MUSIC AND POLITICS SHOULD NEVER MIX?

First of all, the title above is merely a title. It does not give you any implications that I would say music and politics should never mix. So don't give me those kind of looks that suggesting that I may be misleading you. Okay, I sense obsession and knowledge coming in!

Anyway, our topic for today is "Music and Politics Should Never Mix?" Alright, it sounds misleading again!

According to the Unofficial Green Tea Bern dictionary, the word "Music" defined as a form of entertainment tools that cultivates the music, lyric and melody arrangement and uses them to deliver some form of messages and ideas of life, points of view, hidden codes and other form of expressions to its listeners to highest appreciation as possible. Okay, it sounds like a school kids writing an essay, but my point here is that everyone enjoys music, regardless of music and subjected to the genre they appreciated the most.

Considering music as a form of communication to deliver those joys and saddest moment in a human life, and also recognizing the fat that human do communicates, no one can imagine nor underestimates the important of music in our life.

But what about politics and music had been together? "Politics" are a form of process where people making important decisions that may involves struggle for absolute power, while been influenced throughout the process with ultimatum idealism, religions and intellectual thinking. Okay, can somebody slap me for giving too much academic definitions, please!

Whether music and politics should be mix or not, is not a main question actually because whether our consciousness is still within you or not, I do believe that both have already mixed in the first place. Yes, while I was soul searching the other day, YES - Music and Politics - two separate entities should mix.

When I said they have both mixed up in the first place, they do.

Music influences, so does politic.

Music inspires, politics inspire too.

Music reaches people, politic reaches as well.

Music is entertaining, politics are even entertaining.

(Okay, forget about the last statement.)

In the recent development of entertainments, people now use entertainment as a main idea to create revolution in thinking, to create awareness and to create sensational within the community. Let us step aside a bit from music, just look at movies like Fahrenheit 9/11, a documentary movie that creates sensational political interruption on the events of 911. Implications, it was big and it was absolute sensational as well. Later trends, movie becomes a subject matter of streaming your political sects into the audience, injecting the fuel of passion, patriotism and idealism.

Music is doing it as well if you have been thinking ignorance is something like bliss. As we speaking, let me remind you of the best example we have few years back. In 2003, US invaded Iraq, toppling the then-dictator Saddam but eventually creating collateral damages of death among civilians and US soldiers. In 2004, US President George W Bush was seeking for re-election into the office. It was that time Green Day came into slamming the US policies under Bush administration by producing a mega blockbuster scale album - 'American Idiot' back in 2004. You have heard songs like 'American Idiot' and 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' enough, and you will know how much the album, the songs and the band itself become a mastermind that create a new wave of revolution and idealism.

Muse’s album in 2004 as well – 'Black Hole and Revolution', was a tribute to the band’s interests on science fiction and political order. Not really an extreme taste of ‘New world Order’ concept or any reformation concept injected in, but an idealism-creativity to spread the message of ideas for a political stance they believed in. That album went on to be one of the best-selling albums that year.

Not only peoples like Green Day and Muse were doing it, in fact from time to time, even more and more artistes are doing it by fueling their songs with political sentiments that caused uprising in the mentality and virtuosity. Look at US again; music and other form of entertainments did so much of their role during the Presidential Election late last year. I simply believe, see it, feel it and hear it - that music is an instrument to deliver the political message.

People says politics are dirty game of corruption and bad attitude. True, but when using music in a right way, it turns something ugly into something bold and beautiful. As I am trying to say, artistes have a rightful nobility and responsible to turn their good music to nurture their listeners for a push on revolution and idealism for mentality development to the greatest effort to change our society and what we believe in. Music influences our life and we may quickly love a song that pleases us. In the end of the day, music contains the idea of story and it’s like listening to some sermon or speeches of an icon we admired the most.

Too bad, our society still can't accept much of this revolution in life. Bold singers like Jason Lo, our very own Malaysian artistes whom songs like 'Evening News' and 'Sleepyhead' are enough to create sensational hits while the story behind the lyrical melody is political-fueled. Yet, we love him.

In the end of the day, even though I am pushing forward the idea that music and politics should mix, it is still best we leave the matter to the outside world of listeners to judge. Music plus politic equals a revolution! Sounds too extreme but I am not an extremist - merely a mentality changes in our society.

So, for both of you, ‘Music’ - play it responsibly and you, ‘Politics’ - please behave and be nice. Okay, I sound sarcastic now!

Last checked on Microsoft Words, 985 words – Just nice!