Political Music Quotes

People underestimate the hip-hop audience and the capacity to understand politics when it's part of music.

There was a band in Australia named Midnight Oil, and they were a very, very political, and they literally hit you over the head with a hammer. U2 sometimes can hit you over the head with a rubber hammer.

All the great political music was made at the height of political confrontations.

Other than Green Day, we haven't had a lot of protest music over the past few decades.

We have quite a few political songs: 'Channel Z,' let's 'Keep This Party Going' on. Our lyrics aren't too hit-you-over-the-head, but they have political undertones. We're active politically.

The Clash is pretty much my favorite band, and their songs like 'Rock the Casbah' are political dance tracks.

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 do have a big problem with the idea of music as a form of communication unless it's political - and that's where it's tricky because a lot of music is political, even if it's not overtly so. But my music isn't that; it's about a feeling.

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

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…

When I was 20, political music was the uncoolest thing on earth.

I really am not interested in making political music per se. I'm making personal records, but at the same time, I'm very much aware of my surroundings. And those surroundings, what's going on in the larger picture, affects my everyday life and affects the way that I think.

The first Decline I did was out of sheer love and appreciation for the music. In 1977, it was more about bands, because punk was a new form of music. It was groundbreaking and political.

A lot of political music to me can be rather pedantic and corny, and when it's done right - like Bruce Springsteen or Jackson Browne or great satire from Randy Newman, there's nothing better.

I think that all music is inherently political, and, at the same time, I'm interested in the politics of inclusion not exclusion. So I think that my goal is to make music that anybody can hear and feel moved by.

If my music is political in a way, and it might be, it's in the way of generating a sensitivity in people, a deeper awareness of the world around them. That's my goal, at least.

I set out to create a means whereby music could be a way of vindicating the rights of the masses.

I was really lucky that I came to puberty at a time when music and politics were completely intertwined.

Ultimately, Dead Prez should have went multi-platinum. But when people didn't rally around them, I knew the black hip-hop audience had become far less politicized.

Lauryn Hill is quite political and is very bold and isn't afraid of wearing her heart on her sleeve, and same with Bjork, except she is a little bit more kind of fragile.

I don't write political music. Political music is immediately obsolete.

I didn't have a lot of overtly political songs. I think it was more the actions of the group that were threatening to the authorities, and also our political philosophies apart from the music.

The craziest thing is that the song ["My President"] is real but you can still hear it in the club.

Music that speaks of politics is less listened to than the music of partying, but it's still there.

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.