Words by Ian MacKaye
Intro and Interview by Megan Martin
There’s something inherently linked between music and politics. They are two juxtaposing worlds living in a parallel universe causing the sound and the fury. A rallied call for energy, for change, for excitement, fists pumping in the air chanting for a chorus or a cause. Music, for obvious reasons, has been the voice of the people who have little voice – the message for the poor, struggling, and working class. On the flip side, music has become about the politics of wealth, of fame and the abuse of power. Ignorance, or a blind eye, apathetic teen queens and money hungry executives affect the politics of our music, and of our country.
Politics has become such a drowned word – linked with everything from foreign policy, fiscal conservatives, incumbents, sex scandals, George Bush, war, money, oil. Our voices have been muddled in the political process – knowing little of what or who we are voting for.
Our music has become the same. Live Nation generated roughly $4.4 billion in revenue in 2007. They own a piece of airwaves, musical arenas and venues. Media and its music has been swallowed by a conservative giant called the USofA, and somewhere in its belly is rock ‘n roll carving its way through with rust-covered razor blades.
At least that’s what we’d hope.
But maybe music doesn’t do what it used to, or maybe the times, they are a changin’… for the worse. That doesn’t mean it can’t change again, if artists and musicians start thinking about daily decisions as a means to politically repercussive ends. The presentation of art is just as important as the message it paints. You can spit in the face of the crowd and preach all the anti/indie/underground messages you’d like, but if you’re gaining profits on the coat tails of the same conglomerates you claim to hate – then you don’t stand for much. Or at least, you don’t think much.
Take it away, Ian MacKaye. After fronting two of the most notorious punk bands of the 80s and 90s (Minor Threat, Fugazi) he’s got a few things to say about the matter. His practices, and his voice as an independent record label owner (Dischord) gives Working Class some guidelines on how to walk the walk.
Every band should read this.
AND THE FUTURE?
If it happened, it can happen again.
I think it happened before, too, but we just aren’t as aware of it because the media doesn’t talk about earlier youth movements and there’s not the same documentation. There’s no videotape from the 20s, it’s hard to believe that they made it happen before, but I imagine they did and I imagine they will again.
I was born in 1962 and I was keenly aware of the anti-war movement, the Civil Rights movement, the rock ‘n roll that was happening, the rebellion, the sexual revolution, all these things going on around me here in Washington D.C., and I think if I really picked up on anything, I picked up on the idea that anything was possible and that authority was something to be questioned. And I think that those are two extremely healthy attitudes to have, even today. More so today than ever.
EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL.
I think what motivated me [to incorporate politics in my music] was thinking, and the way I think about life. I think everything is political, and in fact, I believe that the largest political party in America is not the Democrats or the Republicans, but rather the Apathetic Party. It’s a deeply political act to not care or to not speak up about something if you feel strongly about it. It’s also political if you don’t feel strongly about something. It’s always political.
The fact that you have a government which is persecuting a military act against other people in the world, the fact that’s happening is really clear evidence of the politics that drive this country. I don’t think anybody in this country would actually support murder, had it been framed that way to them, but it hasn’t been. The fact that they don’t question what’s going on, or they haven’t so far, that’s political.
Art and music is always political. I think it’s how you define the word.
Why have I presented my music in political terms? I guess it’s because I personally believe that it is the art [in of itself], the presentation is part of the art. I think that for instance, the business of music is part of the art. I think that where you play is political. They’re all connected.
DECIDING NOT TO DECIDE.
To the degree that I bring political shading to my work is because I acknowledge that everything is political.
In the United States currently there is, in terms of touring bands who are working with 500-20,000 [capacity] type venues, there’s essentially one company that controls most of the market, which is Live Nation (formerly Clear Channel). They control venues in almost every market in the country.
Where you play is political, it’s a political decision. Live Nation is owned by an enormous conglomerate and an enormous amount of money, and they’re not interested in music, they’re interested in brand. So from their point of view they’re happy to throw money at things because it doesn’t make any difference to them.
A friend of mine in a band recently told me that his business manager said, ‘Look, you worry about the music, we’ll figure out the ways for you to get as much money as possible for your music.’ That decision to turn over the reigns to the business with people with that kind of attitude is essentially signing on to whoever’s paying highest dollar, which is not necessarily the healthiest arrangement because conglomerates will destroy everything. It’s their nature, they just become bulls in china shops. They don’t have any sense of proportion; they just have to own it all.
So I think where you play is a political decision and if you don’t decide, and someone else is making that decision, then that’s the political decision. Live Nation does a deep disservice to music because ultimately they own radio stations, they own magazines, they own parts of record labels, they own booking agencies, and at some point, if you’re not in their fold then you’re not playing gigs. That can’t be healthy in terms of new ideas.
