits from the 1980s? PPV quality indeed. If Glenn wants to sink his money into something like that, I say God bless him! Go for it Ace!

But how is Glenn wrong about Glee? Glee doesn't make up stuff that happens in school. Glee reflects what's been happening in schools for a long time, and again, exaggerates it to some extent. Some of our best actors in my high school, other than me of course, were gay. We all knew they were gay. Most of us didn't give a shit, and still don't.

But Glenn Beck does. And he's willing to put up some money to make a new conservative version of Glee to combat the evil he was so afraid of watching. So either his new TV show is going to be a multi media attempt at gay to straight conversion, or a new tool that straight homophobes can use to combat the evil, disgusting homo kids in their high schools. Or maybe a third thing will happen. It will simply further divide those who can live with the fact that some people are gay, and those who won't.

The truth is the politcos know how important art is. They also know how subtle it can be. And they'll use it to their advantage. They'll use it to gain power, wealth, and your trust. The result is that our bubbles we live in will get bigger. It will make the fox-news, talk radio, country music listening, evangelical bubble that much larger. It will make the msnbc, pod casting, alt-music listening, multi-cultural bubble a little bit bigger. We'll be even further apart.


The game won't change.

And someday art will reflect the bubbled culture we live in, and it will skew it slightly. Perhaps in the artistic rendering, we'll have our own languages. Won't that be swell? Of course not.

That's what I really think.

You can follow me on twitter @davelondonblog