Eminem – MHS 123: Music and Technology in the Twentieth Century

Although Billy Joel’s hit song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” wasn’t intended to become a deeply political song, people found it to be extremely telling and honest. In an interview, Billy Joel states that he tries to stay out of politics. In another interview he talks about how he thought the song wasn’t very good because the melody was terrible. He said that he just started writing down major events in chronological order. In general I think it’s a good idea for musicians to avoid being involved with politics as much as they can. If a musician wants to get involved, more power to them, but it’s certainly easier to avoid becoming involved. Even at Eastman, I find that there are a lot of political events happening behind the scenes that have potential to affect students negatively. There are politics with part assignments, paychecks, international students, relations with other schools, funding, scholarships, etc. Heck, there could be a (biased because I wrote it) song just about the living situations in the dorms:

Leaking roof, moldy showers,

rats, expired orange juice,

res life, piss bottles,

throw up in the halls.

Smelly washers, used condoms,

mental illness, fire alarms

Burned a candle, on probation,

The Elevator’s broken

We don’t want to live here

We have to buy it and we can not fight it

We don’t want to live here

We have to buy it and we can not fight it

The list could go on forever. Once students become involved with politics they usually end up having to sacrifice time and energy they could be using for becoming better people and musicians. So, most of the time when musicians are sucked into politics they don’t have as much energy to focus on a musical career. A lot composers and artists use politics as inspiration though. For example Shostakovich wrote a lot of music as a satire on Russian leaders. Eminem does the same thing in his song, “Role Model”. Eminem and Shostakovich refer to events in their music, but the difference is that Billy Joel’s song is unbiased. What makes that so cool is that people can interpret the song however they want. Billy Joel isn’t very public about controversial topics and he doesn’t apply negative or positive connotations in the lyrics. So, people could take the lyrics, “Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again/Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock” and say that he is against birth control and Nixon. Or they could say he thinks birth control and the moon landing is great but Nixon and Punk Rock is now. There are many ways to interpret this song depending on the listener’s personal view. In my unprofessional opinion I think that he is liberal simply because is seems like rock stars tend to be more open minded towards topics like gay marriage, abortion/birth control, immigration, etc.

In the song, Billy Joel mentions not only negative events but positive events. He sings about vaccines, Prokofiev, James Dean, Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, and many other famous people. What’s interesting is that all of these people were icons and held a lot of power in politics due to the fact that they had a large audience. Some people, like Prokofiev were directly involved with politics. Even though it’s probably easier for musicians to stay out of politics, it seems impossible for famous artists to stay out of the spotlight when they have such large influence. By writing this song, it seems like Billy joel is signalling his interest in politics. Why would someone write this kind of song if they didn’t have something to say about the topics? It seems like people in general tend to signify what their views are and their thoughts either through talking or by reacting to something. I think this is especially true with musicians. Whenever we play something we find a way to relate to it so that we can express something we think or feel. This is just what Billy Joel is doing. He’s writing something he can relate to and knows about which resulted in something a lot of people related to.

Role Model:

This song is timeless because it makes people think. While it’s mostly un relatable to people who didn’t live through the era, it’s a simple form that can be applied to any era. I even found a couple “We didn’t Start the Fire 2017” editions online:

Version One:

George Bush, Noriega, Batman, Genesis by Sega

MC Hammer, Kuwait, Long Dong Silver Hi Ho

Wayne’s World, Right Said Fred, Cross Colours, Gennifer Flowers giving head

Hurricane Andrew, Somalia, Joey Buttafuoco

Tonya Harding, Kurt Cobain, Forrest Gump, “Insane in the Membrane”

Newt Gingrich, Pulp Fiction, OJ got away

Chupacabra, AOL, Bob Dole, “Macarena” goes to hell

Beanie Babies, Spice Girls, Jon Benet Ramsey

[chorus]

