Your Music Preference is Most Likely Reinforced by Political Bias
Each presidential election season, ordinary Americans develop devout political convictions despite a collective apathy towards politics in the interim three years. On Facebook, friends share and argue over bogus WordPress and Odyssey articles that fail to cite credible statistics, reference any researched news stories, or follow any coherent logic. On the commute to work, a bus driver argues about healthcare reform with a local nurse while uninvolved passengers silently cringe from their seats. Despite the prevalence of this form of dialogic communication, unilateral political messages also profoundly impact ideologies. People receive political information from a variety of sources, which varies greatly based depending on age and ideology.
Radio stations of all types spread political information. NPR, may seem like an obvious place to hear about politics, however listeners of CBS Sports Radio or FOX Sports Radio are likely to hear about Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the national anthem. Though not actively searching for political news, sports fans are passively exposed to it. Without intending to, these radio listeners learn about racial politics, police brutality, and veterans’ affairs. Although unlikely to learn substantial information about these issues, sports fans at least become aware that these issues are part of the contemporary political landscape.
Switching from AM to FM, media consumers can choose from a variety of radio music stations. Much like sports fans, music enthusiasts are rarely thought to have an exceptional interest in politics. Nonetheless, those who listen to music—even passively—are exposed to political information. Music is an intersectional art form that rarely stays within its own genre of entertainment. At the same time, music that is overtly political rarely becomes popular unless it is created by well-known musicians AND accurately reflects the sentiments of the American people. Exceptions such as these are reactionary pieces to a tumultuous series of events. For the Millenial generation, the most memorable example of this pattern is the 2004 Green Day album American Idiot, which vocally criticized the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq War.
The genres of hip hop and rap both have traditions of personal storytelling, outspokenness, and critiques of power that provide artists with some leeway. Listeners to these types of music are perhaps more often and directly exposed to messages about economic inequality, culture wars, and racial politics. Since his first album in 2004, Kanye West has used his music to spread political messages. The College Dropout’s standout single “Jesus Walks” was an unanticipated success where a producer-turned-rapper takes on topics such as religious freedom and police brutality while also scolding the music industry for shying away from controversial topics. Through numerous albums, West continues to critique American culture and call attention to political issues. The 2013 song “New Slaves” from Yeezus considers the intersection between race and economic status:
“You see it’s broke n***a racism / That’s that ‘Don’t touch anything in the store’ / And this rich n***a racism / That’s that ‘Come in please buy more / What you want, a Bentley? Fur coat? A diamond chain? / All you Blacks want all the same things’”
These lyrics are a clear demonstration of West’s brutally honest cultural critiques. In this analysis of how racial politics and economic status work together to produce different experiences, Yeezy makes it clear that he believes America needs to do a better job of working to eradicate racism.
To a much subtler degree, Beyoncé has begun to push the boundaries in songs that are both political and popular. From her days in Destiny’s Child, Queen B has long spread messages of female empowerment. Her early music focuses on the female experience in love, relationships, and friendships, but rarely goes on to provide listeners with any radical political insight. With her surprise release of the 2013 album Beyoncé, her music began to change direction. This album was overtly feminist, going so far as to sample “We Should All Be Feminists,” a speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. At the same time, this album did not accurately reflect Beyoncé’s own identity politics as a black woman facing dual systems of oppression. In many ways, Beyoncé showed the hierarchical prevalence of white feminism in American pop culture. Although this album symbolized that it had FINALLY become acceptable to challenge the status quo as a woman, Beyoncé proves that it was only acceptable to do so if it didn’t call attention to other systems of privilege and oppression, such as race. The album represents an artist pushing a political agenda to the extent that she can without polarizing fans. Although radical for its feminist messages, Beyoncé was critical to the later success of popular political music because it laid the groundwork for future albums with more progressive lyrics and subject matter.
In 2016, Beyoncé released Lemonade, which built upon the political themes in her previous album. Lemonade is a spectacular display of intersectional feminism, highlighting the artist’s own identity politics. In the album, Beyoncé sings about many of the impossible dualisms forced upon her, such as being a black woman in the whitewashed entertainment industry and simultaneously being both a mother and a sex symbol. With themes of black empowerment and economic independence, Lemonade made many conservatives uncomfortable. Furthermore, Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl performance of Formation featured dancers in outfits resembling those worn by the Black Panther Party, a radical Black power group from the Civil Rights Era of the mid-twentieth century. The visual album of Lemonade also featured powerful political imagery, such as Beyoncé standing on a police car as it sinks into flooded waters. Beyoncé’s critique of racial politics and economic inequality is artistically brilliant, but its political messages isolated many music listeners with opposing beliefs. Despite this discrepancy, Lemonade was met with widespread success, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200.
Across other genres, musicians express different ideologies as well as the absence of profound political messages. In country music, there is an archetype of American nationalism, support of armed forces, and defense of the Second Amendment. Pop music—such as that of Ariana Grande or Justin Bieber—rarely contains any substantive political lyrics. With the push of a button, music consumers can turn off songs that they don’t like or with which they disagree. Those who question American nationalism are unlikely to tune into Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue”. Similarly, those who do not support gay rights probably do not jam out to Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” and racists certainly wouldn’t be caught listening to Beyoncé’s “Formation.” Politically Polished is in part dedicated to media criticism and the best way to be a speculative of media is to constantly question individual practices. Politics help to shape different forms of artistic expression, including music. Listening to music is not a passive process. The messages we hear through our headphones help to shape who we are. Consider reading this article an exercise in introspection: What music do you listen to and how does this align with your own political beliefs?
