People have a lot of pride in this music taste, and often “pat themselves on the back” because the music that they listen to is “accepting” and “represents social progress.” Of course music can does promote expression of marginalized people and unveiling of societies evils, however, some people use the music that they listen to as proof that they are not sexist, racist, homophobic, etc. Mimi Nguyen offers an extremely honest and critical view of one of the most “accepting” genres, punk. She explains how “problematic punk’s “rugged individualism” is for any expression of politics because of the way in which it ducks the question of power.” (Nguyen, 2010) Punk is an example of how simply doing away with racial differences only perpetuates racism. Nguyen questions how punk relies on its “common culture” to eliminate discrimination because “whiteness falls into a “neutral” category, and race is a property that somehow belongs only to others.” (Nguyen, 2010) There is no way to erase race from a genre, instead it just leaves the assumption of “whiteness.” Alternative/grunge music also paints itself with an “ethos of austerity and authenticity” and being “ a repudiation of superficially and shameless materialism of the preceding decade.” (Moore, ) By completely denouncing capitalism, grunge music fails to really address the problems it describes. Moore explains how the end of grunge music came with the inevitability of capitalism’s influence as the genre became more popular. If the both punk and grunge acknowledged the pervasiveness of racism and greed, even within itself, then maybe it could be the catalyst of the change it so often begs for.
I choose to include two songs, Green day’s “American Idiot” and Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name.” Both of these songs cast a very critical view on American society. These songs both had profound influence on my views of our society. However, I believe that it is important to consider how because these artists are white they are allowed to be so critical of America with fewer repercussions. As well as and how racial minorities could or couldn’t relate to these artists that maybe have not experienced the kinds of discrimination they faced personally living in America.
“American Idiot”
“Killing in the Name”
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