Seinfeld, Monica Lewinsky, Backstreet Boys, Elian set free

Y2K, hipster chic, Cheney’s first name is Dick

Ralph Nader, “Who Let the Dogs Out,” Florida recount

Anthrax letters, 9/11, world’s gone sick

Sopranos, Al Queda, Bin Laden playa hater

Lord of the Rings, Napster, Afghanistan

Condaleezza, Kobe/Shaq, Bush lies about Iraq

Napoleon Dynamite, John Kerry, and Lindsay Lohan

[chorus]

TomKat, Kanye West, New Orleans gets wet

MySpace, Prius, President Barack Obama

iPhones, housing bubble, bank bailout, Kardashian trouble

Sarah Palin, global warming, GMOs, Octomama

Guantamano, Arab Spring, Paul Ryan, LeBron wins a ring

Obamacare, Killer Drones, Lady Gaga, Game of Thrones

Fukushima, Hunger Games, books of binders women names

Selfies, twerking, Jersey Shore, I can’t take it anymore!

Another 2017 version:

Stephen Bannon, KKK, homophobics, woke baes

Trans-Pacific, Gallup polling, Putin’s puppet show

Trump is worse than Richard Nixon, addicted to his television

North Korea, South Korea, “Little Marco”

Lyin’ Ted, atom bombs, refreshing browsers all day long

FAKE NEWS, spreading lies, a crowd that falsely multiplies

So-called judges, fake tears, Muslim BAN, stoking fears

Paul Ryan, KFC, Scotch tape on a neck tie!

We didn’t start the fire

Now the planet’s burning

And we’re anti-learning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Refugees, Russian hacks, FBI, alt-facts

Richard Spencer, Kellyanne, L.L. Bean stock

Ivanka’s tanking fashion line, Melania who plagiarized

Rick Rolls, taco bowls, Obamacare block

John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Congress doesn’t have a plan

Bathrobes, emoluments, time to GET SMART!

Women’s March, pussy hats, tiny hands, Democrats

Orange face, hair disgrace, “glam room” in the White House

We didn’t start the fire

Now the planet’s burning

And we’re anti-learning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Bowling Green, Iraq, Wikileaks, Big Macs,

Tax returns, First Amendment, Julian Assange

Private server email, Black Lives Matter, third rail

Neo-Nazis, Liar Spice, SNL’s not very nice

NBC, CNN, voter fraud, Marine LePen, Hamilton, viral memes, is this all a bad dream?

Mike Pence, hashtags, late-night #MAGA Twitter brags

Rogue accounts, Sally Yates, church is melding into state.

We didn’t start the fire

Now the planet’s burning

And we’re anti-learning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Hannity, Infowars, urinating Russian whores

Filibuster, VERY SAD, Yemen raid DISASTER!

Mar-a-lago golf carts, Brexit, lawsuits, Breitbart

Patriots, protests, bathroom bills, policing sex

Pope Francis, Facebook feed, corporate lobbies, rampant greed

Common sense, equal pay, what else do I have to say?

We didn’t start the fire

Now the planet’s burning

And we’re anti-learning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

Birth control, thin skin, Scott Baio’s a has-been

Scientists, gun rights, DeVos was some pick

Netanyahu, Palestine, Dakota Access Pipeline

Made a “bad deal” with Iran, crumbling Afghanistan

Feuding friends, Jared K., golden toilets, Doomsday

Foreign debts, homeless vets, super-bugs, Trump regrets

Plastic garbage washed ashore, U.S. flirts with martial law

Schwarzenegger ratings wars, I can’t take it anymore!

We didn’t start the fire

Now the planet’s burning

And we’re anti-learning

We didn’t start the fire

No we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

So, I think what makes this piece have so much impact is the honesty and it’s power to make people think about what is happening around them. In the “Music Trumps Politics” article we read about, it says that “Lamell’s invitation was explicitly intended to create a new group of people for desiring, and taking pleasure in, classical music–a pleasure, according to Lamell, that is apolitical”. Like the author of the article, I disagree. I think it is virtually impossible for music to be apolitical. The artist can write or perform a song intended to be removed from politics, but they can’t stop their audiences from making their own interpretations on their music just like “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. It wasn’t intended to be super political, but there are copious amounts of articles and websites dedicated to decoding the events and politics in the song.

