Been thinking a bit about this, popular music (the ones that hit top 100 charts or whatever) never has lyrics that point out real problems or point to culprits and how they’re fucking our shit, which is very easy to find in punk rock and some variations, as well as rap.
Of course, part of the problem are the record labels themselves, which often hold artists “hostage” in order to profit off them. Bigger ones will obviously prefer to avoid having such lyrics become popular.
Still, there seems to be absolute zero songs in certain genres that even come within 10 meters of talking/singing/teaching/bringing awareness about situations that affect a LOT of listeners, even from far away, and would be extremely helpful in spreading some knowledge.
Granted, doing so is easier said than done, a catchy tune that calls out big oil’s many attempts to burn the world, or big pharma’s frequent price gouging, aren’t things “any idiot” can come up with. But that nobody outside “angry” genres seems to be doing it is what saddens me.
“And all she wants to do is dance.” Nobody ever remembers the rest of the lyrics.
There’s a great podcast called Wind of Change on if the government is involved in music and specifically that song. I’ve never seen it and most government programs are highly documented and focused on Hollywood by giving them access to resources. The US Army is not going to let you borrow tanks if you are going to put them in a bad light. That’s just dumb. This is actually one of my dream programs to become involved with on a personal level.