Music and Politics Quotes

Art can contextualise and buttress fame. So rather than being antagonistic in the way Fugazi would have had it in 1989, particularly in the present, maybe they are one - they belong to one another.

I don't like to talk about things where you're going to gt one side or the other unhappy. My music has no politics.

I don't care if people like Trump or hate him, if they voted for him or not; people just want to have a good time. They don't want to hear about immigration or whatever on a record or at a show.

There are a lot of people out there doing cool work. I went to South Africa with Talib Kweli and the Roots for a couple of weeks. And even a lot of the groups that aren't called 'political' or 'revolutionary' have a lot more to say than what you hear on the singles.

It has always seemed slightly uncomfortable, the idea of politicised musicians. Very few of them are clever enough to do it; if they're good at the political side, the music side suffers, and vice versa.

I wouldn't even say "Imagine" is political. I think it's…more just sort of declaration of humanity. I don't find his political songs to be the ones that I go home and listen to. And I would say that of any artist. They're not the ones that interest…

If music's a political place, I'm out.

I don't find music being less important than, like, politics.

The idea that musicians should be talking about politics is, in some ways, quite a sixties' idea. Music no longer has a vanguard role in youth culture.

Music does affect your opinions. Plato is supposed to have said "It's very dangerous to allow the wrong kind of music into the republic."

As a musician, I don't wanna put out political soundbites.

Rock should never be in bed with politics.

When George W. Bush was up for re-election, we took part in Rock Against Bush.

Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is / I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses.

I don't think people go to musicians for their political points of view. I think your political point of view is circumstances and then how you were nurtured and brought up.

Ultimately, to insist that rock criticism be political is first to insist that the humans who make and enjoy music are embroiled in politics whether they like it or not - and whether they know it or not.

Wow, a left-wing leader getting a good reception at a rock festival. What kind of crazy world is it we live in that that kind of thing happens?

I don't like politics in music.

I don't think music should be played anywhere near politics. The two don't go together.

If it's just politics that's running music, f - k that. I'm out of here! I can't think of anything more boring.

My first real writing job was at 'Rolling Stone,' so I wrote about rock-and-roll and politics and the like. At the time, I really didn't know what I wanted to write, and I did a bunch of investigative journalism.

The world would be better off if more musicians were involved in politics.

Music moves society more than most people realize. In my opinion, it's a soft manipulator of influence and change.

That's the government. Having been a politician and a musician, I can tell you which one is a higher calling. If musicians ran the country, it would be a much different place. We wouldn't get a lot done in the mornings, but we'd work late.

We're one of the only bands that get censored for theological commentary.