Betsy Devos Brochure (?)

Handlebars by Flobots:

Handlebars is another example of popular music addressing politics!

Earlier this month the BET awards showed a ‘highly controversial’ cypher featuring rapper Eminem bashing Donald Trump. The video can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LunHybOKIjU

While this naturally received a slew of press, celebrity endorsements, and right-wing hatred, to me it seemed to play into all the ideals that hip-hop has always stood for. Hip-hop, as an urban and traditionally African-American art-form naturally has a liberal agenda, values equality and inclusion, and esp. stands for civil rights (think Public Enemy, N.W.A., Mos Def, etc.). Therefore, while Eminem was definitely audacious (per his usual self) his views were certainly not a surprise given the hip-hop genre’s continued expression of left-wing ideals. In no way do I mean to discredit the ideals associated with hip-hop, in fact I stand with them, but I do mean to say that people getting surprised at a rapper having democratic views, would be like a teacher getting surprised that there students do their blogpost the day beforehand.

Needless to say this politically charged rant was met with cheers among other outspoken advocates for equality. The rap notable stands with Colin Kaepernick with the line “This is for Colin, ball up a fist.” Colin Kaepernick, of course made recent headlines with his refusal to stand for the national anthem at a preseason NFL game. Colin was quoted in an article with The New Yorker, saying that “To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” Colin gave a shout out to Eminem showing his support via Eminem was also given props by J. Cole and Lebron James, among many other celebrities.

To me these celebrity endorsements definitely show support for Eminem, but they do little beyond that. These tweets seem to circumvent actually saying anything substantial by merely showing support. I suppose in the Twitter age this is how support is shown, but at some point it makes you wonder when they are actually going to open a serious dialogue about their positions. The entertainment industry as a whole has expressed their disapproval for Trump several times now, but simply talking about it doesn’t seem to be doing much but catching headlines for a few weeks. I suppose what I’m saying is that art in this case Hip-Hop has advocated in attempts to affect social change for some time, but to me and it seems like to Eminem and other celebrities, we want to do more than just talk about social change we want to actually affect social change.

One idea that I think is pertinent to mention in discussing actually affecting social change is the “us and them” mentality, as it plays right into the hands of people who want to divide us. In keeping with the us and them mentality that divides the left and right parties of America respectively, Trump was recently quoted in an article by the New York Times saying “We write symphonies,” and in doing that essentially inferred that the white, right-wing, western world writes symphonies, (the pinnacle of music), and that, as a clear expression of our superior intellect, will help us overcome the barbaric savages we currently fight against (hard sarcasm). Trump’s ideals aren’t so much shocking anymore, but the fascinating thing is the clear connection he is making with music and politics. Our last president, Barrack Obama, was noted as having several rapper’s visit the White House, and said his favorite song of 2015 was Kendrick Lamar’s “how much a dollar cost.” Clearly, showing that president’s use their music choices to represent to the public something about themselves and their ideals. The problem with this and the ‘us and them’ mentality, is that when Obama was bringing rappers into the White House it was met with much contempt by the right wing, and now when Trump references symphonies the New York Times rips him apart in the aforementioned article. I think it is important to stand for what you believe in, but the “I’m right because you’re wrong” mentality I think is only dividing us further. It also isn’t to say that having one party where we all get along is ever going to happen either, as we clearly observed with the U.S.S.R. and socialist realism works of composers of that time. The point isn’t to make everyone fall in line and believe one ideal, but it also isn’t to alienate people and mock their views. We are not all going to get along, but I think if we can come together on some common ground, we could at least open a dialogue, which at this point seems out of the question by left-wing advocates like Eminem, but also by Trump himself.

Further research

Full Lyrics of Eminem’s Cypher

New York Times article about Eminem’s cypher

USA Today article about Eminem’s cypher

For other rapper’s speaking out against Trump, please see Snoop Dogg’s Lavender which was condemned by Trump in an article by the New York Times.

Tag: Eminem

We Didn’t Start the Fire

The not so crazy Eminem Freestyle.