University of Missouri Protests

What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where the charge is led by football players?

One in which money talks.

That's why the President resigned. The college was gonna lose a cool million if its football team didn't play Brigham Young on Saturday.

Welcome to the sixties, they're back again. That's right, history repeats, but always with a twist.

Like the nineties, everybody thought the fifties were copacetic, that everybody was equal and happiness ruled. But this was untrue if you were black, ergo the protests on college campuses.

It always starts on campuses.

But back then, music went hand in hand with change. The folk movement was integral to the protest movement. Bob Dylan became a national fixture.

Today, music, the most fast-moving of entertainment media, is completely out of step. Purely about hedonism. And this lack of resonance with the populace is what makes it second tier.

People are feeling their power. They've got cameras and social media and despite the fact that most employ these for narcissistic purposes, they can be harnessed to move the ball, to stand up to the powers-that-be.

And there's so much to stand up to.

Not only are you paying a fortune to go to college, the state keeps cutting the budget. Listen to Malcolm Gladwell on Bill Simmons' podcast (http://bit.ly/1O2kekX ) rave about the indignities of Wisconsin cutting $250 million from its university budget whilst paying $500 million for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena. The team owners are hedge fund billionaires.

Most people are not.

You may think the United States is the greatest country in the world, but Canada was just rated number one in personal freedom, and the United States didn't even make the top ten. As for the most prosperous countries? Norway leads, the U.S. is number 11. (http://yhoo.it/1MfELTN) But we've been brainwashed by fat cat Republicans that we live in the land of the free and the brave and opportunity is ripe and if you question what's going on you're un-American.

What's going on, that's what Marvin Gaye asked.

Sure, he liked the ladies, he liked the substances, but unlike today's entertainment superstars he was unafraid of kicking back and questioning the injustices of the society he lived in.

Unlike today's musicians who believe injustice is the public's move from sales to streaming with the concomitant squeezing of revenues for some.

Wanna win in today's world?

Align yourself with the people.

And the people are saying they're mad as hell and they're not gonna take it anymore.

It started in Ferguson. And then it went to the workplace. That's what the raising of the minimum wage is all about, survival.

And if you think we're only talking about ethnic groups, how about that report stating that death rates for middle-aged whites are rising? (http://nyti.ms/1RqkRFK) That's what happens when you've got no hope, you drink and drug and commit suicide. Don't shoot the messenger, read the article.

This is what happens when you live in an oligarchy preaching false hope to the underclass. The poor enable the rich until one day they realize the game is fixed and don't want to play anymore. That's what explains the rise of Carson and Trump and the demise of Bush. Something's gotta give.

But it used to be that music rode shotgun. Whether it be "Masters of War" or "Eve of Destruction," if you wanted to know which way the wind blew you listened to a record.

Before Clear Channel/iHeart owned all the radio stations and all the stars were two-dimensional nitwits afraid of their shadows who believed if you could piss off one person you should keep your mouth shut.

That's right, we're living in the early sixties musically. The era of girl groups and meaningless ditties, just before the Beatles, when a pent-up anger and desire caused the assembled multitude to throw over what had come before for something brand new and honest.

But the difference back then was it was harder to play, not everybody considered themselves to be a star. Today we've got the look-at-me crowd which wants the old system to tumble so they can get a chance, even though their bona fides are suspect, they can barely sing, never mind write.

So if you want to change the world, start by appealing to college students, they're the only ones standing up to an unjust system, everybody else is either too scared of losing their job or too ignorant to know what's going on.

In none of the reports I read was there any talk of the students singing, not even "We Shall Overcome."

It's like the music business itself has been beaten down by the oligarchs, so frustrated by the changes wrought by the internet that it has no self-respect and believes it's got no power.

Hell, you don't hear protesters singing "Shake It Off."

And Kim Kardashian may have married a black man but she's too stupid and uninformed to take a stand on human rights, she's too busy burnishing her image in our Instagram culture, making sure her bank account gets fatter and fatter. As for her husband...all he keeps telling us is HE doesn't get a chance. How about helping OTHERS get a chance?

Music can reclaim its spot in the forefront only if it realizes that money comes from hits and hits are that which resonate with the public and you just can't make as much money as the techies but you can have a ton more power.

You may not think what happens in Missouri affects you.

But it does.

We've got an entire spectrum of disadvantaged people in America, one can argue they're the majority, and now they're speaking up and winning.

You may think people care about Obama's birth certificate and Hillary's e-mails but you're too old school, you're living in the pre-internet era, when people had no voice.

We've got a voice now. We own the internet. And we're speaking.

Put your ear to the ground and listen.

For the times they are a-changin'.


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