Conservative Politics & Rock Music


The National Review has published a list of the 50 all time top conservative rock 'n' roll songs. #1 is The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". Other artist on the list include Beatles, Stones, U2, Rush, Aerosmith, Creed, Metallica, Beach Boys, Dylan and the Kinks.

Here's a link to the list.

I'm not familiar with every song on the list, but I do have a few observations. I find it incredible that only a single non-white artist made the list. A number of the songs have a very cynical bent ("Revolution", "Sympathy For the Devil", "Won't Get Fooled Again", etc.). Is cynicism a purely conservative trait? "Wouldn't It Be Nice" - I always thought it was a spoof of the Ossie & Harriet lifestyle. "I Fought the Law" - the fact that the law won doesn't make this song politically conservative. It's the verbal equivalent of a Born To Lose tattoo. It's giving the system the finger. Also, there are a number of songs that are about abortion, but only one is by a woman. Maybe the slogan should be changed to "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll & Birth Control".

Rock music encompasses a vast number of musical styles and it only stands to reason that it would also include a wide spectrum of political beliefs. Rather than actually debating politics per se, I'm interested in responses to particularly songs being on the list and whether you see them a political or apolitical.
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The most conservative pop/rock song I can think of is Graham Parker's "You Can't Be Too Strong".

Or how about XTC's "Respectable Street"?

A Google search produced a number of these lists. Most of these songs, when evaluated as a whole, do not reflect conservative thinking, IMO.
Bowbow, of the 158 performers inducted into the Rock Hall Of Fame slightly more than one third are non-white. Where's James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's World" or "I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing" as conservative anthems?
At one time I would have found it amazing that The National Review would publish a list like this one but rock music became corporatised a long time ago.

Still, these are the types that thought Elvis was a danger to the nation in 1956. These are also the folks that called the Beatles and others "long haired communist hippie drug anarchists" or something like that.

The National Review can go to hell!
I vote for The Butthole Surfers' "My Beach, My Waves". I don't think you can get more right-winged than that.