Sunday 20 December 2009

"Power to the People"


So Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor Joe to the Christmas No.1 spot. And within minutes Facebook was flooded with "Yay Rage!!!!!!" & "FUCK YOU WON'T BY WHAT YOU SELL ME COWELL" and then I saw this status:

"Enjoy this evening, blast the heavy rock until the neighbours complain. We won't get another night like this for a long long time; this is a night of fucking revolution!"


I read this and I had a flashback to Network's "I'm as mad as hell" scene. Well not really. But it has made me think, if this "revolutionary" sentiment is held by young people, the person who posted that status is 16, the sentiment is sadly misdirected. The mass media culture my generation and the previous generation has been born into has somewhat clouded how we see things.

X Factor Joe.

There are more important things happening today in this world than some manufactured TV talent show winner being beaten to the 'top spot' by an American Rock band. War, famine & Climate Change spring to mind.

Their is an interesting paradox here, mass media has helped to inform us about the dire things that happen in this world that's why the 1960's saw so much protest against the Vietnam War & the plight of African-Americans, TV showed people for the first time what was going on. However now it could be said their is the danger that we're becoming desensitised to things like this.

I don't fully believe this though, but I wonder what you think. The protests in London against the war in Iraq showed that people still care enough to show how they feel on a mass scale but perhaps it is interesting to note that in 1969 the poster of that status may have said something very similar about Civil Rights or Nuclear disarmament and not the out come of a Chart battle.


1 comment:

  1. We're definetley desensitized to the things that matter. It's sad that something as small as boycotting the charts is seen as a commendable form of protest...

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