A catchy tune, good bass line, raking guitar riff, kick-ass drums and, oh, yes someone singing over the top. The message in a song's lyrics can sometimes get lost in the production process.
It does make you wonder if today's budding songwriters are really trying to set the world alight with a set of meaningful, hard hitting, poignant or epoch-defining words or just half heartedly hoping that the tune will be picked up at some time in the future and used as the backing for a TV advert for a new model of car, a breakfast cereal or feminine hygiene products. Kerching ££££££ , royalties for early retirement at the age of 25, thank you very much.
The popular music charts are awash with bland songs and wishy washy lyrics with no imagination or real emotional connection unless, again, hijacked as the soundtrack to accompany a back-story for a participant in The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent or similar Saturday night fare.
What has happened to the good old fashioned protest song?
The current emergence of 'Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead' has highlighted the current sensitivities and overwhelming political correctness of the media when confronted by a spirited campaign by a determined group.
Personally, I feel that 'Ding Dong' is a huge, clever and very calculated 'in joke' in of the best type.
I have openly giggled in public at the thought and sentiment of the song title because I am of the age group who experienced that period in British and World History as a young adult, trying to understand the politics in a serious grown up manner but at the same time just living for going out and having a good time before the real responsibilities and obligations that go with wanting to be a diligent citizen kicked in.
The expression of a viewpoint, a standpoint and to draw up a front line for a campaign can be most succinctly put in a song's lyrics. This tends to be missing today but has played a huge and influential part throughout history from songs handed down from generations of oppressed peoples in the ancient world, sung around the cooking fires in an African village, used as a means of maintaining the tempo of righteous marching armies and as a rallying call against slavery, imprisonment and injustice.
The 1960's saw the protest song hit mass circulation on the airwaves through Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Curtis Mayfield amongst many others. The songs reflected the tumultuous events of the time with, in the USA, the violence around the struggle for Civil Rights and the anti-war movement over Vietnam and in south east Asia.
It appears that the 1970's were more of a recreational decade what with the arrival of prog-rock, the disco era, glam rock and the new romantics. It was as though someone had stumbled across a large dressing up box and cache of drugs and could not really be bothered to protest about anything apart from not being able to structurally stabilise very large flared bell bottom trousers.
It may have been that the main agitators in the protest movements of the 1960's simply grew up, took jobs, got a mortgage and started a family or were just worn out by the effort to gain small but meaningful victories against the Establishment.
In the late 1970's some element of non-conformity did return with the rantings and ravings of a disaffected, mainly youth sector through Punk. The attitude and image behind any message was however a bit of a PR disaster, crude and lewd and with little success in perpetuating the cause which made way for the next New Wave in the 1980's.
There was a bit more sophistication in the likes of electro-pop and a glut of mega-bands who could command a stadium full of fans from London to Berlin, Rio to Tokyo and a real opportunity to exercise some influence through protest songs. 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' by U2 stands out to reflect the troubles in Northern Ireland and 'Free Nelson Mandela' by The Specials.
Guilt in the excesses of the western world led to the 'Feed The World' song driven campaign in the mid 1980's.
It was becoming increasingly apparent thereafter that protest songs apart from global issues were just not commercially viable or could cause a mass exodus of fans who did not agree with the affiliations of the band, both equally disastrous for a record company and management. A few still sneaked through in the music playlists and charts but had to be over-explained to such an extent that any subtle or subversive messages were just lost.
It does take a significant effort in the over saturated forms of communication that are a fundamental fact of 21st Century life for a campaign or crusade to get noticed. Blog traffic, web sites and targeted downloads give some potential for competition against those who seek to control and censor media output and 'Ding Dong' has certainly rattled a few cages and consciences in this respect.
Protest does find its own momentum if arousing the passions and social conscience of a population and the true level of emotion will soon show through the fog of apathy and that feeling of being unable to change things.
I was once myself part of militant group and learnt the effectiveness of a protest song.. There were five of us who on regular occasions were marshalled into an estate car and driven by two grown ups far and wide for day trips or vacations. These were often very long journeys in the days pre-air conditioning and we would get hot, bothered and the backs of our bare legs firmly adhered to the best Wolfsburg vinyl seats. The five of us soon developed a strategy to make sure that we made frequent breaks from the incessant road. It is amazing how a rendition of 'Stop the Car I want a wee-wee' in strict rota gets the attention of parents anxious not to have a major clean up operation on their hands on the A1.
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