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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.
128x128onhwy61
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dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
This is pretty much all bullshit. Rock and roll first was used by the black community as a phrase for what many of us white folk have come to know as the horizontal bop. So, I say the best rock is that which appeals to our basic human drive for sex. Last time I checked, communist, facist, martian, etc. where all looking for sex. Therefore, the attempt to claim rock and roll for ANY political agenda is very much disenginuous, IMO.

For the record, I'm somewhat fiscally conservative, social moderate, and almost as sexually active as I was 30 years ago. :)
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boa2
1,551 posts
 
For the record, I'm somewhat fiscally conservative, social moderate, and almost as sexually active as I was 30 years ago
Yes, but are you a middle-aged, white male, with a pot belly and a Cracker Barrel club card? Because if not, you ain't no true audiophile.
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Hmmm...I recently broke personal taboo and ate what turned out to be a really great breakfast at a Lexington, KY Cracker Barrel just minutes from the Thiel factory (where Republican memorabilia is hung on the reception area walls and Rush Limbaugh holds forth from radios on the factory floor). Yes, I saw my share of middle-aged, pot-bellied white males eating in there that morning (at a child-free -- although admittedly child-like -- 41 years old, and still about 15 lbs. shy of the 200 threshold, I don't place myself in that catagory *quite* yet), but from what insignia I could see on their shirts or hats most were either horsemen or Toyota plant employees, and none struck me as too likely to listen to their country music through Thiel's speakers...
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boa2
1,551 posts
 
41? Child-free? 15lbs shy of the 200 threshold? What, are we twins? Now I suppose you're gonna tell me you like tailgating to Stryper, and long walks on the beach with your Mexican Hairless?
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