Music as revolution: Bob Geldof SXSW Keynote Video
Friday, May 6th, 2011
Revolution
The official videos from last month’s SXSW Music conference are starting to feed out. One in particular caught my eye; Bob Geldof delivered an epic and memorable keynote, regarding his concern of music as a voice of the people being diluted, of how rock and roll as an art-form has struck back against society many a time in history, and yet there is currently a void awaiting a new revolution. Does your music deliver a message? Does it educate as well as entertain?
Geldof raises a valid point, about how we can look back at movements of the blues or Elvis or punk and see that they run parallel, intertwined, with important cultural changes, and yet in this current global climate, that of turmoil, inequality, manipulation, greed, poverty, lies and all the other wrongdoings we (music as an art) are lacking a voice of disagreement.
The creativity is there; technology has aided that also, but the distinct movements that have served society in the past are missing. Where is the ingenuity (and often, guile) of artists to combine their passion for music with the voice of the people? The same combination of knowledge, talent, cunning and courage that spurred Louis Armstrong’s “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue”, Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” or Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”? Some might say that The Dead Kennedys’ “Stars and Stripes of Corruption” deserves a modern day ode. Either way, watch Geldof’s thought-provoking piece below…
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