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Well, the New Year started out with a bang. On “Dick Clark’s Rockin New Years” with Ryan Seacrest, the music  group Green Day changed the lyrics to American Idiot, a song written and recorded to protest Bush during the post 9/11 years, to speak out against the MAGA agenda. In the song there is a line that stated that “I don’t want no redneck agenda” which they changed to “I’m no part of the MAGA agenda”. I am seeing on X, formally called Twitter, because of that change they have “ruined their careers”. When I read that I wanted to laugh. Green Day takes a song that was written to protest George Bush, changes a couple of words, and he turns it into a song to protest Trump. I think that is great, he took a protest song and turned it into a protest song. As Gomer Pyle would say “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!  What I find really comical is the fake outrage from everyone on the “Right”. The people that are so outraged by Green Day now, didn’t listen to Green Day anyway. The song was already a protest song against the Republicans and he just changed it to be a little more relevant for today’s Republicans. The fact that Green Day would do something like that should be expected. In fact, it probably would have been disappointing if they hadn’t. Anyone that has followed Billie Joe Armstrong would have expected nothing less. Billie Joe Armstrong has appeared on “Real Time with Bill Maher” and he confirmed that the name Green Day was about pot. He was on the program because of not only his music but his left leaning agenda which he uses his music to promote.

Artists using their platform to protest and to promote change isn’t new. I was a teenager in the late 60s and early 70s. Music was one of the more popular platforms to protest and to promote change. We listened to songs like “Fortunate Sons” by Credence Revival which was a song about rich people’s sons, like Donald Trump, not serving and not having to go to Vietnam. “Blowing in the Wind” by Bob Dylan that was performed by just about every Folk Group in the 60s most notably Peter Paul and Mary. Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina from the group Buffalo Springfield recorded a song “For What It’s Worth” which served as a type of anthem for youth protesting against the Vietnam War. The most powerful protest song we had back then was by Edwin Star that was just called “War”. Those were just a few of them that I grew up with. I am sure there were hundreds of songs and entire careers that were made protesting in the 60s and 70s.

I hate to have to tell you this but protest music is just about as American as Apple Pie. There is a web site call the “First Amendment Museum” (firstamendmentmuseum.org) and one of their sections deals with Protest Music from 1744 to the Present. Using music to protest has been going on in America for as long as there has been Americans. “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie is one of the most popular protest songs of all time being recorded by the likes of Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen yet it is also thought of a patriotic song too.  Even Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” was a type of protest song working for the brotherhood of all mankind. Worldwide, I would bet that protest music was being sung from the beginning when the first notes were created. Protest Music from the past often was done by using an already popular tune and changing the lyrics to fit the protest. That made the songs easy to learn and to be performed by protesters, picketers walking the line, and other types of activists. You see, Green Day changing the lyrics is not even new. It has been done in the past and it will be done in the future.

 

Art has always been used to make a statement. In fact, that is one of art’s main things it is suppose to do and Music is a form of Art. Just like you don’t like every movie you see or every painting you see, you won’t like every song that you hear. You may also not like the statement that the piece of Art says to you. You have the right to not listen or not buy or not go to view. What you don’t have the right to do is to tell them that they can’t do it. Funny how one side calls the other side the enemy of the people and feels that they can promote violence and then be protected by the First Amendment but would deny it to everyone else. I think that I have just become a fan of Green Day. Well maybe not all their music but maybe that they use their platform to promote change and to fight suppression.

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