BEATING THE SYSTEM WITH FUGAZI.
I never play shows that aren’t open to all ages, I never have and I don’t intend to. I don’t understand how this culture has allowed something as precious and as important as music, this form of communication that probably predates language, how we’ve allowed music to become sort of the schill for the alcohol industry.
I don’t know why music can only be presented in bars and why the alcohol economy is essentially what decides who gets to see a show and who doesn’t. I think it’s disgusting and yet, most people don’t even think about it at all. They just think, we can make more money at a 21 and up club.
When Fugazi was touring we would try to work with people who were directly connected with the underground punk rock type scene, but we got to a point where we were playing shows that were too big – people that are playing house shows are not really equipped to deal with things like security and insurance and that kind of crap – so there were a few people who directly came out of the punk scene who would be able to pull off shows like that, but in a lot of cities it wasn’t going to happen.
Our two basic plans of attack were to find people who were minded and sort of understood our decision, who came from the underground and who were able and creative and had the courage to get into it with us, in terms of taking on such a huge undertaking.
We never worked with Live Nation, but we worked with other promoters who did big gigs. The other option was to go into venues and bring the way we do things into their arena, sort of forcing them to do it our way. At that level most bands work for guarantees, so they’d say this is how much money we want and this is the kind of production we want and then it’s left to the venue to decide how much to charge for tickets.
We actually started the other way around, we started with the price of the tickets which skews the economy entirely, if you’re coming in and saying we want to make $10k and we need this kind of lighting, etc. then that’s going to raise everybody’s rates. But if you come in and say, the ticket pricing is going to be $5, the capacity of your venue is 1,000 so maximum is $5k, we’d start figuring out using that as a basis of an arrangement.
It changes the economy entirely because they’re not going to charge the usual rates and by doing that, since we’re not asking for as much money as most bands and we’re willing to do the work ourselves for the most part, the venues are usually quite happy about it because it’s refreshing. But it’s a lot of work. That’s sort of the politics of it all, that it takes a lot of politics and creativity.
ART AND SOCIAL CHANGE.
I think that culture, music and the arts is in many ways a sort of vibration of the people and that vibration can effect the general population. It can coalesce it in a way that creates certain kinds of waves that does bring about change. I think culture and music played a huge role in the 60s. I think that in some ways music and culture is playing a huge role today, not necessarily one that I think is positive.
I would say for instance that in 2003, or 2002 even, when the build up to this crime of a so called war in Iraq, when that build up was occurring, the fact that musicians didn’t sing out against it, that had a direct effect on policy. People were scared to step up, and that definitely affected policy because it gave the sense as a culture, as a society, that across the board, even the rebels supported such a terrible crime and that effected policy.
What effects policy directly anyway besides money? I don’t know, maybe public opinion, and certainly public opinion can be swayed by music, certainly fostered by it.
What do you think all this Star Spangled Banner crap is about?
BUT IT WORKED IN THE 60s…
First off you had an enormous population boom, don’t forget that was the leading edge of baby boomers, people coming back from war in the late 40s, fucking their brains out and making children, and those children all turned 20 in 1968. There was a huge population increase, you had a lot of kids. Also, in the 50s there was a dormancy, at that time society was trying to make it seem like everything was just fine. Everything was clean and good and war was over, but I think there was a lot of stuff brewing in the 50s that really came to fruition in the 60s. Look at the 60s, it was a totally tumultuous period of time.
The Beats in the 50s, that revolution of arts, set off a series of events. And I think rock ‘n roll really changed the world. Suddenly you had all these kids around the world, especially in America and England, that were so entirely different than anything their parents had ever contended with really. And it just so happened that things like the record industry really started to come into bloom, and there was sort of a shift in the way youth was thought of, there was more of an idle youth, more kids going to college.
All of these things aligned and you had this explosion. The country was so busy dealing with Communists and the Civil Rights movement they didn’t realize that this whole thing was gonna happen and there was this kind of unbelievable and deeply inspiring [movement going on].
AND THE FUTURE?
If it happened, it can happen again.
I think it happened before, too, but we just aren’t as aware of it because the media doesn’t talk about earlier youth movements and there’s not the same documentation. There’s no videotape from the 20s, it’s hard to believe that they made it happen before, but I imagine they did and I imagine they will again.
I was born in 1962 and I was keenly aware of the anti-war movement, the Civil Rights movement, the rock ‘n roll that was happening, the rebellion, the sexual revolution, all these things going on around me here in Washington D.C., and I think if I really picked up on anything, I picked up on the idea that anything was possible and that authority was something to be questioned. And I think that those are two extremely healthy attitudes to have, even today. More so today than ever.
